Can you put a GPS inside a laptop?

I just got a new Dell XPS L521x and put quite a bit in upgrades so I don't want to have it stolen or what not. I know this is a stretch but I want to know if it can be done. Or, since I have a USB port that is always "live", are there GPS trackers that are just minu USB's? Any ideas would be great. Thanks.

 

You're putting a GPS into a notebook to track it after stolen?

 

Yeah that's the point. My car was broken into already and my backpack was stolen and if I had my laptop at the time it would have been also.

 

Wouldn't it be better to just open up the laptop and tape/glue an independent GPS tracking device to the inside of it? A thief might think to throw away a USB device, but I doubt they'd think to open up the laptop to check if it's been bugged.

Then again, even if you do manage to track down where the thief is, what would you do with that information? Virtually all modern smartphones are capable of being tracked by GPS, yet police in many jurisdictions have shown that they're quite hesitant to do anything when smartphones are stolen.

 

never heard of it but theres always a first. why not make a prototype and if it works patent it and make millions

other alternative is something like prey which actually works Open source anti-theft solution for laptops, phones & tablets – Prey

unless a certain part is removed and then your stuffed.

 

The laptop I had with my old job, an HP 8440p, had a Gobi Verizon aircard with GPS installed in it.

 

seen quite a few mini-pci-e and usb GPS things, however i doubt any of them would work with laptop turned off. Could try hooking up some of those GPS trackers, there has been plenty to track children and rubbish like that, some sort of battery powered one, just stick it inside... I would think there would be enough space if you took it out of its plastic whatever case, and stuck it inside somewhere, solder power off battery or a USB, obviously couldn't use it for gps on laptop, however you could track it using whatever software you might have for it...

Would be a bit of a project, but certainly do-able.

 

Yeah, most have GPS and you don't need a dataplan for the GPS to function if I recall correctly.

 

Just the GPS wouldn't need data, what gps does is just gets positions of satellites to get position. It doesn't use data. Though depending on card, it might not allow access to GPS without a sim card or something like that. Knowing Toshiba has Intel cards that are locked to toshiba laptops, and i have dealt with them, denying access to GPS without a SIM with data in it, even though unlikely, wouldn't surprise me.

Still with a 3G card, i would think the laptop would still need to be turned on to get position of it.

 

I know the GPS function itself doesn't need a dataplan, but I could see it being locked to get people to purchase a dataplan. Thankfully, I haven't seen any reports of that happening yet. Also, yeah, the device would need to be powered on to get the location of the device, but then the thief or person who bought it from the thief would have to turn it on to use it.

 

GPS devices are receivers by nature. The money comes in on tracking software to report via wifi or celluar where in the heck is the laptop! The old tracking chips, which was subscriber based bring this to mind, Lojack? I think that was, is?, a feature in Dell laptops? Some trucking companies do have GPS x-ponders to report cargo movement.

Cellphones, like the iphone, have tracking if you use icloud. Whatever device for the laptop would have to depend on wifi to call home. I like to bios and OS password my travel laptop to defeat the stupid but not foolproof for the determined. I also do not keep my thermo nuclear secrets or banking passwords on the hardrive. Thief is welcome to my worthless Diablo account.

..and yes, I forgot to mention that maping software, like MS Streets, have usb GPS receivers if that was not mentioned, but not internal.

 

I just use a free software called "PREY"

 

Ok so if I were to just make it so I could track it when it was turned on, what all would I need to buy?

...and I don't really just want to have a software like Prey.

 

you don't need to buy anything if you just use a tried-and-tested freeware utility like prey. :thumbsup:

"Publisher's Description

From Fork:
Prey help you find your mobile phone or laptop if it ever gets lost or stolen. It is lightweight, open source software, and free for anyone to use. Basically you install a tiny agent in your PC or phone, which silently waits for a remote signal to wake up and work its magic. This signal is sent either from the Internet or through an SMS message, and allows you to gather information regarding the device's location, hardware and network status, and optionally trigger specific actions on it. You can quickly find out where your computer is located, who's using it, and what he's doing on it thanks to Prey's powerful reports system.Besides gathering information, you can also trigger actions remotely such as sounding a loud alarm or showing a message which will appear onscreen.


