Laptop tracing software, does it work? was your laptop ever stolen and retrived?

[The Linuxator]

I purchased this service with my IBM Thinkpad R50e
It's not much for two years, they garauntee retriving your laptop in 60 days or they will pay you 90 % of it's purchase value 1st year, and % 80 of its purchase value the 2nd year.
Did you ever use something similar to this was it effective in retriving your laptop ?

 

[The Linuxator]

bump

 

[The Linuxator]

bump

 

[WackyDan]

We use absolute's Computrace on all of our laptops.

Last year we recovered half of those stolen, and we recovered them through the Absolute call venter's work with the local police department where the TP was stolen or located. Sometimes it took months to recover a unit-due to a large metro PD -like Chicago. Smaller PD's/cities netted us a faster recovery.... All our recovered ThinkPads came from eBay purchasers who had no idea the unit was hot.

This year we are getting about 90% recovery with the new firmware embedded Computrace agent.

Your R50e does not support the firmware embedded version --- With best practices you can raise your recovery chances... we got roughly 50% back last year and that was partially our fault.

If you want more detail just let me know.

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: WackyDan
We use absolute's Computrace on all of our laptops.

Last year we recovered half of those stolen, and we recovered them through the Absolute call venter's work with the local police department where the TP was stolen or located. Sometimes it took months to recover a unit-due to a large metro PD -like Chicago. Smaller PD's/cities netted us a faster recovery.... All our recovered ThinkPads came from eBay purchasers who had no idea the unit was hot.

This year we are getting about 90% recovery with the new firmware embedded Computrace agent.

Your R50e does not support the firmware embedded version --- With best practices you can raise your recovery chances... we got roughly 50% back last year and that was partially our fault.

If you want more detail just let me know.

You have confirmed my worse fears, I thought my thinkpad had the computrace chip embeded in it , so it's only installed on the harddrive.

Meaning that if somone stole my, laptop but formatted the hdd immediatley before booting into the OS with an internet connection I am screwed right. But at least they will refund me % 90 of the purchase value or are there further complications after that.

 

[beyoku]

i dont know if the could simply reformat and get rid of the software. Sometimes is is stored on a hidden partition. Other times they have to do a full low-level formate to kill the software.
What happens to the people that buy it from Ebay.

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: beyoku
i dont know if the could simply reformat and get rid of the software. Sometimes is is stored on a hidden partition. Other times they have to do a full low-level formate to kill the software.
What happens to the people that buy it from Ebay.

I agree, a hidden parttion that can avoid the windows formatting process is a possibility but it is still a possibility , only wackydan can answer such a question, because he obviously have seen thinkpads with such a configuration alot of times.

Now what happens to Ebay members is a delema, does computrace refund them the money and return the laptop to the owner, I beleive thats what happens, I don't think they will take it from them just like that, they will most probably go for the seller. no?

And another thing , what if the laptop was returned but not in the intial condition, maybe it was damaged physically got scratches all over , do they considre that in the retrival process.?



EDIT: I have found a link through the computrace/lojack company Linky

it indicates clearly that eventhough the harddrive might be reformatted it doesn't remove computrace from it. sweeet.

Also I have found this extremely benefecial site site

 

[BladeVenom]

Don't forget to read the fine print.

Absolute Software is the first to offer a Recovery Guarantee of up to $1000* to back up its theft recovery service.

How many of you have laptops that cost over $1,000?

I went to their order page, and it only supports IE. Would you trust your security to a company that can't even make their order page work with Firefox?

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Don't forget to read the fine print.

Absolute Software is the first to offer a Recovery Guarantee of up to $1000* to back up its theft recovery service.

How many of you have laptops that cost over $1,000?

I went to their order page, and it only supports IE. Would you trust your security to a company that can't even make their order page work with Firefox?

Well in most of the cases the laptops are retrieved , second thing you are paying $ 100 for 3 years ok, and yes alot of users have laptops that are $ 1000 and less , and would feel a great deep loss if it's stolen just like that , and come on if you as a user have a $ 1500 notebook , $ 1000 going back to you is much better than nothing for $ 33 a year it's a steal.

Plus my post has a link for another site that well teach you very useful techniques for protecting your laptop such as transponders ....etc

And for some users they could have some really important documents that are of a value to them much more than the laptop itself , like a thesis or a very long research paper, private files or pics....etc so sometimes the money isn't what it's always about, and for the firefox comment I understand what you are saying but that doesn't always mean that the company will not do it's job in retriving your Laptop, plus it's not the only company out there I am just giving AT members some good tips I have learned from other people's mistakes that I have seen happening over and over.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: beyoku
i dont know if the could simply reformat and get rid of the software. Sometimes is is stored on a hidden partition. Other times they have to do a full low-level formate to kill the software.
What happens to the people that buy it from Ebay.

The agent is written to a partition gap. However, the OS needs to load the service. If you format the drive, or know what you are looking for and disable the service, the laptop will never phone home.

That's why to get the best results, you need to have best practices.... disable USB, and CD boot, and floppy boot. Set a bios admin password, and a power on password if you wish.

I forgot to mention.... Computrace is most valuable to a corporation.... they don't care if they get the hardware back half the time, but they do care about the data on the machine. The call center can push a command down to the laptop next time it "phones home" and have it wipe the drive. -a business will at least have an audit trail at that point.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: The Linuxator

Originally posted by: beyoku
i dont know if the could simply reformat and get rid of the software. Sometimes is is stored on a hidden partition. Other times they have to do a full low-level formate to kill the software.
What happens to the people that buy it from Ebay.

