Finding my iPod Touch?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Finding my iPod Touch?

crikarika

80 posts

Master Geek

#30051 27-Jan-2009 18:25

Stolen iPod Touch 1st gen (without the volume control on the side)

My beloved iPod touch has been stolen, i'm on a mission to find it.

Do you have any idea how i could find it and get it back? I'm looking for a program that i can use to find all devices emitting a Wi-Fi signal. My idea is that because i live in a small town,if i look in the right places, there is a high chance i will find it.
Im also looking into IP address tracking, incase they use my email.So any recommendations on sites or programs that will, with high accuracy, track the IP Location.

I need all of your inventive ideas. no matter how crazy or time consuming, i'd rather spend time on finding my old iPod then money on buying a new one.

I'm 16 and from Taumarunui. And i love music. I hate those #$%^s who stole it, and i'm desperate to find it.

Don't let me down GeekZoners :D

[Moderator edit (MF): moved to appropriate forum]

LennonNZ

2459 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#192371 27-Jan-2009 20:49

If you knew the MAC address of the wifi on the Ipod Touch you could contact wireless providers and maybe get them to keep an eye on for it.
If they see it on their network you could contact the police for them to get search warrent for any information they have about the user connecting for the police to contact that person.

If the device has connected to the internet ask your ISP to see if the device has picked up email from it and then contact the police for them to look into who was using it.

There are many wifi scanners for linux http://wifiscanner.sourceforge.net/ for example which will find AP's and Clients but you'll need to know the MAC Address in the 1st place of your Touch to be able to identify it. Also you'll have to get pretty close to the client (remember wifi on a touch doesn't have much range)

Thanks

crikarika

80 posts

Master Geek

#192445 28-Jan-2009 11:14

Cheers, im looking into that program.

I just realised i haven't actually wroten down the MAC address, anyway to find it out? like using iTunes or something?
Thanks heaps for the feedback
CrikaRika

iainw

75 posts

Master Geek

#192887 30-Jan-2009 11:46

A few practical realities here - I would be very surprised if Taumaranui has a city wide wifi network.
The above mentioned methods rely on the thief actively connecting the iPod to a network.

An alternate assumes that iPod's wireless works in a similar way to Windows wireless - hopefully someone can answer this.

If you have created a connection on your iPod for a given access point, that iPod is constantly broadcasting beacon packets trying to see if that access point is there and available for connection. You can use software to create a false access point on a laptop, with a high gain directional antenna. When your iPod sees the signal from your laptop, it should automatically connect to you. Because you have a directional antenna, you can use this to pinpoint the physical location - if you point the antenna north and it connects, it has to be north of you etc...

Be aware that this is a little like looking for a needle in a haystack. Pringle can antennas are a good option here as you need a temporary cheap directional antenna.

This is a variant on a 802.11 hacking technique, so I would strongly advise being careful just what you do with it, the software in question has all sorts of options to do very illegal things.

crikarika

80 posts

Master Geek

#192936 30-Jan-2009 15:07

Yeah i have thought about using the Wi-Fi thing and thats going to be my best option, but i doubt im going to have the time. I might do the triangulation method when school starts up because im fairly sure it was a teen who stole it. Thanks for the suggestions, very helpful, but im getting a little hopless :(sad really because they are awesome gadgets.