Wireless Networking FAQ

Ah, thats a load off my mind. - This whole "switching to Mac" experience is quite daunting; but that was one of my biggest worries. Thanks for your reply.

CCH said:

Ah, thats a load off my mind. - This whole "switching to Mac" experience is quite daunting; but that was one of my biggest worries. Thanks for your reply.

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There's not much to it, really. You just need to do a bit of reading and accept that things will be a little bit different. Take your Windows hat off and put on your Mac hat.

Also, check out our Switcher's forum here.

firewall question

i have my nintendo wii connected wirelessly to my allumin imac, i do not use a router. my problem is how to do this without having to disable the mac firewall, it only works when the firewall is in effect disabled. if i had to buy a router what would you suggest, i am using virgin media 20mb. i am using wep security with a 5 digit code, is this secure enough, after all surely the signal from the mac is not powerful enough for my neighbours to pick up and why would they?

harryson0605 said:

i have my nintendo wii connected wirelessly to my allumin imac, i do not use a router. my problem is how to do this without having to disable the mac firewall, it only works when the firewall is in effect disabled. if i had to buy a router what would you suggest, i am using virgin media 20mb. i am using wep security with a 5 digit code, is this secure enough, after all surely the signal from the mac is not powerful enough for my neighbours to pick up and why would they?

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Again, you need to get a wireless router, period. I've owned both a Linksys WRT54G and a D-Link DIR-655, both models have been very good to me and I'd recommend either. The Linksys should run you about $50(US), the D-Link will likely be closer to $100(US).

Don't skimp on security. It's always better to be safe rather than sorry.

Quick Networking ?

So, here's the plan: My old iMac is being revived soon! I plan on upgrading it a bit (hopefully it truly can hold a gig of RAM!!) and turning it into a media server for my Powermac and the gf's macbook. What would be the easiest way to share files among the three computers? I'll be using a Motorola Surfboard sbg900 and the usual airport card in the iMac. One of them must be hardwired, either the powermac or the imac. Not sure of how I'm gonna set it up yet. Any suggestions on accomplishing this feat?

File sharing between my laptop and G5

Hello, thanks for this info, I appreciate the info on security at home that is very relelvant but it does not really relate to my more immediate issue which is how to access my files in my G5 from my laptop wirelessly.

Kajaboss said:

Hello, thanks for this info, I appreciate the info on security at home that is very relelvant but it does not really relate to my more immediate issue which is how to access my files in my G5 from my laptop wirelessly.

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I think you should start a new thread on this. This thread is more specifically geared toward wireless networking. File sharing is out of scope for this guide.

Unable to retrieve IP Address via Wireless

Hi all, strange one I need some assistance with please.

I have a Netcomm NB5Plus4W wireless router/ADSL modem, which has been configured and working fine for my windows based laptop for the past 12 months.

Recently moved my home PC to MacBook (and love it) and I find that connection to the router via ethernet cable or even USB connection collects DHCP no issue. When using the wireless however, no such luck...and its really annoying!

I've monitored my routers config and it detects the Macbooks MAC address, and registers a DHCP address to it, but Airport refuses to identify it and defaults to its own assigned IP address. I can repeat this over and over.

Config of the wireless environment is as follows.

WEP enabled, 128-bit encryption.
B and G band (Mixed) mode - the router does recognise the MAC address as 54Mb connection though
Beacon period 200m/s
RTS and Frag thresholds both at 4096
Tried authentication as Both, Open and Shared (no difference)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Burl01 said:

Hi all, strange one I need some assistance with please.

I have a Netcomm NB5Plus4W wireless router/ADSL modem, which has been configured and working fine for my windows based laptop for the past 12 months.

Recently moved my home PC to MacBook (and love it) and I find that connection to the router via ethernet cable or even USB connection collects DHCP no issue. When using the wireless however, no such luck...and its really annoying!

