Adeona: Free Laptop Tracker
Adeona is a free laptop tracker that helps you track your laptop if it gets stolen. All it takes is to install the Adeona software client on your laptop, pick a password and let it run in the background.
[Update: The Adeona laptop tracker software is no longer working. Please refer features list for the working alternatives.]
If at one point your laptop gets stolen and is connected to the internet, the Adeona will send you criminal’s IP address. The IP address can then be retrieved using the Adeona Recovery Wizard. Knowing the IP address is enough in most cases to track the geographical location of the device.
Unlike similar commercial tools, Adeona is decentralized and doesn’t store your password on its servers. It means no one besides the owner can use Adeona to track your laptop.
How it works:
Installing the Adeona client and the recovery tool
- Download and install the Adeona tracking program (client+recovery tools).
- Choose password and save the backup file (eg. adeona-retrievcredentials.ost) on another computer or external USB drive.
Retrieving laptop location using the Recovery Wizard
- Run the recovery tool.
- Select the backup file (*.ost) you saved when installing the client.
- Specify a time period within which to search for updates.
- Enter your password and get the IP address results.
View current IP address of your laptop
However, if the thief is technologically savvy and uninstalls the client from your laptop, you won’t be able to track it anymore. But in most cases laptop thieves generally don’t bother with the software and likely to connect it to the Internet at one point.
Features:
- Stolen laptop tracker helps to track laptop from any location.
- Install the client on your laptop and run the recovery tool to track it when it gets stolen.
- Supports: Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista.
- The Mac OS X version also has an option to capture pictures of the thief.
- Free, install the client and recovery tools from the site to start tracking.
- Similar tools: LocatePC, Lockdown and ihoundSoftware.
[Update: The Adeona laptop tracker software is no longer working. Please refer features list for the working alternatives.]
Check out Adeona @ www.adeona.cs.washington.edu
Only problem is that it actually does not work.
You may want to research this a bit more, this software has not worked for over 6 months due to issues with OpenDHT. Many people have had their laptops stolen with Adeona installed only to find that they cannot retrieve data. It is snake oil folks, if the MakeUsOf folks actually tested the data retrieval they would see that the software does not work.
Thank for pointing it out Eric.
I will check the issue with our author and make needed updates to the article.
Kaly
hi…
i installed the adeona taptop tracker yesterday night and today i lost it.. if the theaf don’t connect to the internet will this software works… what shall i do recover my laptop.. pls help me out.. i m having the adeona retrivecrendential file… how can i recover the laptop….
Based on the comments above, I think the software has problems working. Nonetheless, if it works you can conly see the location of your laptopn if the thief connects it to the interenet.