Prey not reporting location on Linux

[avb]

When I mark my laptop as missing (currently testing, phew!) Prey fails
to do one of the most basic tasks necessary in locating the laptop -
it does not provide any location information whatsoever.

I am running 0.5.3 on Ubuntu 10.10, have the geo module enabled and
have been snooping in the logfiles. The logs say something along the
lines of the geocoder being down. As prey uses google's API - I
checked to ensure that the laptop is connected (it is). What could be
wrong?

[Drew Reece]

I have just tested a Mac & it reported the location correctly.
The question is do you have wifi?
Does google maps find your location if you use the little button to find your current location? You may need a recent browser to try this.

Drew

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[Aditya Bansal]

I am running wifi - with FF5, I clicked the little button and then it just centred (no zoom) the map on the city centre (not where I live).

Is google maps supposed to drop a placemarker on my location?

avb

[Aditya Bansal]

Chromium, however, detects my location correctly.
avb

[Tom Wood]

Basically, the feature relies on Google knowing the location of the WiFi access points that your computer can see right now.

 

Try moving your computer to a few more locations to see if you get different results.  You can also look at google maps and see if there is any street-view camera images for your area.   The streetview camera cars are one of the ways that google builds the WiFi access point database.

 

Tom

[Aditya Bansal]

Interesting, in the last few minutes, I've manually forced an update of my machine location. Once it found me correctly, the second time it was off by ~40 kilometers (putting me in the city center).

Any ideas?

avb

[Tom Wood]

Nope.  One gets what one gets with Google’s WiFi Geolocation.  Nothing to be done.  Just gotta hope that the location data is good for wherever the thief decides to take your computer.

 

Tom

 

From: prey-s...@googlegroups.com [mailto:prey-s...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Aditya Bansal
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 2:38 PM
To: prey-s...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Prey-Security] Prey not reporting location on Linux

 

Interesting, in the last few minutes, I've manually forced an update of my machine location. Once it found me correctly, the second time it was off by ~40 kilometers (putting me in the city center).

Any ideas?

avb

--

[avb]

Just wondering, why would my location be incorrect in FF5 9 times out
of 10 (I do not live in the city centre), but always correct in
Chromium???!

avb

On Aug 11, 1:54 am, "Tom Wood" <taw...@byz.org> wrote:
> Nope.  One gets what one gets with Google's WiFi Geolocation.  Nothing to be
> done.  Just gotta hope that the location data is good for wherever the thief
> decides to take your computer.
>
> Tom
>
> From: prey-s...@googlegroups.com [mailto:prey-s...@googlegroups.com]
> On Behalf Of Aditya Bansal
> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 2:38 PM
> To: prey-s...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Prey-Security] Prey not reporting location on Linux
>
> Interesting, in the last few minutes, I've manually forced an update of my
> machine location. Once it found me correctly, the second time it was off by
> ~40 kilometers (putting me in the city center).
>
> Any ideas?
>
> avb
>
> --
> ------------
> Want to help translating Prey to your language?

> Write us: translati...@preyproject.com

[Drew Reece]

No idea, but it isn't anything to do with Prey.

I'd suggest looking at the page source to see if FF is getting a different version, perhaps it is stale location cache for FF or it could just be that Google are serving the data out differently to the browsers.

Mozilla forums would be a better place to look/ ask for an answer.

Drew

Write us: transl...@preyproject.com

[Tom Wood]

Do you have a "default location" specified with google maps for Chromium? I
know on my computer that Chrome has my location, because that's the browser
I use most often, but if I go to google maps with IE or FF, it doesn't have
a default set.

Now, activating the geolocation features do find me on all of those
browsers.

Tom

avb

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