Find MAC Address on Stolen Ipad

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My iPad was stolen from me, and my campus IT director told me that if I find the MAC address, he could locate it if it is still on the college's wireless network.

I tried calling apple but they said they couldn't give me the information, so then I unencrypted the iPad 2 backup on my computer to see if the MAC address was stored there.

Is there any way to get the MAC address from the serial number? I know it is hex code; does it represent anything?

W.
 

BrianLachoreVPI


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I wonder if you could find it by looking at the history on your wireless router?
 

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Depending on the router and how it's set up, the MAC address may have been stored in a list of recent clients. It may not be obvious which device it is in that list but you can record all the addresses down and compare them against other devices in the home.

You didn't happen to setup "Find my iPad" did you?
 
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I did look in the history of my wireless router, but for some reasons it only stores devices for about an hour, and by the time I realized it was stolen it was too late.

Vansmith, I did set up Find my iPad, but by the time I realized it was gone I couldn't locate it. I think whoever took it must have restored it immediately.
 

BrianLachoreVPI


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For an hour? Are you sure about that? That seems pointless to me. There's probably a logfile you can access somewhere?
 

BrianLachoreVPI


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Are you sure that the hex code you say you have - isn't actually the MAC Address itself?
 

vansmith

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What make and model is your router? I agree with BrianLachoreVPI - your router likely logs a list of connected devices for more than an hour.
 
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My router at home is a time capsule. Where should I look for the log?

I really appreciate the help, guys :) thanks.

BrianLachoreVPI: I don't have the hex code. I was just wondering if there was some way to derive it from the serial number or something.
 

vansmith

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As per this thread:

Open AirPort Utility, click Manual Setup
Clear the Advanced (gear) icon
Click the Statistics tab below the icons
Click Logs and Statistics
Logs, Wireless Clients and DHCP Clients are displayed
 

BrianLachoreVPI


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It shouldn't be hard to figure out which device is your iPad - especially if it has a name associated with it. :) Worst case - just look up the MAC address of all your devices that connect to the TC and by process of elimination you'll have your iPad's MAC address.
 

vansmith

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If it doesn't have the hostname (sometimes devices don't seem to get registered this way), compared the MAC addresses in that list to the devices on your network. You can get the MAC address for your network hardware with Network Utility (/Applications/Utilities) in OS X.

Having never used an Apple router (in any form), I have no idea how devices are registered (especially Apple devices) so it might be quite easy to differentiate the devices in the logs.
 
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Wycliffe I hope you get your Ipad back! Good info here and this reminds me to set up my find my ipad app soon. You always wonder if those Ipads on CL are stolen ones.
Doesn't Apple have a database for you to give them your serial number so they can check for stolen ones for sale or being fixed?
 

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Doesn't Apple have a database for you to give them your serial number so they can check for stolen ones for sale or being fixed?

I don't think so. A couple of years ago there were a few stories in various newspapers about the amount of stolen Apple gear. I seem to remember a few writers asking why this wasn't being done. Particularly for devices such as iPhone and iPod.
 

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