Hi, Y'all...

With such a broad membership in the forum I was wondering what ideas you might have in securing a laptop when in a college dorm. I am aware of the cable lock and was wondering if there was anything more sophisticated than that. Of course, common sense such as keeping it out of sight, locking room, etc is important. But sometimes if you have a roommate, its hard to control the traffic in the room.

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hide it in the open and or get insurance

Lock it in the trunk of your car when no one is looking.

x2 private property insurance and its cheap, I think mine was $120 for a year with $5000 protection. Honestly I found that I was taking my laptop with me just about everywhere during the day and locked it up only at night. The cable locks are pretty good, you'd need some good cable cutters to get them off - no college kid is going to be able to get those in without someone noticing. Really there isn't anything more sophisticated - perhaps putting some security software on your computer to save personal information (doesn't help the laptop though), but I've found those to be cumbersome.

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Get a safe.

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Get a girlfriend who has an apartment.

my laptop actually has lojack on it. I havent activated the subscription but it has it

LoJack and Kensington lock would work perfect for what you need.

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-Justin

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it's automatic.

Thru-bolt it to your desk. Although that kinda defeats the portability aspect of it.

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I work at my college's IT department and this is oddly a question that is asked a lot to me.


Any laptop lock will work. At best you must remember if someone is determined to steal your laptop all it takes is a firm wrist to snap the lock out. They're flimsy at best and more of a quick deterrant. Most laptops are made of plastic so anybody with some good robo plyers can snap it off.

I also get asked about tracking programs. In all honesty Lojack and others are a rip off. Once a laptop is stolen, it is almost always wiped clean of its contents. Lojack is useless once the hard drive has been erased. Make sure you password protect your account AS WELL AS the administrator account in Xp,vista,7 and OSX.

I wouldn't worry too much about your stuff getting stolen . Your campus police department will raise holy hell if something gets reported stolen. Lock your door, practice safe sex, and have remember to have a fun first semester.

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The kensington locks are a joke....unless the chassis of the laptop is steel, which essentially all are not.

Best way to not get a laptop stolen? Use a desktop PC! A nice big heavy one. Then, keep a small cheap netbook for going to class or portable computing, and keep that locked in a metal box or something when not needed.

IMHO that is the best method.


I'd not be too trusting of those shady campus cops....at my college they were caught stealing projectors at night, and get this (how they got caught) they listed them on ebay from their office, and were mailing them out from the campus mail room!!! Stupid criminal alert.

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Make the laptop less desirable. Load it up with stickers and random junk, and sand the edges a bit so it looks well worn and old. Most people are looking for something generic and new that they can sell quickly, and a beater won't help that any.

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Don't forget to encrypt the data on the laptop

I say just carry it with you in your backpack

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Mine are the opposite. They're the ones that fit the typical police state cop that hunt for infractions for a write up or ticket. I bought a radio scanner to keep tabs on which dorms they're busting...

If only I lived off campus

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