tracking a stolen t42?

Message

Mark01 · #1 Post by **Mark01** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 11:56 am

Hi,
Until last week thirsday, i was a proud owner of a thinkpad t42 which i had for four weeks. unfortunately, it has been stolen out of my car last thirsday evening

Today i contacted the ibm support in the Netherlands (where i live) and ask them if there is a possibility to track the stolen t42. After having the serial number etc. they told me that they can register the t42 as stolen and if somebody bring the laptop for reparation, it will be confiscated and send back to me.Wel i'm happy with that but, it may take a looong time since the thinkpads are wel konown for their robustness

I was thinking about this "Access IBM"application and was wondering if they can track the t42 via the access IBM connection and kind of bolt the laptop somehow, IS THIS POSSIBLE??

Mark

plucky duck · #2 Post by **plucky duck** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 11:58 am

Geez, that sucks. Sorry to hear.

Hangfire · #3 Post by **Hangfire** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 12:18 pm

Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear about your stolen T-42...

meightysix · #4 Post by **meightysix** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:26 pm

Yes, the laptop could be tracked... if you happened to have the wireless MAC address of it

.. All it would require would be a proper Kismet setup (laptop, wireless card, antenna, linux install with Kismet)... of course, this would probably not be feasible for a variety of reasons, but if you wardrive or know someone that does it is at least worth a try (maybe).

good luck on recovering it...

-meightysix

Mark01 · #5 Post by **Mark01** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:41 pm

tracking the laptop via a wireless device is an idea. But i was more thinking of tracking via the wired connection (access IBM). I noticed that a connection to IBM was accomplished each time ik start up my t42. I was talking with the IBM support and they told me that they could see it if the laptop is connected to internet (via IBM acces connection i suppose). If it was possible to deactivate / lock the laptop somehow (remotely via access IBM connection) so that they have to bring the laptop for reparation and than..... I don't know it's maybe some wishfull thinking but who knows

tselling · #6 Post by **tselling** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:30 pm

This is why I always set all the passwords on my Thinkpad... supervisor, power-on, and HD password. I want to make things as inconveniet for the thief as possible. I also set the HD master password to something other than the supervisor password. This means even if they get the supervisor password from one of those services... it won't unlock the HD.

apoll0 · #7 Post by **apoll0** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:58 pm

I'm sorry for your loss Mark...

For those of us who has not lost our laptop, is there some security chip in the market that we can embed in our laptop that has GPS? That would be cool!!

Guest · #8 Post by **Guest** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:42 pm

If this person had his laptop stolen a HD password would not benefit him. If the thief can't turn it on. He won't be able to connect to the internet and there would be no chance of getting the computer back. Correct?

Leon · #9 Post by **Leon** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:46 pm

well, it would benefit him cause his data would be safe!

admsteiner · #10 Post by **admsteiner** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:28 pm

Mark01 wrote:tracking the laptop via a wireless device is an idea. But i was more thinking of tracking via the wired connection (access IBM). I noticed that a connection to IBM was accomplished each time ik start up my t42. I was talking with the IBM support and they told me that they could see it if the laptop is connected to internet (via IBM acces connection i suppose). If it was possible to deactivate / lock the laptop somehow (remotely via access IBM connection) so that they have to bring the laptop for reparation and than..... I don't know it's maybe some wishfull thinking but who knows

I'm not sure tracking it via AccessIBM and MAC would be possible, wired or wirelessly. If I remember correctly (we didn't go very far in depth), the MAC address you'll see on a packet is only for the last address on the LAN. MAC addresses don't get used on inter-network connections (the MAC address found is usually for the switch or router that the packet last went through).

What IBM may be able to do is set up a flat for someone checking, via the web, the information on a particular laptop (serial number). That would give the IP, the ISP would have the location and/or MAC and that might give you a place to start...

dragius · #11 Post by **dragius** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 2:41 am

well whatever it is the assh#@e

can never bring back the lap top for any repair or even update on ibm website!

So far it is the only lap top thati know which has such features

tina · #12 Post by **tina** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 3:55 am

Do you still have the serial number of the stolen T42? Perhaps it would make sense to publish the serialnumber in the forum and other places on the internet.

ciao
tina

cjsuh · #13 Post by **cjsuh** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:11 pm

Read an article on CNN that reminded me of you. Hope this helps:

I bought my son a laptop. Is there something that would let us know where the laptop was if it were stolen?

There are programs that report the location of a stolen laptop. They work when the laptop connects to the Internet. By using this system, some programs claim to report the laptop's exact physical location and then work with law enforcement to recover it. Three companies that offer this service are CyberAngel (sentryinc.com, $60 annually), CompuTracePlus (computrace.com, $50 annually), and zTrace (ztrace.com, $50 annually).

Leon · #14 Post by **Leon** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:27 pm

Unfortunately, these companies require software to be loaded onto the laptop BEFORE it is stolen...and if a format is done of the hard drive the software would be gone anyway... I still think the best PREVENTATIVE measure is setting all passwords (laptop, supervisor, hard disk), and modifying the boot screen to reflect the fact that the laptop is unusable without them, and offering a no questions asked reward and contact information. Not too many people know about the services that remove the passwords, and in any case, I would notify all such services of my loss. BTW, does anyone know if the services that remove passwords actively solicit or welcome information on stolen laptops?

ryan · #15 Post by **ryan** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 3:47 pm

"I bought my son a laptop. Is there something that would let us know where the laptop was if it were stolen?"

call IBM and ask if it was.

"and if a format is done of the hard drive the software would be gone anyway"

not exactly true, any security/tracking program worth its salt will load itself onto a hidden partition/unallocated data area on the hd.

s0larian · #16 Post by **s0larian** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 4:51 pm

Perhaps you should checkout this link:

http://www.stolencomputers.org/

tracking a stolen t42?

tracking a stolen t42?

Serialnumber of stolen Thinkpad

Who is online