I was browsing randomly around Dropbox's forums when I stumbled across this. Then, I also saw Quintin Carlson write some useful bits for Dropbox on Mac AppStorm.

1. Get the IP of your stolen computer.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/132715/drop_off_my_details.sh

This script writes output from useful commands like ifconfig, netstat etc to your Dropbox, and also queries whatismyip.com (using the low bandwidth page they set up for automation projects like this) writing the public IP address the computer is connected as (assuming a NAT configuration then this will be the IP of the router connected to the internet).

I now have my Apple Mac's details refreshed to my Dropbox at 7pm every day. If someone steals the Mac and /assuming/ they don't wipe the HDD and get the thing online then I should get some useful info back.

Please email me (email addy in the script file) any corrections or additions you want to make as I'm happy to improve this over time.

4 tips to use the shell script:

1) make sure that on each computer upon which you use it you change the value of "thiscomputername" to something unique (else one Dropbox will overwrite another);
2) make sure the folder specified for the variable $dropboxOutput exists (I haven't had time to automate the detection and creation of the folder in the script);
3) chmod + x the script to ensure it is executable (otherwise it just won't run);
4) TEST IT after setting it up to ensure it runs for you .. it works for me but that may not mean it works on your setup.

What is particularly important (IMHO) is that as well as getting the public IP via whatismyip.com we also record the time and date in dts.txt. This means if the computer is not using a static IP it should still be possible to trace it.

Hope someone finds a use for it - the script should work on Linux, *nix and Mac OS X.

-Colin

2. Smile! You're on camera, thief.

 

MS PowerToy that lets you take a picture using a webcam at a set interval and save it to the DB folder.

Webcam Timershot - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

 

Beats having to buy a $700 security software just get an IP adddress.