That's where the police got the address from. They went to the house that the IP address belonged to but it was an older couple with no kids and the detective stopped investigating there. My sister went to the area and discovered the open access point and saw her computer on the network. I'm not trying to scam anyone, not even sure where a story like this would become a scam. I just want to help her get her laptop back. Instead of questioning the story, can we put our brains together and form something fool proof for tracking what would be a rouge device on an open access point? She's not tech savvy and I haven't done this before so it is very difficult for me to help her. I could probably do it myself if I were there, but that's not possible right now.
Can someone at least recommend a good cheap usb wifi adapter that a directional antenna can be hooked up to. The wifi adapter also needs to work in promiscuous mode for sniffing packets/wifi networks. Are cantennas (made from pringle cans) directional or omni-directional?
Thanks,
Tim