Lojack Question

Hello everyone. I've decided to purcahse M1330 (as posted on my sig) this year since everyone's raving all over this laptop and that it has won the notebook Review's designer award. After reading about how attractive it is, I too wanted to be part of the craze.

Once I've ordered my laptop the first thing I thought of was 'security'. I spent 2.1k on this baby and I don't want it stolen first thing when I go to university. I've heard of LoJack through of course notebook review's reviews on this software and I'm tempted to pay for at least the 1 year coverage so that I know my laptop will be safe for its first year. But the second question quickly came to my mind. "Will it impact system performance"? And followed by "by how much?". Now in the review, the reviewer said that the program runs in the background making it seem not present at all. However, if I use programs like Photoshop or when I'm gaming will lojack actually hog all my system memory causing lag problems or major slow downs? Will there be any inconvinence that I might encounter which I have not listed?

 

Considering all lojack has to do is send a teeny packet to some IP address somewhere every once in awhile, and get a status code back, I cant imagine it would be very big or use many cpu cycles.

 

The impact is similar to the periodic time syncing your computer does with internet time. If however you want less impact, shut down your WLAN connection whilst you are doing your "mission critical" Photoshoping. Seriously though, the impact is rather infinitesimal.

BTW, if you get Lojack, make sure you leave no outward trace of it's existence on your computer. Don't have any browser bookmarks, or text files indicating to a thief you have it. Lojack is easily thwarted by knowledge of its existence. The thief simply has to avoid WLAN connection until he gets all the data desired, then swaps the drive, and/or does a format & clean install. Lojack used to make us believe that the relevant workings resided outside the OS in a hidden partition and was somehow booted aside from the OS....they don't anymore. If it was ever true, with Vista they can't even get Quickplay to work, which would be a lot simpler.

 

with your specs on your new laptop...i doubt you'll be able to notice.

 

Well Dell says the M1330 has hardware that is lojack ready which means they work with lojack and it's supposed to be a chip embedded within mobo I think which means even if you swap the HDD they can still find where the laptop is (at least that's what I've heard).

Also, I would like to ask how long of a coverage is considered good. Lojack ranges from 1-4 years (obviously the longer the cheaper it gets overall / year cost) I need this laptop to last for 4 years so i don't know if 4 year is better but it's $100 + dollars and it's a bit on the expesnvie side for me in 1 payment. Do you guys think 2 is enough? or do you think 3 years is better?

 

There will be no performance issues at all. The laptop only calls in about once per day usually, then remains dormant.

@Murdoc: Yes, the program will be held in BIOS but the running program is out of the OS. The BIOS one is there in case the HDD is swaped or something similarly destructive.

 

Greg,

This comprehensive review gives no indication whatsoever that there is ANY interaction with the BIOS, nor does Computrace's website make any indication. Is it new info?

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3736

 

So what's the better buy? 1 year seems expensive paying around 44 dollars. I'm thinking of buying 2 years (equivalent to 36 dollars /year). For 3 years it's 91.6 (tax included) which goes for around 30 dollars / year except the 1 time payment is quite heavy =/ Does a laptop like mine require 3 years coverage? How long do you think my laptop will go for before completely going out of date?

 

It won't make a difference in your computer performance at all.

I recommend getting the DellCare Plus package. It comes with warranty, lojack, etc, and you get 7% off the final price. Cheaper than paying for these things individually. However, I see that it has already shipped.

One thing to remember is that Lojack only assists in recovering a stolen laptop. It does nothing to prevent it from being stolen. So make sure you lock it up, etc.

 

well I usually take it around with me on campus and during classes in uni... I don't live in res so it's not likely to get stolen that way but I'm more worried about people who might actually stick out a knife or something and threaten me to give them the laptop. So in this case, Lojack can help me get it back.

How much would it cost if I wanted to add the DellCare Plus (and how long does the lojack subscription for DellCare Plus last for)? Do you really think it's necessary? I'm pretty sure I'll take good care of it since I'm investing so much into this.

 

In my opinion when I was placing my order, the DellCare Plus Bundle seemed like the best option for the price. It offers everything the Dell Value bundle did, plus 3 yrs of virus protection and 3 yrs Lojack for an extra $20. But the price of that bundle has increased $40 since I ordered. Don't know how much it is if you would want to add those things seperately but it is obviously cheaper if you get the package, so I recommend the DellCare Plus for the value

 

2:51:04 PM CA SALES Jeff 2280 Hi Murdoc. What's DellCare?

Very interesting... Reps aren't aware of DellCare services

 

Alright. I bought LoJack w/ 3 yr subscription from dell.. I'm waiting for it to be delievered. I'll post my own review on this software when I get it.