MacBook Pro will not connect to Cisco Wireless Network

Question

Level 1

10 points

MacBook Pro will not connect to Cisco Wireless Network

I have just bought a brand new MacBook Pro, running Leopard (OSX 10.5.1) and I just cannot get it to connect to the Wireless Network at my workplace.

The MBP connects to wireless network and authenticates just fine, but will not obtain an IP address from the DHCP server.

The wireless network consists of 16 Cisco Aironet 1200 Access Points controlled by a Cisco Wireless Network Controller. It does not broadcast its SSID and is WEP 128-bit hex protected.

Changing the network from WEP to WPA is out of the question for me as this is under the control of my customers IT Department and they do not have any problems with their PCs connecting to the network. It appears to be an Apple issue.

For reference, my old Vaio PC, my Nokia N95 and my iPod Touch ALL connect to the same wireless network without any problems whatsoever, first time, every time!

If I boot into Windows XP from my Boot Camp partition, XP can connect wirelessly to the network without any problems, so it is not MacBook hardware related...

It has to be a bug in Mac OSX... doesn't it?!?

Things I have already tried (following suggestions on many forums):
* Switching Airport off/on
* Deleting various network-related Plist files and rebooting
* Manually assigning an IP Address (not really permitted but doesn't work anyway!)
* Disabling all network adaptors except Airport

AP Grapher shows that the MBP is connected to the wireless network, at good strength, and packets are being sent and received, but Internet Access is not possible as no IP Address has been assigned. Instead, my MBP shows a 169.* IP Address (self-assigned). It should be a 10.1.255.* address.

Can anybody please help? Thank you.

MacBook Pro 17" Intel 2.4GHz 4GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Dec 10, 2007 8:24 AM

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Answer 1

Naetimus

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2017 7:58 AM in response to SJRNET

It is the encryption settings on the Cisco (at least it was for me).

My router was set to TKIP

I changed to AES CCM and it worked great.

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Answer 2

Marun

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2007 12:36 PM in response to SJRNET

I am facing the same kind of problem. However mine is a macbook and not a macbook pro.

i use talk talk wireless broadband and is unable to get connection to the internet as the airport connection does not recognize the password.

can some one help or advise regarding connecting macbook to the internet

thanks

arun

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Answer 3

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Dec 10, 2007 1:17 PM in response to SJRNET

Try typing a $ in front of the WEP password.

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Answer 4

SJRNET Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 11, 2007 2:07 AM in response to sig

I tried to add a $ to the start of the hex string (128-bit) but the Network Preferences UI will only allow valid hex (0-9 A-F) characters to be input!

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Answer 5

MobyDisk

Level 1

5 points

Dec 13, 2007 12:14 PM in response to SJRNET

I have this issue with my office's wireless network. It actually says that it connects, as though the password is correct. But it never receives the IP address through DHCP.

Is there any way to diagnose this?

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Answer 6

SJRNET Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 14, 2007 1:14 AM in response to MobyDisk

Sounds like you are having exactly the same problem as me (and hundreds of other people if you look at the various Mac forums)!

COME ON APPLE! - get it sorted - you have professional people out here using your flagship laptop hardware in a commercial environment and it just isn't working!

Matters like this need sorting very quickly if Apple are to break into the professional office market... this problem is not a good advert for Apple!

PC users at my workplace find it highly amusing that my expensive new laptop can't even connect to their network... the shame of it!

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Answer 7

Dec 21, 2007 3:51 AM in response to SJRNET

While traveling with the MBP I have had problems connecting to WiFi using WEP. It happened intermittently in Germany and Thailand and I could not connect anywhere in Laos. In Laos every place that offered FREE WiFi had MS users clicking away, but I could never connect. In Cambodia right now I am connected via a public WiFi network, but through their connection interface.

The "Network Diagnostic" in Safari does not offer the option of entering the User Name and Password, except for LEAP, whatever that is. We can't be the only people with this MBP problem, can we?

