[AnnaRek]

I'm not sure where to post it but i have one question. If someone sent you an email is there any way of finding out their IP or MAC address just by using that email??

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[hfcg]

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[sari]

Why do you need to know this information? If you don't know the sender of the email, then is it a spammer, or someone who is harassing you? Or do you have some other reason for trying to find this out?

[AnnaRek]

Well I had my laptop stolen a few months ago. I'm still very bitter about it, I just cant stand the fact that someone just wanted to take it so they did. Anyways, I dont know how but I am very determined to find it on the net using IP address or MAC address. The problem is, I never written it down (any of the addresses), now I'm trying to brain storm and figure out how i can find it out. I also posted the same topic on another forun, one of the users replied:

Its not going to be on any of the data discs you made, and im 99% sure its not going to be in the documentation either, you've got no chance im afraid my friend. To get the MAC address of the suspected laptop you would somehow have to get his public ip (either from forum logs or whatever) and then somehow compromise his LAN security to run a scan of the local subnet and check all the arp requests and replies.
__________________

As I have been posting on various forum using my old laptop i asked him to give me some more information on how to do it, but he said that would be agains the forum rules. Could anyone on here give some hints or anything? I am aware that all this stuff is a bit tricky and suspicious, but I'd like to note that I'm trying to track MY computer, the one i paid for and have rites to own. Thanks in advance

[dsenette]

what you're wanting to do is completely impossible....unless of course you're EXTREMELY high up in the NSA or CIA...EVEN IF you did know the MAC address of the computer...you'd never be able to find it (there's no way to trace MAC addresses on the internet without a high level search warrant and the cooperation of the ISP they are using)...and even IF you were lucky enough to somehow know the public ip that is associated with the internet connection they'd be using...the likelyhood of that being a static assignment is low....and you'd still need one of those fancy search warrants to find them

the probability that the person who stole your laptop actually still has it in their possession is EXTREMELY low...they probably pawned it within hours of taking it

[AnnaRek]

Well at the moment i'm just trying to gain as much information about all this as possible and then i will be worrying about how to put it all together. I'm just really determined to find it and frankly, i couldnt care less about whos got it now, it belongs to me

[Tal]

You won't be able to pinpoint the laptop even if you have the IP address, like dsenette said. You'll be able to find out the user's ISP and perhaps the city, too, but not much more. Getting a search warrant is very difficult. ISPs don't hand out this kind of information easily.

[AnnaRek]

i know someone in IT who may be helpful in this case, so can anyone please give me some concrete details? thanks

[hfcg]

If some one has your laptop how do you know what e-mail they are sending?
How do I know that you are not a stalker planning violence on some one once you find them?
In reality, you are not going to get a warrent to access the information, so let the police handle the thieft.

[AnnaRek]

I wouldnt know what emails they are sending but I do know what emails I HAVE SENT from my laptop. I have 2 email accounts and sometimes i was sending emails in between them for various reasons. you're rite, you dont know me and you dont know wether or not i am genuine with what i am saying, however if i never owned that laptop i wouldnt even know where to start with this all, i wouldnt have know what forums were accessed from it, what emails were sent from it or what discs were burnt on it etc. i have all the documentation from the laptop, if only i could find out the IP or MAC I can then prove that I am the owner, plus i have the service tag number and the laptp was reported as stolen to the police and Dell.

[AnnaRek]

and about the police, i let them handle it up until now (my laptop was stolen in August last year), not that they even bothered talking to my neighbours after i had a break in, they fingerprinted my house, found some prints and then when i called to find out about the results they didnt have any information in their system about my house ever being fingerprinted. talk about handling things ey?

[sari]

Since you're asking for information that we are not comfortable providing, then I suggest you ask your friend in IT. I'm closing this topic.