Macbook Pro WPA2-PSK (AES) No hope from day 1?
Bought the fancy Macbook pro in '07 from the campus bookstore, kid plugs it into the wired jack and uses the open-access campus wifi and all's well. Massive 'all risk' uber-we'll-make-it-right Apple warranty. They get a digit wrong in the serial number and deny the warranty. Get help from the campus store to prove we bought it and we send in lots of paperwork a second time and sure enough SW87305E6X92 now has a warranty. Great!
Next year she moves into new space, wifi only works on campus open-access network but wired port is available in the room so all's well, she can do her work.
Next year 6 students share a wifi router, WPA2-PSK (AES) Netgear. The two girls with macbook pros can't connect. All the M$ kids' laptops work. Campus store says 'buy the latest apple os'. We do. Run a ethernet wire out the window and down the hall to the router, all's well. Remove the wire, wifi on WPA2-PSK netgear-- only the Apple products still fail.
Call Applecare. Make the appointment. They go through all kinds of router changes and confirm a problem, have her take it to the authorized Apple repair place via campus. They upgrade software and firmware and return it. Same problem. She takes it back for really-for-sure-this-time repair. Same problem. We add a new wifi router with no security and she muddles through the rest of the year because it works with that.
She comes home, here we have a new Belkin router. WPA2-PSK (AES). Two M$ laptops, handheld wifi stuff all work. Not the Macbook pro. The OS reports the network and reports good reception but just fails the password. Same as it was out of the box from day 1. Same as it was after local and send-out apple care did their thing last year. Take it in to local (Iowa) Apple authorized service center. They have a QWest DSL and old WPA router and say it's all fine, come pick it up nothing more they can do, have we called Apple Care?
What a shaggy dog story. So, right now, unless somebody somewhere can figure out how to get Apple to change the wireless gizmo in this thing so it actually works the plan is to bring it home, take all the files off it, and with regret throw it away basically since we can't afford to send her off to school next year risking Apple produts with great support that leave her behind in her classes because they look great and work great except when not for us!
Help Please!
Next year she moves into new space, wifi only works on campus open-access network but wired port is available in the room so all's well, she can do her work.
Next year 6 students share a wifi router, WPA2-PSK (AES) Netgear. The two girls with macbook pros can't connect. All the M$ kids' laptops work. Campus store says 'buy the latest apple os'. We do. Run a ethernet wire out the window and down the hall to the router, all's well. Remove the wire, wifi on WPA2-PSK netgear-- only the Apple products still fail.
Call Applecare. Make the appointment. They go through all kinds of router changes and confirm a problem, have her take it to the authorized Apple repair place via campus. They upgrade software and firmware and return it. Same problem. She takes it back for really-for-sure-this-time repair. Same problem. We add a new wifi router with no security and she muddles through the rest of the year because it works with that.
She comes home, here we have a new Belkin router. WPA2-PSK (AES). Two M$ laptops, handheld wifi stuff all work. Not the Macbook pro. The OS reports the network and reports good reception but just fails the password. Same as it was out of the box from day 1. Same as it was after local and send-out apple care did their thing last year. Take it in to local (Iowa) Apple authorized service center. They have a QWest DSL and old WPA router and say it's all fine, come pick it up nothing more they can do, have we called Apple Care?
What a shaggy dog story. So, right now, unless somebody somewhere can figure out how to get Apple to change the wireless gizmo in this thing so it actually works the plan is to bring it home, take all the files off it, and with regret throw it away basically since we can't afford to send her off to school next year risking Apple produts with great support that leave her behind in her classes because they look great and work great except when not for us!
Help Please!
Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)