Friends, Is your any USB device stolen or lost? Do you want to track it where it is?
Here is a good article I came across on Yahoo Tech! Thought of sharing with you. Click here to track this story on Yahoo by it's original author Christopher Null !!
This guy is rocking. Thanks Christopher for this wonderful article. It will help a lots of users like me. You Bet !!!
Reader Denise writes: I'm trying to find out about the free software that can be downloaded to MP3 players that helps recover the device if stolen. It sort of works like Lojack.
I went on a hunt for such software and turned up GadgetTrak, which basically does exactly what Denise is talking about. Check it out: You sign up for an account on GadgetTrak's website (it's free), then register your devices on the site. You can register any USB device that has storage: So not just an MP3 player, but a thumbdrive, camera, PDA... just about anything that shows up as a drive in Windows.
For each device, you download agent files created specifically for that piece of hardware, which GadgetTrak creates for you. Then copy the files to the USB device, and you're finished. If you report on the GadgetTrak website that a device has gone missing, it will begin tracking that device whenever it is plugged into a computer. How? The agent files attempt to launch an autorun file whenever the device is plugged in, which activates the tracking mechanism (and sends you an email). If the autorun isn't launched, either because the PC has autorun disabled or it was canceled by the user, the device attempts to entice the new user to launch the agent tracker manually by naming the executable "passwords.exe."
I gave it a spin with a USB thumbdrive and it works pretty well. Autorun didn't come up on the test PC I was using as the "thief's" computer (for reasons I won't bore you with), but when double-clicking the passwords.exe file, I was quickly greeted with an email about the location of the drive. What's the catch? With a free account you only get the IP address of the PC the device is plugged into. You have to pay $12 (or slightly less if you buy in bulk) for a one-year subscription for each device you'd like additional data for. The pro data includes the PC name, the user name on that PC, and the city and postal code of the PC's location, all of which would definitely be helpful if a device were stolen.
(Source: Yahoo Tech, gadgettheft.com)
-Mumbaikar
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