trace a notebook using it's network adaptor's mac address?

[ricochen]

something very bad just happened last night. My friends' house(basement) got broke in and someone wiped out their rooms taking away valuable stuffs including 2 notebook computers, which are connected to a wireless router on the second level of the house. Police came but it didn't help too much. I logged onto the wireless router and it still keeps a DHCP records for the device that's been connected to it. Their MAC addresses are
00:90:96:6f:fb:cb
and
00:0c:76:ca:b3:d4
Now I'm wondering if it's possible to trace those two notebooks through their wireless network adaptors' mac addresses to get their IP address if they got online again. Anybody got ideas about if there is such kind of software to do this job? Any answers and suggestions will be appreciated. You may contact me at xiakingc@hotmail.com. Thank you in advance for your time.
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/*Does it always take a longer time to find a shorter way?*/

[tuxmin]

Unfortunately with standard tools it is not possible to trace MAC addresses. The point with these is that you only know those on your subnet(s).
The ARP protocol (if properly implemented) will not resolve MAC addresses for IPs not in your subnet, as the initial broadcast won't cross your router.
The ethernet frame itself is changed from router to router. The Source address is kept but the destination address is exchanged by that of the next hop router. Only the IP frame is unchanged (well if you don't NAT).
So even if the stolen notebook would connect directly through the internet to your box you wouldn't know.

One little chance there is. As these MACs belong to wireless adapters you might do some wardriving in your neighborhood. The MACs aren't encrypted by WEP or what soever and tools like kismet work great if you only want to look for MACs.

Alex!!!
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[ricochen]

Thanks for reply, tuxmin
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/*Does it always take a longer time to find a shorter way?*/