Cannot Connect to School Wireless?

Hi first time posting .
Me and 3 other friends who have a mac cannot connect to the wireless at my school. However one of my mates who has a mac can.
Everyone with windows can connect fine.
ISP, Internet and server all fail.
Anyone have a clue what makes the macs not be able to connect. (Apart from one which can)?

Thank you

Can you give us a bit more info please. What Mac do you own? What version of OSX is installed? This is a schools WiFi network? Is there a Encryption Key for the network or is it an open network?

Also what are the specs of your friends Mac who can connect and his version of OSX.

All that info might help someone here better help you.

dtravis7 said:

Can you give us a bit more info please. What Mac do you own? What version of OSX is installed? This is a schools WiFi network? Is there a Encryption Key for the network or is it an open network?

Also what are the specs of your friends Mac who can connect and his version of OSX.

All that info might help someone here better help you.

Click to expand...

Sorry, i'll give the info i have available at the moment.

Macbook OSX, Version 10.5.8
2.1 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Yes it is a school's wifi network. I'm not sure what an encryption key is and i'm not sure of the specs of my mates macs.
However it does say i'm connected, the bars are lit up when i put in the password for the wifi as if it was connected fine, but it does not work.

Since you do have to enter a Password the network is encrypted for sure. If you don't know this, ask friends who's systems connect and work if they know if it's WEP, WPA, WPA2. Your friend with the Mac, if he looks under Network and Airport and advanced, it should show what type of Encryption they are using to connect. It's one of the 3 above I am sure.

dtravis7 said:

Since you do have to enter a Password the network is encrypted for sure. If you don't know this, ask friends who's systems connect and work if they know if it's WEP, WPA, WPA2. Your friend with the Mac, if he looks under Network and Airport and advanced, it should show what type of Encryption they are using to connect. It's one of the 3 above I am sure.

Click to expand...

So may the problem be that i do not have the right one selected ?
I just went on advanced and it says "Preferred Networks"
The one i want says WPA2 Personal.

soziblewuup said:

So may the problem be that i do not have the right one selected ?
I just went on advanced and it says "Preferred Networks"
The one i want says WPA2 Personal.

Click to expand...

Are you certain you have the right password? Keep in mind, it is case-sensitive. Also, it's possible that they may be using MAC filtering (Media Access Control, not Macintosh) to secure the network in tandem with WPA/WPA2 encryption. If that's the case, your friends who are successfully connected would have had to have provided the administrators of the network with their MAC address.

Have you actually spoken with the admin of the network to ensure that you are welcome to access the network and that your machine is configured correctly?

Good call CWA, forgot about the possibility of MAC filtering.

To the OP, keep us posted.

Thanks guys for the help.

I've definitely got the right password as the airport is lit up as if i'm connected. It rejects the connection altogether if i type the wrong password in.

Also i didn't have a chance to ask the administrator today but non of my friends who's laptops are working needed to give any information to the administrator including the one guy who's mac is working.

I checked my friends mac that is working. We run the same version etc. Exactly the same macbook, and i checked all the advanced settings. All the IP and all that was identical. Not one setting was different. We connected to the same wireless router and he could connect and mine failed on the 3 bottom lights, which all went red.

It's strange because it's fine with the connection (hence the airport symbol lighting up full bars).

Under Network/Airport/TCP/IP what numbers are showing up for IVP4 Address, Subnet Mask and Router when you connect and get the bars?

And what appears if you go into System, Preferences > Advanced > DNS?

Pretty sure they were the same as they are now. I'll check tomorrow.

IPv4 : Using DHCP
IPv4 Address: 192.168.150.3
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.150.1

That looks right. Check on what Harry mentioned above about DNS.

harryb2448 said:

And what appears if you go into System, Preferences > Advanced > DNS?

Click to expand...

dtravis7 said:

That looks right. Check on what Harry mentioned above about DNS.

Click to expand...

Sorry Harry didn't see that there. I'll have to check tomorrow as it's changed, now i'm at home.

Do you have WiFi at home and does it work fine there? Just curious.

dtravis7 said:

Do you have WiFi at home and does it work fine there? Just curious.

Click to expand...

Yes, wifi works at home, wifi works at all my mates houses, anywhere but school. And we just thought ok must be a problem with macs on the school network as all 3 of us couldn't connect. But then my one mate could with his. And a windows has never had a problem connecting.

soziblewuup said:

Pretty sure they were the same as they are now. I'll check tomorrow.

IPv4 : Using DHCP
IPv4 Address: 192.168.150.3
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.150.1

Click to expand...

It should vary a bit.

Each time you connect to a wireless network, the router hands you an IP address, based on a "scope" of addresses. If it's not able to connect properly, you may get a "self-assigned" address. That will tell us a bit more about what's going on here. So, do be sure to note what your IP is when you attempt to connect to school.

harryb2448 said:

And what appears if you go into System, Preferences > Advanced > DNS?

Click to expand...

DNS Servers: 192.168.150.1
Search Domains: localdomain

cwa107 said:

It should vary a bit.

Each time you connect to a wireless network, the router hands you an IP address, based on a "scope" of addresses. If it's not able to connect properly, you may get a "self-assigned" address. That will tell us a bit more about what's going on here. So, do be sure to note what your IP is when you attempt to connect to school.

Click to expand...

Ok will do. Have to be tomorrow again now. Thanks for the help.

Proxy

On the Mac that is working, under the Airport->Advanced settings, check the Proxy tab and see if a proxy setting has been configured. Our corporate network will show you connected with a valid IP, but you aren't going anywhere if you don't have the proxy settings in place.