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Answer 8

Russa

Level 4

1,343 points

Dec 21, 2007 5:10 PM in response to SJRNET

Did you buy your new Mac with 10.5 installed or was it a Tiger upgrade? I've been told that the Network Services do not translate well between Tiger and Leopard. It was suggested that I delete the old Network Services (in Network System Preferences) and recreate them under Leopard. If you do this, remember to reboot.

I use my MBP in my office without any problems. Albeit we use a Dell wireless router with WEP, and Juniper VPN.

Message was edited by: Russa

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Answer 9

SJRNET Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 22, 2007 2:45 AM in response to Russa

I bought my MacBook Pro with 10.4.10 (I think) installed and upgraded to Leopard 10.5.0 and subsequently to 10.5.1

The problem connecting to my Customer's wireless network was present from day 1 (i.e. under 10.4.10). One of the reasons I upgraded to Leopard was in the hope that it would fix the network bug... it didn't!!!

Apparently, Apple introduced a bug in 10.4.9 (or was it 10.4.10?) which caused this problem. Reverting to 10.4.8 is the 'recommended' fix, but obviously, I do not want to and cannot do this!

What we need is an acknowledgement from Apple that there IS a problem, and a subsequent fix. Quickly!

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Answer 10

Dec 25, 2007 11:48 PM in response to SJRNET

I had this problem when playing at a club in Eureka CA and they said that the router company had a problem with Apple and they reached some kind of legal agreement that allowed them to ban all Apple computers from connecting to these networks. Sounded weird to me, but sure enough, there was no way for me to connect, although all PC users had no problem. Has anyone heard of this?

Edwin

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Answer 11

Russa

Level 4

1,343 points

Dec 26, 2007 6:46 AM in response to SJRNET

I suggest you delete the old Network Services including Ethernet and Airport (in Network System Preferences) and recreate them under Leopard. If you do this, remember to reboot.

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Answer 12

SJRNET Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 3, 2008 8:40 AM in response to Russa

I have deleted all Network Services under Netwrok Preferences, and rebooted, and it still behaves the same 😟

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Answer 13

Hiskle

Level 1

0 points

Jan 7, 2008 12:16 PM in response to SJRNET

Has a solution to this been found yet? I'm having the exact same issue!

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Answer 14

Jan 8, 2008 10:30 PM in response to Hiskle

i posted this same reply elsewhere because it worked for me for my Buffalo wireless router: try manually setting your IP address instead of relying on DHCP, which sometimes (I don't know why) doesn't work well with Macs. It's a good get around. I am a happy Mac user but nothing is perfect on earth, and when the Mac gives problems, it does give a lot of frustration. Macs are not as easy to troubleshoot as Win because a Mac is built to be user friendly(and it works most of the time), meaning a lot of the background computing stuff is hidden away from users to avoid user accidentally upsetting some settings.

Unfortunately, the highly automated troubleshooting wizards provided by OS X are not perfect so when these software wizards fail to resolve the problem, like my Network Diagnostics, I have to spend more time tinkering around. There's "Terminal" of course but then most of us, especially PC converts to Macs, don't know how to use it.

You should also try updating your MBP, see if there are any new updates being released.

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Answer 15

SJRNET Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 9, 2008 2:13 AM in response to Tan Kia Seng

I have already tried manually assigning an IP address (in the correct range) and using manually IP Address with DHCP (whatever that implies!) - neither allows me to connect to the Internet.

The annoying thing for me is that at work, there are two methods of connecting to the Internet - the wireless network which my MBP refuses to connect to and the wired network which uses a Windows ISA proxy server for Internet connections... and as we all know, OSX 10.5 will not work behind an ISA proxy!!!

Thanks Apple - at the moment, I am the laughing stock here at work - I am the only one using a Mac and the only one who has no Internet access. Grrrr

I am hoping that this will all be fixed in 10.5.2 (but I bet it isn't)

Unless Apple address issues like ours, they will never have a real place in the Enterprise market.

(oh, and before anyone suggests it, I have tried using Authoxy and Squidman to get round the proxy issue - neither worked for me)

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