I agree, a hidden parttion that can avoid the windows formatting process is a possibility but it is still a possibility , only wackydan can answer such a question, because he obviously have seen thinkpads with such a configuration alot of times.

Now what happens to Ebay members is a delema, does computrace refund them the money and return the laptop to the owner, I beleive thats what happens, I don't think they will take it from them just like that, they will most probably go for the seller. no?

And another thing , what if the laptop was returned but not in the intial condition, maybe it was damaged physically got scratches all over , do they considre that in the retrival process.?



EDIT: I have found a link through the computrace/lojack company Linky

it indicates clearly that eventhough the harddrive might be reformatted it doesn't remove computrace from it. sweeet.

Also I have found this extremely benefecial site site

Linuxator:

Our experience has shown that the agent is not persistant once you do a format or factory recovery. It just stops phoning home...... period.

In regard to the ebay buyers,-police show up at their door with a warrant for the machine, and they provide the ebay identity they purchased it from.... The eBay buyer is protected only if they bought the machine via a credit card.... that is the only recourse they have. eBay generally cooperates with authorities in the investigation as well..... As we found out after finding we had an employee selling units on eBay internally as theft.....eBay provided all the records of their activity selling our laptops to law enforcement, and a bench warrant was issued for their arrest. 🙂

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: WackyDan

Originally posted by: The Linuxator

Originally posted by: beyoku
i dont know if the could simply reformat and get rid of the software. Sometimes is is stored on a hidden partition. Other times they have to do a full low-level formate to kill the software.
What happens to the people that buy it from Ebay.

I agree, a hidden parttion that can avoid the windows formatting process is a possibility but it is still a possibility , only wackydan can answer such a question, because he obviously have seen thinkpads with such a configuration alot of times.

Now what happens to Ebay members is a delema, does computrace refund them the money and return the laptop to the owner, I beleive thats what happens, I don't think they will take it from them just like that, they will most probably go for the seller. no?

And another thing , what if the laptop was returned but not in the intial condition, maybe it was damaged physically got scratches all over , do they considre that in the retrival process.?



EDIT: I have found a link through the computrace/lojack company Linky

it indicates clearly that eventhough the harddrive might be reformatted it doesn't remove computrace from it. sweeet.

Also I have found this extremely benefecial site site

Linuxator:

Our experience has shown that the agent is not persistant once you do a format or factory recovery. It just stops phoning home...... period.

In regard to the ebay buyers,-police show up at their door with a warrant for the machine, and they provide the ebay identity they purchased it from.... The eBay buyer is protected only if they bought the machine via a credit card.... that is the only recourse they have. eBay generally cooperates with authorities in the investigation as well..... As we found out after finding we had an employee selling units on eBay internally as theft.....eBay provided all the records of their activity selling our laptops to law enforcement, and a bench warrant was issued for their arrest. 🙂

If you think about it , I don't recommend a bios password if no sensitive info is in the drive, why?
Well because you want him to get access to the internet inorder for the agent to phone home , if he gets frustrated with BIOS password he will part out the laptop plain and simple and get rid of the mobo.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: The Linuxator

Originally posted by: WackyDan

Originally posted by: The Linuxator

Originally posted by: beyoku
i dont know if the could simply reformat and get rid of the software. Sometimes is is stored on a hidden partition. Other times they have to do a full low-level formate to kill the software.
What happens to the people that buy it from Ebay.

I agree, a hidden parttion that can avoid the windows formatting process is a possibility but it is still a possibility , only wackydan can answer such a question, because he obviously have seen thinkpads with such a configuration alot of times.

Now what happens to Ebay members is a delema, does computrace refund them the money and return the laptop to the owner, I beleive thats what happens, I don't think they will take it from them just like that, they will most probably go for the seller. no?

And another thing , what if the laptop was returned but not in the intial condition, maybe it was damaged physically got scratches all over , do they considre that in the retrival process.?



EDIT: I have found a link through the computrace/lojack company Linky

it indicates clearly that eventhough the harddrive might be reformatted it doesn't remove computrace from it. sweeet.

Also I have found this extremely benefecial site site

Linuxator:

Our experience has shown that the agent is not persistant once you do a format or factory recovery. It just stops phoning home...... period.

In regard to the ebay buyers,-police show up at their door with a warrant for the machine, and they provide the ebay identity they purchased it from.... The eBay buyer is protected only if they bought the machine via a credit card.... that is the only recourse they have. eBay generally cooperates with authorities in the investigation as well..... As we found out after finding we had an employee selling units on eBay internally as theft.....eBay provided all the records of their activity selling our laptops to law enforcement, and a bench warrant was issued for their arrest. 🙂

If you think about it , I don't recommend a bios password if no sensitive info is in the drive, why?
Well because you want him to get access to the internet inorder for the agent to phone home , if he gets frustrated with BIOS password he will part out the laptop plain and simple and get rid of the mobo.

uhm.... Don't know of many drives without sensitive info.. 🙂

 

[The Linuxator]

I never put aykind of sensetive or personal files that can be used against me (SS#,Account numbers, Credit card numbers....etc)
All my info on my laptop I keep backed up and make sure that none of the files could harm me in any way they might be used, well in my case my laptop is strictly for academic use, programming and similar tasks such as using openoffice.org, so it's not my main machine and neither on that I keep personal info, I have a habit of keeping personal info that need to be secured and isolated on CD s and I never get them outside of my house + they stay in a heavy safe anyways .