Protect your computer against theft with Prey

Everyday, a ton of electronic devices are stolen in the world, and it does not only happen to others, and you should protect your devices. That's why I just tested Prey and I think it's quite a good solution.

As the official website says :

Prey lets you keep track of your laptop, phone and tablet whenever missing, whether you're in town or abroad. Open source, proven software with hundreds of documented recoveries all around the world.

It's a multi-platform open source software that allows you to track your personal devices. You can use the Prey platform (I mean website) which is really good to track your device or you can set up your own control panel from this project.

Prey is free up to tree devices, you can also subscribe for a pro plan which have some advanced features (more reports, accelerated tracking, delete files remotely etc). But, note that you can subscribe it whenever you need.

Installation under Ubuntu/ElementaryOs

Before the installation, you should activate the universe Ubuntu repository in your /etc/apt/sources.list as Prey needs some dependencies (scrot, streamer, mpg123 ), so simply edit this file and add or uncomment the following lines :

// /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
deb-src http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
deb http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe
deb-src http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe

Then run an aptitude update/apt-get update, download the deb file from the Prey website here and launch the installation with your package manager.

Prey will ask you to create or use a Prey account in order to track your device. And that's all, you can now track your device from the Prey website, and you can test it !

PS : hope that you don't have to use it ;-)

Go Further

I also tested it on my Samsung Galaxy S3 without problems.