Read more: Prey - CNET Download.com Prey - CNET Download.com"

 

But my problem with Prey is that my computer has to be connected to the internet and my laptop having a password on it sort of hinders someone from connecting to a wireless network. Just to straighten some things up for me, if I had a wireless card that says it has GPS like this one could I track it whenever the laptop was on as long as I had a software on another computer?

 

I prefer the low tech solution, just take the backpack out of the car, con't leave anything visible and look after your possessions....

 

Yeah well I am paranoid and want some way of ALWAYS knowing where my laptop is. Please, I just want to know if this wireless card can make it so I can find my laptops location with some software.

 

you realize in order to track it what ever is used will at least need power. what you are asking for is something like a Zoom Back which needs charged and the last one I saw was no credit card by any means, it had 1cm/ 1/8 inch thick body.

 

I actually looked at those last night and so I had a look inside my laptop and I cannot spare ANY room. So now I want to know if I get a different wireless card that has a GPS function, will that work to track it?

 

What i would do is get something similar to Halfords | Snooper WPT250 GPS/GSM Portable Vehicle Tracker
gut it out of the plastic case, wire it to a usb power so you don't need to remove it to recharge. Theres plenty of these little ones that use GSM to report location, usually to whoever made it and they allow you to track it over some sort of application... Like those silly child trackers.

If you use wifi card or 3g module, laptop will need to be turned on and most likely connected to network as well, to send GPS location to a different device via some sort of data connection.

 

a WWAN is the only card that would allow you to access cellular networks (making your machine "traceable/trackable"), but there's no slot for it nor for any other hardware option.

Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express

 

I have hardly any room in my laptop but I will check one more time. If I did find room how would I go about wiring it to draw from a usb port? I am not really bent on having it work while the laptop if off so having a card that has 3g would work too. This one seems like it would work but I don't know if it is really meant for tracking as much as it is for knowing where I am, using the laptop.

 

You could put a GPS tracker into laptop bag itself. If someone plans to steal your laptop from the car they probably won't have time to actually open the bag in the car and empty it. If lucky, they take the whole bag to their home/stash.

The only way to passively track computer itself would be WWAN card. Your operator always knows where it is as long as computer is powered because wwan card is basically same thing as a cellphone. They can be tracked with cell towers for approximate location. However this is regularly not accessible for civilians, at least here the order to track has to be initiated by police (and probably needs a good cause). It is often mentioned in news when used to track runaway kids or lost people. Therefore I doubt if stolen laptop qualify as a reason good enough.

 

I know someone a while back who had his laptop stolen. He had some software on it, so that when they logged in he could log in too and they wouldn't know it. He could see them through the camera and it helped him identify the thief. The stupid thief never formatted the drive either just created a new account, and he could watch what they were doing on the screen. The thief logged into her (yes her) Facebook account and he then had everything he needed. He got a warrant and they raided and recovered the laptop (amongst other things that were clearly illegal). He even had it so he could wake the laptop from sleep so he could grab all his files and stuff off it, which he did so he at least didn't lose the important stuff.

I don't keep in touch with him anymore, but I wanted to know what software that was because it was a good 3-4 years ago when this happened.

 

it's been in the news more than a few times recently and it's seems like it's usually with iphones and MBPs. which begs the question--who's more careless, apple users or apple thieves?

Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express

 

Hey there!
If its just a question of Theft then I would suggest using PREY as it WORKS!! Check it out. I use firefox with a Master Password to protect saved passwords and such.Prey settings allow tracking.In a panic you can Lock your rig or send Death Signal. Internet Explorer is not protected and your average mutt will try that before any attempt at hacking the rig giving you a time edge to bust his (her) Axx.

 

As I recall Intel has tracking capability in their theft software. I keep getting the warning that I have not activated it.