Adeona - Free Software, Hope of Recovering Stolen Computers

Adeona is named after the Roman goddess of safe returns. It exemplifies what the University of Washington has been researching, with help from the University of California San Diego and the University of California Davis. Thanks to them, there is now a free service in place to track stolen computers (if the thief isn't too tech-savvy). It works on Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5, Linux,
and Windows XP/Vista. Mac and Linux have been tested on both 64 & 32-bit machines, only 32-bit on Windows while the program is still beta.

All you need to do is download a free software program. You give a password during installation. The program generates a file and puts it on your desktop, you transfer the data as recommended by the program. Then the software anonymously sends encrypted notes about the computer's location to internet servers approximately averaging one every 30 minutes. If your computer is stolen, you download another program, enter the password, and get the IP address where it was last used as well as data on nearby routers it used to connect to the internet. With that information, law enforcement could track down the thief.

Mac's even have a freeware program that will photograph anyone using the computer (you can find a link to this program in Adeona's "Overview"). The documentation section has the retreival process on their site with screenshots and steps you through the process. The FAQ's are a must-read. Something great out of acadamia once again!