Help Needed Urgently Laptop And Jewellery Worth Thousands STOLEN!!!

biddy79uk

when you got in touch with the police
why dont you ask them to look on CCTV in the area
your car was,might find something,
just a thought

teenage_Drama

There was 1 side of a bus garage where we parked the car

In theory, it could be trackable..(thinking out aloud here..)

If you use a router..

The odds are they will switch it on and connect to the internet at some point..

That will leave an ip trace, especially if you use messenger, skype, email etc..

It will also leave a trace with microsoft, when it does a windows update.

Even if they wipe it, and reinstall windows, it will also leave a trace with microsoft.

If they put linux on, (which is unlikely), then there's not much to trace.

The problem you have is that the authorities and microsoft are unlikely to help you.. but technically I reckon that all stolen windows laptops could be tracked down when connected to the internet if the will was there.

If you have friends with messenger, then when it connects to the internet (unwiped), then they should be able to tell, and maybe track the ip for you.

I dont really understand this, how can they track down the IP address? And yes i did use a router on the laptop which my PC is also connected to.

albertross_2

Every time a PC is plugged into the internet, the ip address is logged at the isp with the time, that info is available to the police, as is every email correspondent, website visited etc... The Ip address is directly linkable to an address. So, if the will was there, the police could find it.

Microsofts product authentication logs amongst other things the mac address of the ethernet card, to uniquely identify the PC, match that to the ip address, match the ip address to a broadband user, and you've got the criminal (or the new owner)... even if the windows was wiped, this would still work ( if the will was there from the authorities.)

Not sure about messenger, as I don't use it, but if it works in a peer to peer mode, directly communicating from one ip address (your friends), to another (the criminals), then when they connect to the internet, it will popup on your friends PC, and then you can use a sniffer, or tcpview, netstat to find out the ip address of the new owner, record the time, and again, if the will was there, the police could easily link this to a home address.. If it doesn't work in a peer to peer fashion, and communicates via Microsoft servers, then they would be able to track the ip. If you change your messenger password, then this method won't work.

sco0ter

The time scale involved here would be weeks though.... Unless messenger is used and they log into your MSN account then I dont see any other way for them to obtain an IP address. Unless you have stored your bank account details and they try to access that account. Your only problem is that obtaining this information would have to be done legally so therefore the police would need to send a letter to your bank/MSN and request the IP address. They would then have to send a letter to the ISP requesting an account holder address and name. By the time this is done it could be a few weeks and the laptop could have changed hands a few times.

As for microsoft... according to thier records... How would they know what was your laptop to begin with..... They dont collect any information that can be used to identify you so therefore wouldnt have a clue about what comp was yours.

Dont really understand about the router comment.... If you use a router then there is no account information stored on the comp its all in the router logon so its not as if it would try to authenticate.

biddy79uk

doesnt the police only use this in certain high crimes
if they need to check out what certain people (i.e) perverts-murderers etc
have been upto if this is needed to be done
i no what you are saying is all well but;
i truly believe they have no interest in tracing lost/stolen lap-tops;
even though we all no YES they could trace down where it is
internet service provider and microsoft and the police just seem
to have more important things to do.
SAD BUT TRUE

sco0ter

I dont see it either... Only today I heard some bank employee had his laptop stolen about 10 weeks ago with sensitive information on it and they never found that... this has also happened to MP's and Police chiefs and I have never heard of any being recovered. If they cant do it for them then Im afraid you will just have to hope they get caught trying to sell it or they dump it and someone hands it in...

biddy79uk

sco0ter wrote:

I dont see it either... Only today I heard some bank employee had his laptop stolen about 10 weeks ago with sensitive information on it and they never found that... this has also happened to MP's and Police chiefs and I have never heard of any being recovered. If they cant do it for them then Im afraid you will just have to hope they get caught trying to sell it or they dump it and someone hands it in...

basically,,,, exactly.all you can do is pray ime affraid:beer:

albertross_2

Please note my thinking out aloud comment, I said no it couldn't be traced initially, then thought about it a bit, so I'm speculating a bit here..

The router comment was because if the op had a broadband modem, then the new owner wouldn't be able to authenticate to TD's isp, but may be able to authenticate to messenger and email, and at that point the ip is traceable by the isp.

Microsoft may say they don't record any personally identifiable info, but that doesn't mean they don't record the ip, and the hardware is identifiable, because otherwise WPA wouldn't work. The op's mac address may be recorded in their router, or by Dell, but even if it wasn't the tag no is known to the OP, and I think that is part of the WPA info recorded by Microsoft.

I agree , I don't think the police could care less about a stolen laptop, but whether they should investigate it is a different matter. The timescales and paperwork involved are an internal organisational matter, all this stuff is routinely recorded by computer systems, and is available to them if they want it.

chirpy007

Could l ask why you had £3000 worths of uninsured jewellery in your boot.

do you not have house insurance with cover for away from the home

Bossyboots

chirpy007 wrote:

Could l ask why you had £3000 worths of uninsured jewellery in your boot.

do you not have house insurance with cover for away from the home

Would it be covered though as it was left in a car boot.