Now, like everybody who owns a kickass gaming system; I am constantly burdened by the thought that my computer may be stolen one-day and i absolutely hate the thought of this with a passion. When im out and nobody is home, the thought crosses my mind a lot.
So, i came up with the idea to build a small device that is installed in my computer that is connected to an Ethernet cable, and so if unplugged; i am notified by PREY on my phone that it has physically been disconnected> warning me it is in the process of either being stolen, or that my internet has been disconnected somehow for some whatever unknown reason. If warned, i could alert a friend/family member that lives close by that my house may be in the process of being robbed. My PC is probably the highest priority for a thief to take because of its size and "flashiness", and figures he/she may fetch a pretty-penny for it.
Paranoid...? Yes, but as they all say; better to be safe than sorry. This computer is pretty important because of university and i cannot afford to lose it, even though i have a backup hdd, i cannot afford to buy a backup computer at the moment.
Now, the way i have thought going about this is perhaps installing a cheap-ish Rasperry PI motherboard into my computer that is always in online mode when connected to my router, and when disconnected, i am therefore alerted that my computer is offline (no-sh*t-Sherlock).
The reason why i am choosing to have a small device installed into the computer instead of an Ethernet cable being directly plugged into the motherboard is due to the fact that my computer will need to be running 24/7 in-order to be in online-mode. Which is not something i exactly want when nobody is home. I have no problem with a Raspberry PI running 24/7. Plus i only have one port on my motherboard, which is in use.
Would this at all be a possibility? Which way should i go about doing this? Would there be any need for difficult coding? Or is there a product already in existence that i can just buy?
I though this was a pretty cool idea so i figured id at least give it a shot.
Also, i thought this may be a good idea to share with people here on the Tek who may also be paranoid about their computers being stolen and might want to do the same thing.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thaanks