Tracing a MAC-adress

[No-Dachi]

Does anyone know of a way to trace a MAC adress?

[Weeble]

Trace in what fashion? Over a network? Or are you trying to sniff a MAC address to gain access to a network?

[Azzer]

Yes, what MAC address are you after? One on your own PC? Your router's MAC address? Another PC in your local area network? The MAC address of another PC somewhere on the internet?

The answer depends entirely on where/what MAC address you are after!

[No-Dachi]

The MAC-address of my gf's stolen pc? ;p I think I can locate it either in some old logs, or possibly from her router(??)

And if I manage to find it, is there any point in reporting it to the network distributors here in Norway? (we only have like 2-3 major ones) Or is it a way I can set up a computer to sort of "ping"?

[BlackWolf]

Yes ISP:s can trace MAC adresses so if that whom stole it uses it on his own network ISP should be able to trace it to IP and to whom owns that connection.
In theory it is possible in reality im not so sure.

[Azzer]

You might be able to log on to your router and if it was fairly recent, check the "DHCP clients" table (that lists all the PC's connected to your router). Some router's will only display this "live" for PC's currently connected, but I know some routers will display data here for a long time after a PC was last "seen", and the MAC address is almost always listed there too.

Alternatively if you had set up wireless MAC address filtering (which you definitely should have if it was a wireless connection...!), then you'll simply be able to check the wireless mac filter list on your router again and every mac address you've ever allowed will be there.

Your own PC/other PC's on the network very likely won't have the MAC address anywhere, not unless you were in the habit of packet-sniffing and saved the logs or anything out of the ordinary like that :P

Your ISP (or the thief's ISP) would only have the PC's MAC address if it was connected directly to the modem - if it was connected to a router first, then the router will mask the MAC address from the ISP, and the ISP will only get the router's MAC address... so you may be stuck either way.

MAC addresses are usually considered secure/private, and there's all sorts of things to protect them from easily leaking out on to the internet - generally you need software installed/running on the PC itself to make it "reveal" it's MAC address, if it's not connected to your own local area network.

[No-Dachi]

Right. Thanks for your time and answers :)