• PC World
• » Software
• » Antivirus and Security

NEW YORK -- Invested plenty in that new handheld, and want to protect it? PC PhoneHome, the maker of theft protection software for notebooks, is offering an answer at the TechXNY trade show here: PC PhoneHome for PocketPC, a version of the company's tracking software for handheld computers.

The $29.95 program is based on PC PhoneHome's notebook application, which is designed to track, locate, and recover stolen devices, says Martin Moran, the company's co-founder and executive vice president. It works by sending a stealth e-mail to the device's owner once the missing device is connected to the Internet. That e-mail contains information that is then used to locate and return the missing item to its owner.

Moran said the company plans to announce on Monday two additional versions of the product. The Road Warrior version will cost $59.95 and provides a bulk discount for people who want to protect their desktop, notebook, and handheld. Another version for families would cover all devices in a household, and will be priced at $79.95.

In Sync

The new version of the application for personal digital assistants is installed first on a desktop PC, and then synced to the handheld device. The initial version works only with Microsoft devices running the Windows Mobile 2003 operating system ( formerly called Pocket PC). The company expects to release a version for Palm-based devices within the next several weeks.

PC PhoneHome's software is difficult for thieves to uninstall, because it's likely they will never even know it's there, Moran says. The application is disguised as part of the operating system, and the hard drive of any computer with the application installed cannot be reformatted. The PDA version will withstand a hard reset, he says.

After installing the software, you can select an e-mail address to which the device will send a notification message every time it connects to the Internet. You do not have to activate the software once the device is stolen or missing--as soon as the software senses an Internet connection, it automatically sends a message.

"We recommend users create a special e-mail account specifically for these messages," Moran says, acknowledging that daily messages could quickly fill up an in-box. You can disregard most of the messages until the device is missing, he adds.

In Action

PC PhoneHome gets to work when your PDA disappears. The e-mail that it sends to the owner contains the name and serial number of the device, as well as the name and address of the owner who registered the software. It also contains the IP address of the computer from which it was sent--the key ingredient for recovering the stolen device.

The location of the device is discovered by tracking that IP address to a specific ISP. In conjunction with the local authorities, PC PhoneHome requests a search warrant, which is then used to obtain the name and address of that ISP subscriber.

So far, Moran says, PC PhoneHome has never been denied a search warrant. The company's e-mail messages contain specific records, including the serial number of the missing device, which the company provides in affidavits to the necessary authorities.

And, so far, the company has a 100 percent success rate in recovering missing laptops, Moran says. PC PhoneHome has about 300,000 users of its existing products, he says.

"The FBI only recovers 3 percent of stolen computers; we're 83 for 83 so far," Moran says.

Randy Ross of PCWorld.com contributed to this report.

• See more like this:
• PC PhoneHome,
• Pocket PC,
• Pocketpc,
• personal digital assistant,
• pda,
• handheld,
• Windows Mobile 2003,
• Palm,
• laptop,
• theft,
• recovery