As I just stated in Norwegian my laptop was stolen from me the 19. December 2008 from my car while I was out delivering some Christmas presents. I know its probably lost forever, but I can’t help wonder if there is a possibility to track down my laptop. I have done a quick google search for what others are offering, and I see that you can use software like adeona to track it down, but this requires that you install adeona before your laptop is stolen, and also that the hard drive does not get wiped out before usage. Well, it’s probably better than nothing.

My laptop did not have adeona installed, and I used Ubuntu, so most people would wipe out the hard drive before usage anyway, is there still any way to track down my stolen laptop?

Yes. There is. How? I’ll tell you, there are many ways… The case is that even though each method only increases the chance of tracking down stolen computers, all ways all together could make a difference.

Lets start off with this important fact that almost all laptops have a onboard network interface card with an unique address, called media access control or MAC-address. Additionally most laptops also have a wireless network interface card, with the same kind of address.

There are some complications. First of all, this MAC-address can be spoofed by software, or a wireless NIC can be replaced. Another issue is that the MAC-address can not be read from outside your LAN-segment.

I guess its about time to get to work on this then.

I do need some help here. Since I’m not the only one loosing my laptop I’m sure that many of you out there wants to help me. We need a couple of things.

We need a list over stolen computers and their MAC-addresses. If your laptop is already stolen you can find this address in a couple of ways:

Your DHCP server could hold the address, have a look at your router or other DHCP server. Look for MAC-address or Unique Identifier. Unless you had a spoofed MAC-address you will be listed here. Get help from your local system administrator if needed. I can also help you if you feel lost, just ask me a question here.

Your reseller of your laptop could hold a register of your MAC-address. Check with them.

Your system documentation may contain your MAC-addresses.

If your computer is not stolen yet, you should take a note of your addresses right now. You could also get yourself a copy of adeona, if the case should be that your hard drive is not wiped out before usage when its stolen.

We need a lot of different software. Most of it I have given a thought or two the last couple of days, but it takes time to write everything down, and implement it all will take even longer. Give me a hand please.

• A database holding both stolen and other laptops.
• A page with the possibility to register your laptop.
• Software to get hold of the real MAC-address locally
• Software to get the given MAC-address remotely (within LAN-segment). I will get back to how this can be done, if nobody beats me to it…
• Media coverage
• People running our software, like computer repairshops, system administrators and others

This is not over yet. I have a lot of stuff to write down about each of the methods of tracking down a stolen laptop. Let me know if you have anything to add or if you can help out in any way.