Solved! Can police find laptop by using Mac address??

[gprasad508]

My laptop and mobile has been stolen ....can police find my laptop by using Mac address??

 

[rgd1101]

No. mac address are not broadcast

 

[Dave8671]

If you had icloud active you can track it

https://support.apple.com/explore/find-my-iphone-ipad-mac-watch

 

[TwoDigital]

No. mac address are not broadcast

Technically, they ARE but they're not going to show up beyond your local network as IPs are tunneled and NATted. Here's part of my local ARP table on my workstation and you can see a section of the network-bound MAC addresses...

192.168.1.100 f4-0f-24-95-f4-cb dynamic
192.168.1.101 80-e6-50-01-78-a8 dynamic
192.168.1.103 dc-a4-ca-5f-26-4f dynamic
192.168.1.109 00-15-5d-41-90-03 dynamic
192.168.1.113 00-22-2c-80-8a-3b dynamic
192.168.1.116 c8-3a-6b-1a-80-bd dynamic
192.168.1.117 00-15-5d-41-90-02 dynamic
192.168.1.119 60-a4-4c-a7-3d-6d dynamic
192.168.1.120 7c-bb-8a-87-20-fc dynamic
192.168.1.121 d0-03-4b-40-a3-90 dynamic
192.168.1.124 4c-34-88-e7-0c-d9 dynamic
192.168.1.134 08-66-98-a0-46-9d dynamic

 

[lucaswyrm]

Well, In These Cases Police Are Mostly Useless, Because Those Thieves Can Dismantle Your Stolen Things And Sell Them... Just Report That Some One Stole Your Laptop And Phone, Specify How It Looked Like, When You Lost It... And Maybe With Hope They Can Catch That Thief..

 

[captaincharisma]

MAC addresses can also be spoofed so if the thief knew what they were doing (unlikely) they could find a way to mask the original mac address when they connect it to the internet.

more info about MAC spoofing can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_spoofing