track a lost laptop

[bwanaaa]

laptop stolen. i have its mac address. can it be tracked?

 

[JackMDS]

If someone that shares a private Network with you "took" it, running a Network scanner that reads MAC addresses can reveal if the Laptop is used by someone else.

Otherwise, I doubt that you can do any thing about it.


😎

 

[JimKiler]

How would you find that MAC address? Lojack for laptops will sync with servers so you could get it retrieved but that costs money in annual fees.

Also with the MAC address i assume if you were to scan the entire internet you would find identical MAC addresses but I am too lazy to research the likelihood of that happening to know if it is a true issue or not.

 

[imagoon]

MAC address is a layer 2 tech and is unrouteable. There is no way to scan the Internet for it. The only way to track it would be third party software that was already running on the machine when it was stolen.

 

[mc866]

I realize this is after the fact but check out Absolute Software to protect yourself in the future.

 

[Emulex]

iirc it was like $50 more for computrace professional which is darn near impossible to remove.

 

[stlcardinals]

Just commenting on Absolute:

We used it at my former employer, they will hook you during the sale presentation that if a laptop is stolen, you will be able to perform a remote wipe of the hard drive. Plus, you also have a $1000 guarantee that if they do not find your laptop within so many days, you get your money back.

We had three laptops stolen during my time there. We didn't get any of them back.
After the first one was stolen, I went to perform the remote wipe and found out that the remote wipe would cancel the $1000 guarantee. I think we only got a check for one of the laptops because we could not supply better proof of ownership on the laptops (that one is on the accounting department).