I've monitored my routers config and it detects the Macbooks MAC address, and registers a DHCP address to it, but Airport refuses to identify it and defaults to its own assigned IP address. I can repeat this over and over.

Config of the wireless environment is as follows.

WEP enabled, 128-bit encryption.
B and G band (Mixed) mode - the router does recognise the MAC address as 54Mb connection though
Beacon period 200m/s
RTS and Frag thresholds both at 4096
Tried authentication as Both, Open and Shared (no difference)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

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It's the encryption. It's not actually authenticating properly. The IP it gets is an auto-assigned IP, because it can't get one from the router due to a problem with the encryption and/or MAC filtering.

The solution? Easy - turn off WEP and turn on WPA instead. WEP is a cumbersome, mostly dead standard for security (it can be cracked in mere minutes, with readily available tools). With WPA, you just need to pick a passphrase, enter it on all of your clients and you're done. And of course, the security is much, much stronger.

Also, if you have MAC filtering turned on, turn is off.

Worked straight away. Thanks for the help.

dhenry said:

I have a restaurant with wireless internet. All PC based computers can connect fine. However, Macs get the message, " you are not connected to the internet." The airport sees the wireless network & says it's connected but no dice. It only happens with macbooks and iPod Touch. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

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I am actually experiencing this exact same problem. Here is my hardware:
Netgear Mimo G wireless router
Comcast cable internet - Motorola modem
17" MacBook Pro - OSX Leopard
(2) PC laptops - Dell & Toshiba
Nintendo Wii

Here is the situation:
Everything except the MacBook connects to the network just fine. The security is set-up to WPA. The MacBook recognizes the network name and key but is not connected when I open a browser window.

I have restarted the modem and wireless router already and also did the resets on the MacBook that apple recommended. I was also told when I was having trouble setting the Wii up that I needed to add in the DNS addresses 4.2.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2.2 but those did nothing. I have manually assigned the MacBook with it's own IP address and it seems to be recognized. I have messed around with the wireless settings and disabled the firewall which was also recommended at one time, but still none of these options have done anything.

Everywhere else I take the Mac too I can connect (WiFi bars, coffee shops, friends homes, etc) just fine. It just seems to be my home network that is a problem. I also just got done setting up the wireless network at my mother's home, with the same Netgear router, and was able to connect the Mac to her network with no problems at all...so I know it's not the router.

I'm actually pretty good with computers, but new to Mac's and most of the trouble-shooting "pictures" show the fixes for OSX Tiger and the layout for the Network Preferences is different in Leopard and I am at a loss.

What am I overlooking or haven't tried yet to fix the issue? I would appreciate any help you can give me

Have you updated to the latest firmware for your router? Is SSID broadcast turned on? To be honest, it sounds like there's a problem with the encryption handshake. Not being able to acquire a DHCP address is usually indicative of an encryption problem. Does the router support WPA2?

Yes the firmware for the router has been updated and it is currently broadcasting SSID. I checked and it does support WPA2...should I change to that?

Thanks for your help!

bettysurf14 said:

Yes the firmware for the router has been updated and it is currently broadcasting SSID. I checked and it does support WPA2...should I change to that?

Thanks for your help!

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Yes please, give that a shot. I've seen a few circumstances where just switching the encryption fixed the problem. WPA2 is stronger yet than WPA, so it's only going to benefit you in the long run.

Connection Timeout

I just got my hands on a Macbook, its great but
I'm having problems joining the wireless connection in my house though.
Its a D-Link broadband router, connected to two PC computers (in seperate rooms).
The Airport finds the network, i enter the password (not sure if the password is right but it should be)
and it keeps saying Connection Timeout
Now i don't know what information is needed about the wireless router
but i can find that information out if that'll help.
Has anyone else had this problem or knows how to fix it?
Thanks.

dazedanconfused said:

I just got my hands on a Macbook, its great but
I'm having problems joining the wireless connection in my house though.
Its a D-Link broadband router, connected to two PC computers (in seperate rooms).
The Airport finds the network, i enter the password (not sure if the password is right but it should be)
and it keeps saying Connection Timeout
Now i don't know what information is needed about the wireless router
but i can find that information out if that'll help.
Has anyone else had this problem or knows how to fix it?
Thanks.

