LoJack for Laptops self-repair???

Does anyone know how the LoJack for Laptops self-repair works? Supposedly it repairs itself even after an OS reinstall or hard drive swap. Yesterday I put a new drive in my M1330 with LoJack BIOS support and installed Vista Ultimate. It hasn't made a call today yet.

 

it saids it'll survive MOST hardrive formats and deletion. Is supposed to use an active internet connection so i'm assuming it is useless if your wifi drivers aren't installed.

 

It embeds itself in the BIOS. Formatting or replacing the HD won't remove the protection. I think the Lojack website sometimes doesn't immediately update the call-in verification. Give it a little more time. This from Lojack:

Once the BIOS agent is active, you will not need to reinstall LoJack for Laptops even if you do a system restore, hard drive format or a hard drive replacement. The only way to disable this feature would be to replace the entire Motherboard or remove LoJack for Laptops via our website by performing a Remove or Transfer. This will remove LoJack for Laptops and send a signal to turn of the BIOS agent on the computer which it was installed on.

 

Of course I wouldn't expect it to work with no connection to the Internet. I installed drivers for everything and am connected to my WiFi broadband fine. I asked Computrace and their response was:

But so far it hasn't happened yet. I have an active subscription and the option is set and unchangeable in my BIOS. I just don't get how it's supposed to reinstall the software into Windows. Do they have a partnership with Microsoft and it's done via a Windows Update? I've installed all updates. I even turned off UAC in case that makes a difference.

I'm not going to put my other hard drive that has CompuTrace installed back in for a few days to see what happens.

 

Have you tried to send a test call via the Lojack website?

 

No, because that installs an ActiveX control into Internet Explorer. The whole point of it is that if a thief steals my laptop and reformats or replaces the drive, it's still supposed to make calls to CompuTrace. I doubt if my laptop gets stolen, the thief would want to be able to log into my CompuTrace account and make a test call.

 

Me thinks someone is completely missing the bus on the whole CompuTrace thing.

 

the control is just for the test call. it has nothing to do with the actual use of the service.

if your paranoid about it, just uninstall the addon after you test the call. It's not a big deal.

 

With the LoJack software manually installed it made daily calls and the test calls worked. I know the test call works if I install the ActiveX control. That's not what I'm concerned about. I don't know to what lengths the ActiveX control installs itself on my system or other components for Computrace. If I install the ActiveX control and it suddenly starts making daily calls, that doesn't prove anything since the some part of the software has been installed. Remember, malicious ActiveX controls are easily capable of installing software on your computer that can't be easily removed. CompuTrace makes it a selling point that it's software is not easily removed so therefore installing the ActiveX control could easily install the full client.

The issue is that it hasn't made any calls with the new hard drive and a clean Windows Vista Ultimate install. If it doesn't automatically reinstall itself as it claims to, then this means I have to create a few other "guest" accounts on the laptop so that thieves will be able to log into and utilize the computer. If I don't they will wipe the drive and reinstall this OS. Likewise, this also means I can't use whole-disk encryption since a thief would immediately proceed to wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS. In both situations, if the CompuTrace BIOS doesn't reinstall the software, then it's totally useless.

 

Who would that be?

 

Very few thieves format hard drives. they are usually not geeks. they usually steal it and pawn it. they usually rummage around for stuff. and they usually don't also steal an OS Disk. Trust me. My old 6400 was stolen and it wasnt formatted yet. (I know because every once and so often it automatically logs into one of my bookmarks).

How do you tell if it has made a call? i go to the site and cannot find any list or anything about my PC calling their site. just the account info and the test call/report/print options.

I always have a 'Guest' account with no password but cannot do anything except connect to LAN/Wifi for that reason. I keep my main account and bios PW protected.

 

If I lock my laptop down tight enough then it's worthless to anyone who uses it until they reinstall the OS.

When you log in, it lists the last call date. With the software installed, it's supposed to call once a day. Once reported stolen, it's supposed to call every 15 minutes. Read their FAQ for more info.

Does that Guest account have admin rights? If not, they will probably find it necessary to reinstall the OS at some point. Thieves have buddies with pirated copies of Windows to help them out. If it does have admin, they can reset your password and get at all your data. If you're not using encryption, they can get at all your data by yanking the drive and putting it in another machine. There have been some very high profile laptop thefts with lots of unencrypted data over the past few years. I don't store the confidential information of thousands of people on my laptop, but I still don't want my personal files being perused by a thief.

 

You said in a previous post that 'you knew the test call would work if you installed their activex control'

So, that means it IS installed on your newly installed/formatted drive. thus, your concerns are taken care of. I'm fairly sure their Activex controls arent anything malicious and aren't really a security threat. i don't think it installs anything except an addon with a script to trigger the call.

If your call works with a new drive then it's all good. just bunker down your system and enjoy.

 

I thought it was once every few days until said stolen... Their site say typically 1 day... Give it up to the 30 days allowed. When did you do this swap?

It Survived countless formats n installs here... Even a few HD swaps... And my transition from Vista 32 to Vista 64...

 

No, I know it will work because I did it with the original drive which is my working OS drive that has all my apps and configured to be intended for my daily use. I did not install the ActiveX control in this new install on a new hard drive. I'm currently swapping a few drives in and out like cartridges.

The new drive does NOT have the ActiveX control installed. Also, note that I didn't say the ActiveX control was malicious. The point is that ActiveX controls are executables that can install anything into your system. CompuTrace does not say how the BIOS reinstalls the software and the ActiveX could be one mechanism for doing so. ActiveX controls are not just "scripts." They don't run in a sandbox isolated from your system like Java and JavaScript do. They are full executables running with your account rights.

Someone stealing my laptop and reinstalling the OS will NOT go to CompuTrace's website and install the ActiveX control, so manually going to the website, installing the control and doing a test call is not a true test. CompuTrace says reinstallation is automatic even with a hard drive replacement. I have not seen this to be the case.

 

It was yesterday, but more than 24 hours ago. With the client manually installed it was calling every day. Actually, it doesn't say that it might take up to 30 days to make a call. It says that if it didn't make a call within 30 days preceding the date of theft, then you don't get your money.

That's good to know yours got reinstalled many times. Thanks. Do you know how or when it did so?

 

Frazell, also did you install the ActiveX control when you did reinstalls?

 

Computrace Should send you an email when it doesn't hear from your computer. Not sure how many days it is, but they will notify you.

 

Give it more time

I didn't watch it that closely to notice if it was immediately or a few days later, but I do remember seeing a lag of as much of a few days between calls before.

Give it a week at least to see if it calls in... As unless you have some crazy odd setup my experience shows me it will reinstall. And you'll never notice it installed itself...

No, I've never installed that control before, ever.

 

Cool, now my account shows it made a call yesterday! This satisfies my curiosity as to whether it works or not. This means now I can disable the guest account and lock down the laptop so that if it does ever get lost or stolen they will have to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS for it to be usable and they won't be able to get at my data.

 

What is the general opinion on Lojack?
Is it worth installing?
Does it cause any software/hardware conflicts?

 

Anyone get Lojack to call in and update LAST CALL DATE from a Guest or Non-Admin account on Windows XP home?

I got it to call in from Admin Account (PW protected), but it said test call failed when I tried to initiate a test call from Lojack home page while in non Admin account.

However, support person said this can happen and it still may call in and to give it another 24 hours.

Anyone have any issues with Lojack not calling in from non Admin account under Windows XP?

Thanks
Peter