My son's laptop was recently stolen. He bought it while on active duty in the Army so we could communicate. He'll be leaving for Iraq soon... :(
Is there any way to track a stolen laptop? He seems to think there's some way with his Ethernet card or IP but I am not hopeful. There was no previously loaded software to track the device. Just a shot in the dark but I'd love to catch the guy who took it (and we believe we know who he is). We waited over 5 hours for the police to show up to take a report, but since there was no forced entry, it wasn't urgent to them. They never did show up.
Many thanks if anyone can think of anything at all!
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Of course there would be no harm in letting it slip that it was fitted with a tracking device. It may at least give you some satisfaction that if your suspicions are correct it won't be used by anyone who thought this was the case ;)
http://www.laptopretriever
Good point, MACs can be used to identify machines on a network using a variety of "sniffer" programs & Callandor has rightly identified the problems using this to trace machines.
Even if the network connection allows access to the Net, once the connection leaves the network to the outside world this identity is in all practical terms lost. I guess the laptop would have been using a dial out connection anyway & the modem card for this would have no unique identity.
If it wasn't firewalled it would be possible to sniff out the MAC via the IP address but the time involved (hacking!) and lack of targetting (unless you knew who the suspect machine was connected to and the IP they were using) would make it impractical to search for it.
So you're saying if the laptop is plugged into a different home per se.... then it would not be traceable? My son had RoadRunner. Sorry if I sound dumb, I'm a Word geek, not hardware and IPs and such ....I am really ignorant when it comes to stuff like this.
He has the IP address...but I take it that would change depending on where the PC was plugged into. And he never had "remember password" enabled but I truly appreciate your reminding us to check that.
If you use a dial up connection then each time you connect to the internet your ISP leases you an IP from their collection, pretty much different everytime. They can trace you because they know your account/password and where you're dialing from; this info is stored by the ISP's login system. If there is some problem with hacking etc then they can trace who's IP was the source & law enforcement agencies can get this info in cases of serious computer crime.
If the PC is set always to ask for a password then the account cannot be used but emails already downloaded could be read & occasionaly I have found people putting all their confidential info in a Word file (helpfully called something like 'passwords') which is on the hard drive as - after all - no one else will be using the computer (!).
It would do no harm to email RoadRunner & let them know what's happened but as it's unlikely anyone would try to use the account they may be unable to help. As I said earlier the most likely scenario is that the laptop drive has been wiped & reinstalled & as such is pretty much untraceable other than by physically identifying markings on the case.
[>>Sorry if I sound dumb<< - the only dumb questions are the ones people don't ask]
Hello,
Did your son register the laptop with the manufacturer? If he did just report it to the manufacturer companies like compaq, dell, and toshiba track that sort of thing, they will even list it as stolen/ if anyone tries to take it into a repair shop or call technical support it would be flagged.
Sorry to hear about the stolen laptop.
Yes if your son's notebook was registered it will increase the odds of him getting it back safely, especially if the person who took it ever attempts to upgrade or repair the machine.
In the future you may want to consider this solution:
http://www.laptrak.com
Business Accounts
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by: MASQUERAIDPosted on 2004-07-10 at 08:32:35ID: 11519334
Pretty unlikely I'm afraid.
There are some tracking systems that have been developed but they require hardware (rather than software) to be installed before the machine is taken. Chances are the harddrive will have been wiped so any identifying software will have been lost but your son should ensure that any internet accounts have their passwords changed to prevent access from "remembered" passwords in Windows. Also their email account will almost certainly be vulnerable and they should contect their ISP to change this too. ISPs in theory could track the phone number used to dial into their account if anyone was foolish enough to do this with a stolen PC but you would have difficulty wringing this information out of them
Frustrating as it is I think you have to accept it has gone. Your next step should be damage limitation if there is any exploitable information on it, especially if there are credit card or other details stored.