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Let say, I'm next to a network and can see the traffic (with airodump or similar tool) but can not decipher it (because I am not connected on the network). Is it possible to discover the public ip address of the network ?

I know the MAC address of the users connected on the network but do I know the one of the router ? If yes, maybe there is a way to do the matching. I know IP addresses are not forever but some addresses are static and never change. Maybe there is a database of MAC address having recorded that. Google has a database that match MAC address and geographical coordinates so why not with IP addresses ?

Other idea, if I know where am I, I can maybe guess the IP range used in the city by the ISP (is it findable ?) and then try to "ping" each IP on the range (if it is a /24, it's possible, even /16 maybe). Will I get some information like the MAC of the box or see some traffic on the network ?

These are two ideas I had. I don't know if they are doable, certainly not perfect. Do you think of some others ? By trying several methods, maybe I can get a guess with a bit of luck.

Thank you

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  • MAC addresses are Ethernet and Wifi things, not Internet things. So, no, you can't make a map of locations to MAC addresses and you can't get the MAC address of a device you ping. MAC addresses are LAN things, not WAN things. If you ping a host on the Internet, the source MAC address of the ping reply will be whatever put that packet on the wire/air to you (typically, your router).
    – David Schwartz
    Jun 4, 2012 at 16:54
  • Ok that's what I thought but I wanted to be sure if there was anyway no way to achieve it. Thank you
    – Martin Trigaux
    Jun 6, 2012 at 14:21

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If you are within the range of this network, why not just connect to it? Ask the network owner to provide you with the credentials and network settings you need and you're good to go. Working your way around a network security will only cause you headache, not to mention that it's illegal.

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  • I don't want to connect to it (which would be indeed illegal), I just want to know it's IP address.
    – Martin Trigaux
    Jun 4, 2012 at 12:23
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    Why would you want to know the IP address if you don't plan to connect to the network?
    – Samir
    Jun 4, 2012 at 12:37
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    @MartinTrigaux It sounds like what you're wanting to do is also illegal, or at the very least unethical. Consider removing your question.
    – kevlar1818
    Jun 4, 2012 at 12:37
  • What I want is to know, assuming some service is running on the network and is accessible from the outside, is somebody able to access to it ? It is not about penetration on the network but discovery. I'm doing researches and want to know the consequence of running self hosting services. Nothing illegal but related to security indeed.
    – Martin Trigaux
    Jun 4, 2012 at 15:01
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To close this question. After researches and as mentioned by David, it seems to have no reliable way to do so.

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