Hi, I'm assuming that whne you saw your laptop logged on, you saw its MAC address. If that's the case, I do know of a method that you might be able to use to locate the laptop physically, but it can be a little tricky.
Certain wireless cards can operate in a "monitoring" mode (sometimes called RFMON) wherein the card will only receive wireless frames, but it will also pass any and all received frames to userspace (including management frames, which are normally trapped by the card firmware). While operating in this mode, most cards will report tack a special header onto the received frames that includes per-frame signal strength information. I don't know about Windows, but the Linux wireless framework makes it easy to place your card in monitoring mode, and then run 'tcpdump' or another program that can parse out the signal strength values coming from a particular station based on the MAC address. The per-frame signal strength measurements aren't very precise, and there can be a lot of variables in signal reception, but there is a strong correlation between the distance from the transmitter to the receiver and the reported signal strength. If you wander around with another laptop, watching a running gauge of the signal strength for the missing laptop, you can perform a rough triangulation. We call this the "Marco, Polo" method. You wander around listening to the wireless signal; when it grows stronger, you're heading toward the missing laptop, and when it gets weaker you're wandering away. I've used this method in audits to track down rogue access points, and to identify and locate unauthorized wireless clients. It can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially in offices and buildings where the walls and floors interfere with signal propagation, but it does work. If you want, drop me a line and I'll see if I can help you out. Hope you find the culprit. -Ryan B. Lynch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >identified stolen laptop - hlep >Hi, > >My apt. was burglarized last week and my new laptop was one of the many items >stolen. I've just purchased a new laptop and upon logging into the free wifi >network in my area, I saw that my laptop has logged on. This network signal is >extremely weak so the stolen laptop has to be in my building or the building >next to me. Is there any way to track/identify/locate my stolen laptop? > >Thanks, >-HL >-- >NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ >Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ >Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ > > > > -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
