Tech2know

Prey is a lightweight application that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen. It works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but also completely free.

Prey helps you locate your missing laptop by sending timed reports with a bunch of information of its whereabouts. This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and,  in case your laptop has an integrated webcam, a picture of the thief.

So, how does Prey work. Well, in very simple words, Prey wakes up at a specified interval and checks a URL to see if it should gather the traces and send the report. If the URL doesn’t exist, Prey will simply go to sleep again.

There’s two ways to run Prey:

1) Synchronized with the web control panel (Prey + Control Panel)

In this case, you manage your computer state and Prey’s configuration through a web page, which also keeps track of all reports sent by Prey from your device. This is the recommend method for most users, since you don’t have to worry about the URL thing and you can actually “talk” to Prey by triggering different behaviours.

2) In a standalone fashion.

In standalone mode, the report goes directly to your inbox but it’s up to you to generate the URL to activate Prey. In this case you don’t need to sign up in Prey but you’ll have to set up the different modules by hand if you want to tune things up. This is actually the way Prey worked before version 0.3 was released.

Until now I discussed about the features of Prey. Now let us go step by step to set up Prey on your laptop by using recommended Prey + Control Panel method on a Windows system.

1) Download Prey from http://preyproject.com/.

2) Before you begin installation of Prey on your laptop you must register on the website(in step 1) and set up the device which you want to track. Registration will give you two very important keys namely API key and device key which are required for configuring Prey.

3) Again go to http://preyproject.com/ and click ‘Sign up’ on the top right corner of the page.

4) You will be asked to fill details Name, E mail id, Country and password. Fill the details and an e mail will be sent to you on the mail id which you have specified. This is an activation mail and you need to click on the link in the mail to activate your account.

5) After activating you account, login into prey web control panel. Just go to http://preyproject.com/ and login.

6) On you first login you will see below screen.

So, you need to add a device which you want to track. Note that API key is available as soon as you login.

7) Now click on ‘Add new device’ for adding a device. This will result in below screen

You can specify title of your choice. Then click on ‘Create’.

8 ) Once you click on ‘Create’, the device gets created and the the other key called Device Key is generated as shown below

You are allowed to add 3 devices by default. You need to contact prey project team at contact@preyproject.com if you want to add more that 3 devices.

9) Now its time to install Prey on your laptop. Double click on the setup file which you have downloaded in step 1. After a few clicks on ‘Next’ you will be shown configuration window of Prey. The same is shown below.

Now copy your API and device keys and paste in corresponding fields on above configuration panel. Click ‘Apply’.

Prey is fully setup now for tracking your laptop.

Now let us simulate a situation wherein you find that you laptop is missing. Well, I wish that no one land in this situation. So, what to do? How Prey will know that the laptop has been stolen and its time to work? This can be done very easily via Prey’s web control panel. Below is the procedure.

1) Login to the http://control.preyproject.com and click on the Title of the device as shown below

2) Now just set the missing status to ‘On’ by clicking it. Afterwards, click on ‘Update’ button.

That’s it. You just informed Prey which is installed on your laptop that the laptop is missing.  Now Prey will send reports which will be displayed in your Prey web control panel like below.

Just click on the title of the device(‘My laptop’ in current example) to view details of the reports.

Prey checks if there’s an active internet connection to send the information. If not, it will attempt to connect to the nearest open wifi access point available. This gives you a better chance to locate the device.

There are other Modules on the same screen which can be configured. Following are the modules.

I would recommend to let the settings remain as they are by default. For more information about these modules, just point your cursor at the small ‘i’ symbol beside each one.

I hope you enjoyed reading this.

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