lap top security cable

rocks3

I bought my son an expensive laptop last year. He has just started at college and would like to take the lap top with him. Are security cables any good? How are they attached? To what? Should I insure it too?

innovate

Kensington locks (example here ) are a relatively good means of making theft more difficult. They come with various features (keylock, dial-lock etc), and the steel cable can be wrapped round any suitable fixture. It's amazing though to see people wrap the cable round a table leg - - doesn't need a genius to lift the table and slide the cable off........

As to insurance - it's expensive. The insurance premium over a couple of years is probably twice the laptop price, and nobody will insure you for data loss. I have had laptops for going on ten years and never paid any insurance. I never had one nicked - part of this was luck, but also never leaving the laptop unattended [e.g. backseat of car] / unsecured [e.g. with kensington lock] has helped.

To make the data hard to get at, use a power-up and a harddisk password, don't use the same for both. Usual precautions apply, i.e. don't write the password down, and certainly not on anything you carry with the laptop.

Apply the same prudence to laptops as you would apply to your plastic money, passport etc. Only challenge is that you can't slip the laptop into your trouser pockets

rocks3

Thanks Innovate. How is the lock attached to the computer? Do all locks fit all computers? (laptops)

ManAtHome

There's a small slot on the left or right-hand side near where the screen hignes. The lock is a 'T' shaped piece of metal which goes in the slot then turns 90 degrees to lock (all laptop locks work the same and the slot size is standard).

Pink.

This thread may help:

Laptop security - Kensington?

Pink

Davidboy

Hi, yes I had the same problem when my daughter went to uni, had real problems trying to find of these cables. Of course left it to the last minute to buy one and most of the internet sites quoted weeks delivery.

Anyway was just amberling round a Maplin store in Bristol and found one. It was £14.99.

Thanks innovate £9.99...hum!!!! Too flippen late for me now. As usual did not look on this site first, when will I learn!

I was a little worried where to wrap it around when we got her halls of residence, but there was a radiator with a steel pipe nice and convenient to her desk...lovely.

My next problem, how do I remove it from her computer when she has lost both keys!!! hee hee

D