Recovering a Stolen Laptop

[udit99]

I recently got a laptop stolen and using my college's IT Department have traced down the MAC address associated with it. Is there any way to trace the Laptop if it is connected to the Internet?

We have only 4 ISPs in this area and Im pretty sure that the thief is from this area, can ISPs act on a police report and alert\record any computer logging in to their domain with that specific MAC Address ?

Would it be helpful to just give out the MAC Address on the Internet and put out a reward for finding it and let hackers do the rest, assuming its possible to do it ?

[dglienna]

It's too easy to spoof a MAC address, and you would probably not have much luck finding it. You could try, though.

My HP has a feature that once it's registered, it can be reported stolen, so that when it has been, I think it gets deactivated the first time it goes on the Internet. I'm not too sure about it, though.