About PC PhoneHome

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PC PhoneHome for Columbia Users

PC PhoneHome is an application which runs silently on Windows machines, sending information to Brigadoon Security Group whenever a network connection is made. This information is only accessed if the machine is reported stolen. In this case, Brigadoon shares the appropriate information (IP address, time) with law enforcement officials who attempt to recover the machine.

Since PC PhoneHome is designed to be undetectable, there is no sure way for a user to verify that it is running. The installer finishes silently, not stating implicitly that installation is complete.

If you want to remove PC PhoneHome from your laptop, contact the CUIT Computing Support Center to make an appointment to bring your machine to 102 Philosophy Hall. If you cannot come to campus, or if your machine is not a laptop, notfity the Support Center of that and a technician will contact you to assist in removing the product.

If your machine is stolen, you should notify Columbia Public Safety immediately and inform them that you have installed PC PhoneHome. Public Safety contact information is available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/publicsafety/contactus.html

Installation Tips

If you have problems installing PC PhoneHome, you should review these possible solutions:

Please note that the installation does not report successful completion. After double-clicking on the installer, you will see a small black window pop up and disappear. If you do not receive an error message, this means that the installation completed successfully.
You must be logged in to Windows NT, 2000 or XP as an Administrator or with Administrator permissions before you can complete the installation.