Need to get a second hand black MacBook connected. Poor reception on Airport so tried a plug in wifi aerial. That didn't work, but now have a Network Location I can't get rid of. How do I remove it ?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Hi This is done in system preferences/ network/advanced. You will see a box with preferred neworks. Click on the one you want to remove and then the minus box. You may have to go to utilities /keychain access and delete it there also. If you have other problems ,please explain.
Hi, and thank you. I have removed it from the preferred networks box. I cannot see it in the keychain list, although there is listed there, under login, the router (that I want it to connect to). I am not sure whether this was entered in my failed attempt with the plug in aerial, or with subesequent attempts reverting to using Airport.
The problem now seems to be the DHP setting. On my original Black MacBook (still operational, but on Leopard) the IP address is 198.168.0.102, and the router server address is 198.168.0.1. That works as expected.
On the problem MacBook the IP address is 169.254.14.234 and it doesn't have an IP address for the router. I am reluctant to simply enter one manually, because I don't know what IP addresses are available, and I don't want to bugger up the existing MacBook connection and others like printer, phone etc.
Thank you.
Hi. If you had tried to connect using you macbook built in wifi, the keychain that you saw with the wifi network name, was from that. In looking this up I am seeing that you are suppose to have a driver for your usb wifi dongle to set it up. I have an article I found addressing this. http://www.megaleecher.net/Fixing_WiFi_On_Your_Apple_Mac#axzz3S1Kubby8 What I have found out is that the usb wifi adapter does not connect thru the airport connection setup. But it should show in you system preferences Network.Which if you have the driver installed for it, you should be able to click on it and open the setup.Make sure you do not have the internal mac wifi enabled.
Thank you for your help my ginger. I am conflating too many problems. I have all the drivers and stuff for the plug-in. I have given up on that pathway because it is adding too many complications. Back to using as my primary linkage the built in Airport card, which although it is not as eager as the directly similar in my original MacBook which has plenty reception, still works though with only about half the reception bars.
My key problem now is that when I try to start setting it up it sets an IP for Airport which does not relate to the one from the router. I have it set to use DHCP to get an address, but it can't seem to see the router. I have got rid of the phoney Network Location. Can I just manually enter an IP address, and if so what IP address do I use? Will it then keep that address in future? See my previous post for actual addresses happening. Thank you again for your help.
Hi Is you router using dynamic DHCP? With this the service provider automatically supplies the settings. Then it is a matter of you using the wifi name password and encryption . Should be WPA2. Some router will also allow you to set signal strength. I would delete your former settings including the one in keychain access and start over. Go to the wifi menu at the top of the desktop and turn it on. Then go to join networks inter in the name , password. encryption and check the box to remember this network in keychain or words to that effect. Then open network in system preferences and click on wifi make sure you have automatic selected. Click on advanced/ airport and delete any networks other that the one to your router. Then go to DNS and make sure there are no other servers listed except the router. If there is delete them.
Hi there, The problem is focussing down on Airport getting the right IP which lets it connect to the router. All the settings in the problem MacBook seem identical to this one - my original and working MacBook. I have just moved it right next to the router so signal strength is no longer an issue.
What happens is that when I switch Airport on there are full bars connection for a few seconds, but in the Network System Preference pane it says Airport has no IP. Then it finds an IP usually beginning 169.254. and the symbol in the menu bar greys out and an exclamation is put onto it. The message in the Network System Preference pane now says Airport has a self-set IP and cannot connect. Where is it getting it from and why can't it get the correct one from the router - which works perfectly well with other MacBook, printer, phone etc.
I have tried re-booting the router, same result.
Hi the fact that your internal airport card self assigned itself means in is working.You could try a pram reset. Hold down /Command/Option/P/R for three chime and continue boot.This resets a lot of thing on your computer an may help the airport card. There are some things you could do that I forgot about.I have a link on this I'll give you. http://macosx.com/threads/howto-reset-the-wireless-airport-card-settings-in-os-x -10-7-x-10-8-x.321879/
Thank you very much for your help my ginger. I thought about it, and came up with some conclusions.
