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User profile for user: Martellito
Martellito Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

MacBook Pro 15'' trouble connecting to Belkin Wireless Network

I got the MBP 15'' a few weeks ago (upgraded form PBG4 15''). I played around with it at my parent's wireless network and it worked perfectly. However, I got home last night to try it with my network and found that it won't connect to it!

I have a 4-port Belkin VOIP wireless router, with no security other than allowing only certain MAC addresses to access the network. I went to the System Profiler to find my MBP's MAC address (the one under Airport card) and told my router to allow that MAC address to connect to the network. I have done this with many computers before (Both macs and PCs) and it works perfectly. This time, however, the MBP keeps telling me that "There was an error joining" my wireless network (not the most descriptive of errors, but fair enough, it could be because a plethora of reasons).

I tried connecting to the itnernet by physically connecting an Ethernet cable from the MBP to the router and it works fine. I can't work out why the MBP won't connect to my wireless network! I did a bit of googling on the topic and quite a few people have had similar problems, so I'm guessing something funky came out with this batch of core duo MBPs (?). I had a crack at the Network Diagnostics app to see if it could help me but it stops when it asks me to enter my Network's WEP password, which is silly because as I had mentioned before my network doesn't have a WEP password, access is controlled by the administrator (me) registering a list of MAC addresses for the machines it wants to let in the network.

I tried a couple of other things to no avail:

1. Change the network's broadcast channel to 7, and then 11 (it was set at channel 2)

2. Disable MAC address filtering (leaving the network open to anyone in range).


I would appreciate any tips or hints anyone might have, I've been chipping away at this for a few hours without success.

Thanks!

Rodrigo

MacBook Pro 15'' Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Jan 7, 2007 2:35 PM

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8 replies
User profile for user: Martellito
Martellito Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 8, 2007 6:56 PM in response to PB PM

Thanks for the input. I had checked that the MAC address was entered correctly. In fact, I disabled MAC adress filtering on the router and then asked it to add all associated MAC addresses. Doing this worked and it picked up all the machines on my network, including MBP. However, the MBP still doesn't connect to the network!

Re your second suggestion: When I connect to the router physically through an Ethernet cable the computer is picked up (different MAC address to the Airport card MAC address).

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Rodrigo
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User profile for user: Mark Wai
Mark Wai
User level: Level 1
5 points

Jan 9, 2007 6:37 AM in response to Martellito

Martellito --

I have the same setup as yours and I did have problem with my MBP connecting to the Belkin router exactly as you described.

The solution that I had was:

1. Disable the Mac Address filtering.

1b. Delete your airport setting that you had for your belkin router on your new MBP (if you have one)

2. Reset the Belkin router to its original factory setting.

3. Turn on all the features that you had before (including WEP but no Mac Address Filtering for me)

4. Reboot both the router and the cable modem.

5. Turn off all the computers that are connected to the network.

6. Turn on your new MBP FIRST.

After I did the above, it works magically.

I have thought about this problem and one reason that I can think of as possible reason is that I transferred EVERYTHING using the Mac utility from my old Powerbook G4 to the new MBP. So, I suspect that there were some setting that were duplicated and causing connection conflict between my old Powerbook and new MBP.

Hope this helps.
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User profile for user: Martellito
Martellito Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 9, 2007 2:07 PM in response to iVmichael

Hi Mark,

by "it picked up all the machines on my network" I mean exactly that, the router identified computer x,y,z, and the MBP's MAC address. However, when I went to the MBP I could see my network on the wireless networks list BUT the MBP didn't connect to it, it kept giving the error "There was an error joining the wireless network X"

I have since upgraded the firmware on the router and it solved the problem.

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

Cheers,

Rodrigo
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User profile for user: Martellito
Martellito Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 9, 2007 2:18 PM in response to Mark Wai

Hi Mark,

Thanks for that. I just read your reply after I tried something very similar last night (I'll outline what I did for the benefit of others. FYI I am in Australia, using iiNet's 4-port Belkin wireless VoIP router).

1. Saved my router's configuration by going in the router: Advanced Settings>Tools>Configuration Tools (I think) and creating a backup of my current settings.

2. Upgrading the router's firmware (through the instructions on the router's browser interface). The trick here was to use internet explorer to download the files because Safari downloads incomplete files, at least for me, for some reason).

3. Restore factory defaults int he router by, in the router's browser interface, Selecting Advanced Settings>Tools>Configuration> Restore factory settings (Or something that sounds like that, there are only 3 options from memory).

4. Reset the router by, in the router's browser interface, using Reset under Advanced Settings>Tools>Reset (I think).

5. Restoring my settings by using the backup of the settings I created in step 1 by going to Advanced Settings>Tools>Configuration> Configure from a saved backup file (or something that sounds like that).

Voila! That worked magically. This is very similar to your approach so hopefully others with the same problem can save time by reading our approaches. Thanks for your reply Mark. I really appreciate everyone's input.

Cheers,

Rodrigo
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MacBook Pro 15'' trouble connecting to Belkin Wireless Network

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