tracking cell phone's physical location?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › tracking cell phone's physical location?

higsby

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#8384 25-Jun-2006 22:00

hmm on the nz vodafone network, is there any way to track the location of a mobile phone with just the phone number and your computer? (ie, the location of the cell site the phone is currently in range with)

because i've heard that you can on overseas networks such as the uk through the internet.

it'd be pretty cool if you could

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#39605 25-Jun-2006 22:20

This is not available on Vodafone. GSM phones don't have this feature, and in general is a small client on the handset that sends current cellsite to a server that will provide this information at a charge.

On CDMA networks some mobile phones have built-in GPS, and some operators have location servers that receive information from this assisted GPS built into some handsets and provide the services. This is not available on Telecom New Zealand at the moment.

Also, there are privacy implications, and users would have to opt-in or explicitly allow someone to track their whereabouts.

inane

216 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#39607 26-Jun-2006 00:45

in some respects yes.

I have been told that the location setting service will be available eventually.
however this could all just be hearsay.

I have more I'll write hear when I have the use of my brain.

simon14

1889 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#39610 26-Jun-2006 01:04

What about on TV, how the police track where the bad guy is by his cell phone signil??? Cant this be done in NZ?

retardinator

114 posts

Master Geek

#39611 26-Jun-2006 04:47

simon_nz90: What about on TV, how the police track where the bad guy is by his cell phone signil???

Are you referring to a series that was on TV 2 for awhile where they rigged up a car to be knicked then they tracked that car down once it was stolen?

I think they used GPS to do that...

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#39617 26-Jun-2006 09:04

simon_nz90: What about on TV, how the police track where the bad guy is by his cell phone signil??? Cant this be done in NZ?

Either because the guy is using a CDMA network in the USA where this information is available (note there's a requirement for 911 calls to be able to find a person calling from a mobile phone, but this is not in full force yet), or they are triangulating, where they can see the signal in multiple towers, and calculate approximate position based on time and angle of arrival of a signal.

Anything else is part of the collection of unbelievable stuff they have on movies, like using an iPAQ LCD as a fingerprint scanner (Jason Bourne did it on The Bourne Supremacy for example).

psychrn

1603 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#39619 26-Jun-2006 09:46

I believe the Police can track you using a cellphone if they wish-they have to deal with the telco and they have agreements to do this.
They use the method Mauricio has just mentioned-ie Triangulation.

Heres an interesting little article based on the technology.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060605/tc_nf/43561

GZMCC. Lenovo Yoga C640. 8 gb Ram and 256Gb SSD, Cam Am Spyder 2016 F3 LTD. GoPro 5 Black, Samsung S22 Ultra, Huawei Watch D. Samsung S6 Lite Tablet, Amateur Radio Callsign ZL1CJH

STI

239 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#39629 26-Jun-2006 10:44

This is off topic, but I thought hp ipaq 5450 has a built in fingerprint scanner.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#39644 26-Jun-2006 12:14

It does. But the one used on the movie does not. And they used the full LCD to scan a print on the wall. The fingerprint scanner on a h4150 is pretty much like the ones used in laptops, where you have to swipe your finger over it.

inane

216 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#39646 26-Jun-2006 12:30

psychrn: I believe the Police can track you using a cellphone if they wish-they have to deal with the telco and they have agreements to do this.
They use the method Mauricio has just mentioned-ie Triangulation.

Heres an interesting little article based on the technology.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060605/tc_nf/43561

it is interesting really,

however in days gone by, people would speak to their neighbours and shop owners more, and generally knew where and what their kids were up to anyway...

I know people who have a 7 year old at a primary school where, they tried to ban mobile phones, but there was an outrage,

not from the students, but from the parents, so that they could get in touch with their kids.

now as "pro-technology" as I am, when I was at primary school, and my mum needed to contact me or pick me up, she would just go to the school, and get me.

or ask the school to pass a message.

anyway thats a little off topic,

as for tracking a cell phone, its reasonably simple physics, which gets easier the more cell towers in range.

higsby

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#39705 26-Jun-2006 19:28

hmm even without cdma or gps technology, would it not be possible to find a person's phone merely by looking at which cell site the phone is operating in? and how large is the radius of a cell site? surely you could tell if somebody was within a howick cell, while someone else was in an ellerslie cell?

nzbnw

2374 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#39759 26-Jun-2006 23:28

higsby: hmm even without cdma or gps technology, would it not be possible to find a person's phone merely by looking at which cell site the phone is operating in? and how large is the radius of a cell site? surely you could tell if somebody was within a howick cell, while someone else was in an ellerslie cell?

With out CDMA 46% of NZ mobile users would vanish

I'm sure the operator can do this, but will only supply to the police etc not to the general public.

I'm sure the radius of a cell site will vary depending on the terrain.

Cheers

joe5600

94 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#39765 27-Jun-2006 01:40

just a question this is on the same lines as what everyone else is talking about on my sanyo 5600 i have an option called location that say's if i turn it off it will hide my location from the network and if i turn it on it will show my location to the network
does anyone no anything about this? does it work

i just wanted to bring this up cos i think it is on the same line's as tracking

bennie

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#39783 27-Jun-2006 10:10

There is an application out there for the .NET CF that runs on iMate sp3 smartphones (GSM network) this reads the cell tower ids and signal strengths. Unfortunatly there is no publically available database to allow you to match these cell tower ids to a GPS location.

In other countries Microsoft has agreements with the telcos and uses Map Point web services that you can send your cell strengths to and it will tell you where you are.

ash3rr

55 posts

Master Geek

#41014 13-Jul-2006 23:42

Anythings possible. I'm sure of it.
Would it be legal? ah, probably not... You should ask this question on a "phreaking" forum though, not here...

The thing the show on tv used, re tracking stolen cars. That doesn't rely on the phone for tracking but on the gps, which is attached to the mobile phone and which sends a text message with the longtitude, latitude coordinates to some other number.