TechIdiots Forum

My house was burglarized and I believe it was an inside job by somebody in the building. Among other stolen items my HP laptop was taken, which I believe might still be being used in the building, and I have the MAC address. (It was a new laptop, and no security software was enabled.) I downloaded Vistumbler and I'm seeing other WiFi MAC addresses in my vicinity, but I think what I'm viewing is the MAC address of the router, and not the MAC addresses of the individual computer or laptops connecting them to the network? Is there a way to get the MAC addresses of the laptops or computers connecting through the AP? What happens when the laptop isn't turned on, or when they're connecting to the router through an Ethernet cable? What else can I do?

Thanks for your help.

When you use Vistumbler you are seeing the mac addresses of other routers. The only time you would see a laptop mac address is if the computer had an adhoc connection set up.

Unfortunatly vistumbler probably won't help you with this one. You might be able to use something like backtrack and airodump, I think this shows the client associations ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUPw15m-6uM )

Have you already checked to see if it is still associated with your router? I know in my linksys router it lists wireless clients that are connected and their signal strength. If it still shows as connected, you will know its close.