I had done a clean re-install of Snow Leopard, (I'd acquired the MacBook from a friend, and I didn't need anything on it). because of slightly poor reception on Airport I had decided to try using the Edimax plug in aerial to get better faster connection. Prior to that though Airport had worked and I had downloaded Firefox. After trying the plugin is when the problems started, so I decided to cut my time wasting and go back and re-install (clean) Snow Leopard. Something about trying to get the Edimax installed had somehow locked out Airport from getting an IP.
I'll let you know - when that's all complete - probably tomorrow now - how it works. Hopefully it will all restore to normal then and my problem will be back to how to get decent reception from the Airport card!
Next stage in this frustrating saga! Since last time I posted I did another complete clean install of Snow Leopard, and other optional installs from disc. That was yester evening's fun (not!). This morning fired it up, got to point of switching on Airport card - same symptoms. Starts by finding plenty of reception, but no IP then after a few seconds self generates a 169.254 IP which won't of course connect through. Tried again after a PRAM reset - identical symptoms. Getting really annoyed now did a boot-up from a bootable clone I had made with Leopard before starting all this and bang - straight into a full internet connection, with the correct IPs. So I now know the hardware works, the router works ( I knew that anyway), and the problem is somewhere in Snow Leopard. Haven't tried deleting preference files yet, nor cache. Would either of those survive an erase and install ?
Hi there, did another clean re-install and still same problem. See details in my reply to my own message.
Hi.You might try rebooting to your external drive again. Then look up all your settings for WIFI and write then down. Including the keychain access login. Then reboot to the internal drive. Delete everything for Wifi including in keychain access. You will have to have WIFI on to delete in network preferences. Make sure that nothing is checked in proxies except passive ftp. Then close out of network preferences and click on the Wifi in the upper menu and go to create network and inter all the info for your network on your router.Network name/Password/ Encryption and check box to remember in keychain. Then with wifi on, go through the network preferences advanced and check it against what you have written down form the external drive settings that do work for wifi. I would like to know where they do not agree. This would include the settings Airport/TCP/IP/WINS/and PROXIES Locations should be automatic. Under TCPIP, you should have under router your routers IP address and IPV4 address should be the same as route except the last number at the end.IPV4 configure should be USING DHCP. If they don't match try clicking the renew DHCP client. If you can pick up your wifi using external drive with Leopard, there is no reason youcan't do so with internal drive using Snow Leopard. They both configure WIFI the same way.
Hello my ginger,
I tried what you suggested - but to no success. The problem came up when I was re-entering the new settings. If I left it as using DHCP it would run for a few seconds with no IP address, then drop in a 169.254 one which would not connect through. To overcome this I tried using the 'Using DHCP with manual address' option and entered in an address which it had set up from the clone boot. This appeared to be okay. When I then tried renewing DHCP lease sometimes that address held. When I tried connecting though - no sight of the internet, and the exclamation mark was across the wifi icon in the menu bar. If I switched it to Using DHCP it would randomly fall back to the 169.254 address.
The only significant differences I could see when cross checking all the settings info was in the WINS panel the NetBIOS had a slightly different configuration of the name - but as they ended in the same numbers I assumed they were the same. And, when looking under Keychain Access, in the System section list (it also appeared in the login section) additional info box they had different locations - 28 characters in four groups. I don't have a clue what this refers to. Also the allow access list in the boot clone included System Preferences, but did not in the Snow Leopard boot, so I added it in. With no success.
I am so frustrated I am thinking of giving up. I seen have loads of postings on the net about a variety of problems with wifi connection on Snow Leopard. I have version 10.6.3. Did it get any better in later Snow Leopard ? Or in any of the OS s after that ? It was always so easy and so solid under Leopard - why the h**l did they change it ?
Have recently acquired an additional black MacBook, and installed Snow Leopard onto it. Trying to get it to connect via a plug-in USB wifi unit (poor reception on Airport) I have an extra Network Location which does not work. How can I remove it?
