hey folks - is there any way to find a CPU by the IP address it last sent results from? my laptop was stolen a few days ago and i'd interested to learn if boinc could be an avenue that might help track it down.

Yes, that's been done before.
You can track the IP address in Your Account, Computers on this account, on the project(s) you are attached to. If, at least, the HDD hasn't been formatted and the laptop is in use and BOINC is still allowed to run.

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There's even a dedicated wiki page about it: [trac]wiki:StolenComputers[/trac]. If you manage to recover it, please post your experience.

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Thanks so much for that fantastic lead! I was allowing boinc to run all the time, so if the numnutzes who stole my laptop ever go online, I'll be able to track it on the spot thanks to your tips. Sadly, no results have been uploaded since the time of the theft, so they may well have reformatted the drive. In any event, I now have a much tighter window on when the break-in occurred, so that's worth something.

Thanks again for the information, folks. These forums are an incredible resource!