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Firstly, we need to know what kind of wireless security you're using. If it's WEP, switch it over to WPA in the router's settings webpage and you should be fine.

m

yeah we tried to reset the routers settings
[we found out the password was set as a WEP password but didn't follow the specified formula, something along the lines of 32 characters, using letters a-f and numbers 0-9]
so we attempted to at first - remove the lock and password off the network, but everytime we turned the router off and back on, it hadn't made the changes we selected. so we tried changing the password to suit WEP, but again if we turned the router off it would just undo all changes.
i'm certain its not the macbook's problem, its how the network is set up in the house.
but we are thinking of just calling up D-Link and asking them about it or something..thanks anyway.

dazedanconfused said:

yeah we tried to reset the routers settings
[we found out the password was set as a WEP password but didn't follow the specified formula, something along the lines of 32 characters, using letters a-f and numbers 0-9]
so we attempted to at first - remove the lock and password off the network, but everytime we turned the router off and back on, it hadn't made the changes we selected. so we tried changing the password to suit WEP, but again if we turned the router off it would just undo all changes.
i'm certain its not the macbook's problem, its how the network is set up in the house.
but we are thinking of just calling up D-Link and asking them about it or something..thanks anyway.

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Switch it over to WPA. WEP is a dead security standard and can be very cumbersome in comparison. With WPA, you just need to create a password, which is entered in the same way regardless of the machine you're trying to connect with. WPA is much more secure, faster and reliable. Once you do that, all should be well. Also, make sure you have the latest firmware for your router.

Big surprise...I need wireless help!

I just became a Mac user after many years with PC. I have one of the $999.00 MacBooks, and I also purchased an AirPort Express. I have a Motorola Cable modem and a Linksys WRT54G router. I live with my parents and I wanted to have a second network for my computer and my Playstation 3 dialed into their pre-existing network (the Playstation doesn't like Linksys routers, and I thought that maybe having it dialed into the AirPort Express would alleviate that issue). The tech support people at my local Apple store said that this simply involved wirelessly connecting my AirPort Express to the Linksys router. My parents' network is WPA and I have the password, but every time I try to connect to it, it says the connection has failed. I can plug the ethernet cable that would normally run to the router into my AirPort Express and get onto the Internet with no issues....what am I doing wrong?

My dad's a computer whiz but he's away on business so I'm flying solo on this one. Any help is much appreciated!

Aims said:

I just became a Mac user after many years with PC. I have one of the $999.00 MacBooks, and I also purchased an AirPort Express. I have a Motorola Cable modem and a Linksys WRT54G router. I live with my parents and I wanted to have a second network for my computer and my Playstation 3 dialed into their pre-existing network (the Playstation doesn't like Linksys routers, and I thought that maybe having it dialed into the AirPort Express would alleviate that issue). The tech support people at my local Apple store said that this simply involved wirelessly connecting my AirPort Express to the Linksys router. My parents' network is WPA and I have the password, but every time I try to connect to it, it says the connection has failed. I can plug the ethernet cable that would normally run to the router into my AirPort Express and get onto the Internet with no issues....what am I doing wrong?

My dad's a computer whiz but he's away on business so I'm flying solo on this one. Any help is much appreciated!

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The problem here is the two separate networks. Quite frankly, it's too far out of scope of this venue to really get into the troubleshooting that would need to happen to get this working.

May I ask why you bought the Airport Express in the first place? There's no reason for a second wireless router (and a limited and pricey one for what it is, at that) if the WRT54G is functioning properly. If you have a single broadband connection and a normal sized house, you're just adding needless complexity.