Laptop device tracker

Configuration
1

I am looking to add device trackers to my laptop and a spare laptop I am refurbishing for my daughter. This way I can track the laptops whenever they are connected to wifi. Is anyone doing something like this or if not, what could I use as a laptop device tracker.

Thanks,

2

One way to do it is to assign static IPs to your laptops via your router and then use the ‘Ping’ or ‘nmap’ component to track them in homeassistant.

3

I’ll do that as a last resort however if I take my laptop someplace or it is stolen I’d like to be able to track its location once it’s attached to wifi

4

I suppose you can discreetly attach something like a TrackR to it…or install one somewhere inside of it.

5

This might be a lot more difficult to get an exact location. Your laptop probably doesn’t have GPS in it. There are going to be very few methods in order to track it.

  1. Write an application that runs as a service in the background on the laptop (python with MQTT should work), and publish external IP, along with a geo-location based on that public IP (will not be extremely accurate most of the time). Have your device tracker subscribe to the topic that application is posting data to, and modify accordingly (if on SSID at home, set status to home, else get location, wifi SSID, etc and display in tracker)

  2. Get a TrackR like @Mirai_Hayashi mentioned.

6

Track Your Device’s IP Address with Gmail or Dropbox. If your laptop or smartphone was stolen, Even I was visited https://www.gmailtechnicalsupportnumbers.com/forgot-gmail-password/ this site for more info. You can use a service like Gmail or Dropbox to find the IP address of your thief. When you log into those services from any computer, it logs the IP address used and displays your last used IP in your account.

8

There used to be an application called Prey, (paid for but believe it had a free tier) that tracks PC, Mac, Android and others.
There’s no component for it though, I was thinking that this could make a good addition to HA but I lack the coding knowledge, I also don’t know if they have an API.

Prey was good because it let you change logon passwords etc remotely but havent used it in years now.

9

I use Prey on my Android phones and Laptops and it works very well.
Would be great to see an component for HA for Prey.
In May 2018 they said they were working on a public API but I do not know if this is available yet?

1 Like
10

I reuse this

Whenever a device is online it sends an event to HA

11

Great to know it’s still going, I’ll have to look into adding it back onto my systems!
Especially if an API is due out.