Can a stolen laptop be tracked? Help please.

[JonathanD]

A friend at school had his laptop stolen. I was thinking about it and

can't it be tracked by its IP address...or is an IP address just telling the place the computer is accessing the net through?

Thanks for your help. I doubt we will find it...but maybe.
Jonathan

[fenderhutz]

The only unique identifier is a serial number and MAC address. Good luck tracking it. No one really tracks that info.

Most IP's are dynamic and always change.

If he had Lo-Jack installed on the PC if the thief was dumb enough to use it without reformatting once the machine got on the internet it can track the machine at that point.

[TrooperFarva]

My senior year of college, just before graduation, someone in my year stole a bunch of computers from one of the schools computer lab. He was caught, because he used at least one of the computers on the school network, after it was stolen. The campus IT people knew the MAC addresses of the computers, and that's how they found him.

But he was using computers on their network, that's the key. Most people don't have access to network resources like that.

[Vince S.]

Originally Posted by TrooperFarva

My senior year of college, just before graduation, someone in my year stole a bunch of computers from one of the schools computer lab. He was caught, because he used at least one of the computers on the school network, after it was stolen. The campus IT people knew the MAC addresses of the computers, and that's how they found him.

But he was using computers on their network, that's the key. Most people don't have access to network resources like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTpywWO4G4

[eedre]

Originally Posted by JonathanD

A friend at school had his laptop stolen. I was thinking about it and

can't it be tracked by its IP address...or is an IP address just telling the place the computer is accessing the net through?

Thanks for your help. I doubt we will find it...but maybe.
Jonathan

Right, you, yourself, can't track a PC by an IP address - they change dynamically unless you own it.

If you happened to know the MAC address - you can track that, but it's still hard to when it's being used.

[Valerus]

Originally Posted by Vince S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTpywWO4G4

Nice!

[theshadow2001]

To be honest I think a much better solution is to put a self destruct into phones and computers. Because lets face it once it's gone it's gone. The likely hood of seeing a stolen laptop or phone again is really unlikely.

So if the device is stolen. Through some remote means you activate a self destruct in the device rendering it completely useless. Sending a nice two fingers to the thief.

[RWP]

Originally Posted by Vince S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTpywWO4G4

If he really DID have this data on the thief why not just go get him? Sounds like he really has nothing.

[jsbass]

The IP is the Internet Protocol address, it's not attached to the PC. Whenever it gets plugged into a different internet source, the IP changes. So good luck finding it that way.

[tplyons]

IP address is dynamic and changes often. Only the MAC address is static, and it's directly linked to the network adapter. No way of changing that.

However, nobody really traces those.

Shoulda considered LoJack for computers.

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by Vince S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTpywWO4G4

That was a very eloquent bluff.

[IanStephenson]

The MAC address is the thing you can track, but it relies on the thief being dumb enough to log into the school net work again. It's only used on the local network, so you can't use it to find the machine on the internet. On the other hand if it was stolen by a student, maybe they will fire it up on campus, and it'll hook into the wireless network?

There is software to scan a network for a particular mac address (google for "mac scanner arp") which would tell you when the machine is connected (it uses "arp" - run "arp -a" on a Mac/Unix to see the results), but probably can't tell you much more. You don't need special access rights to do this, as all machines need to be able to see the Mac addreses to use the network. However they IT guys could set something more advanced up to tell you WHERE on the network it's being used (and scan all areas of the network automaticaly).

It's a long shot...

Ian

[theshadow2001]

Originally Posted by IanStephenson

The MAC address is the thing you can track, but it relies on the thief being dumb enough to log into the school net work again. It's only used on the local network, so you can't use it to find the machine on the internet. On the other hand if it was stolen by a student, maybe they will fire it up on campus, and it'll hook into the wireless network?

There is software to scan a network for a particular mac address (google for "mac scanner arp") which would tell you when the machine is connected (it uses "arp" - run "arp -a" on a Mac/Unix to see the results), but probably can't tell you much more. You don't need special access rights to do this, as all machines need to be able to see the Mac addreses to use the network. However they IT guys could set something more advanced up to tell you WHERE on the network it's being used (and scan all areas of the network automaticaly).

It's a long shot...

Ian

Once they have the MAC. The allocated IP address for the duration of the time it's on the network could tell you where it's being used roughly

[JonathanD]

Thanks for the mostly bad news guys
Maybe the thief will be dumb enough to use it on campus for a long long long time at the same place.
Jonathan

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by theshadow2001

To be honest I think a much better solution is to put a self destruct into phones and computers. Because lets face it once it's gone it's gone. The likely hood of seeing a stolen laptop or phone again is really unlikely.

So if the device is stolen. Through some remote means you activate a self destruct in the device rendering it completely useless. Sending a nice two fingers to the thief.

Or removing a nice two fingers off the thief