Originally Posted by
WrathofthePenguin
I've done a little searching, but found nothing. I found the "Back to my Mac" story in which a woman used it to recover her laptop to be very interesting. While my laptop doesn't have a built-in webcam, there is data that would help immensely in an attempt to recover my laptop if it were stolen.
For dynamic IP, check out www.no-ip.com or www.dyndns.com. Here you can aquire a domain name (e.g. yourcomputer.no-ip.com) that points to your computers current IP. They work by having a daemon on your computer reporting back the IP. Daemons for both these providers are availible in the repositries.
When you have your dynamic IP daemon working. You can install openssh-server availible in the repos. But first be shure to have strong passwords for all users as this will open a service on your computer that can be attacked. I think you can disable ssh-login for some users if you want though, but they are all enabled by default.
Code:
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
Openssh-server will enable you to connect to your computer from anywhere where you have an ssh-client. F.ex. in a linux-terminal with openssh-client
Code:
ssh username@yourcomputer.no-ip.org
will grant you access to your shell with username.
From there, having ssh-access to your computer with yourcomputer.no-ip.com, there are many many possibilities. Download personal files with scp, delete or even shred sensitive information. And... catching the thieves on cam:
Code:
ssh -X -C username@yourcomputer.no-ip.org
cheese
The -C will compress the transfer, and -X will forward xserver connection so you can run programs on your computer and show the graphical output on the terminal you are sitting.
Cheese is a webcam toy that is included in the latest GNOME (which means it is in Ubuntu Hardy Heron). When you run this having enabled x-forwarding, the output will show up on the terminal you are sitting. The usability is limited by bandwidth. But I've tried to use cheese from 500km away on a 2MBit connection, and I got a nice view of my own flat.
Good luck!
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