Tracking a stolen Laptop

[TwistedPair]

I just came across this video, of this lecturer who'se laptop was stolen, he makes a series of bold statements about his ability to track the laptop down and I was wondering if it was all hype.

http://www.nearlygood.com/video/stolenlaptop.html

[girldemsuga]

i know Sony laptop has a feature like which is described in the video but it is a feature offer through Sony

[leoandru]

pppssh.. I think hes just bluffing trying to scare the person into handing over the laptop.

[girldemsuga]

that could be, he said that he knows that the laptop is still on campus, the only way i think they could have know that is if the DHCP or DNS table where check.
Other than from that, there is no way to know exactly where on the campus the laptop is.

[Raw Soul]

A router could log the MAC address of every client connecting through it. That way he can know if it is connected on the campus LAN.

[megiddo]

if its on campus and the router logs the mac and a smart switch logs the port, then theoretically u could use a cabling diagram and see where it is plugged in exactly. theoretically.

[leoandru]

cabling? what if it was wireless.

[-=KzR.Erasor=-]

u can know what access point it is connected to.
To me that seems limited, what if hes off campus and connected to the network via dialup?

[girldemsuga]

in the video, i he said that the person did not plug the laptop into the network, so the network connection was most like established wirelessly and by know which wireless router (access point) it connected to, they could have an ideal of the general area the laptop is located but not exactly where within that general area.
If he used a dial up connection, he is as good as caught.

[blackbeard]

if its on campus and the router logs the mac and a smart switch logs the port, then theoretically u could use a cabling diagram and see where it is plugged in exactly. theoretically.

but this is not fool hardy because you couldd spoof the Mac address of the laptop much like how you router can spoof the mac address of your computer to fool ISP's