Mac + 802.11g = impossible!

Sheesh. I can't get the stupid mac to connect to the wireless router for the life of me. I can't find ANY information on apple's site and very little on the open internet other than people bitching about trying to get their macs to connect to 802.11 wireless systems.

Can anyone help me figure this out?

Go to the Apple menu on the top LH corner, select "system preferences", select "network", select "Airport", choose an available network and type in the password.

Did you check that Airport is turned on? You can also access the network prefs by clicking on the airport symbol on the top RHS pull down menu on your screen. It is actually much easier to set up a network on a Mac, unlike Windows the OS doesn't need the network password to be a specific number of characters.

Are you getting "An error occurred when trying to connect to the wireless network"?
If so, try changing the encryption method used for security in your router from WEP to WPA (or vice-versa).
Especially if your using one of Verizon's router/modem combo jobs like the Westell 327w or 7500.
Sometimes the WiFi chipset used on the Mac just doesn't make nice when using one method or the other, depending on the router.

Go to the Apple menu on the top LH corner, select "system preferences", select "network", select "Airport", choose an available network and type in the password.

Did you check that Airport is turned on? You can also access the network prefs by clicking on the airport symbol on the top RHS pull down menu on your screen. It is actually much easier to set up a network on a Mac, unlike Windows the OS doesn't need the network password to be a specific number of characters.

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Yup tried that. I don't get a place to enter the password. If I create a 802.11 connection instead of the airport connection, no matter what I place in the "username/pass" boxes I always get "the pass you entered is incorrect".

WEP ALWAYS has to be a specific number of charachters depending on what encryption strength is set to on the router...

Are you getting "An error occurred when trying to connect to the wireless network"?
If so, try changing the encryption method used for security in your router from WEP to WPA (or vice-versa).

Click to expand...

I was getting that error and then for no reason I started getting the password error. How can you tell what the error is? is there an error log like windows that will tell you exactly what the problem is?

As far as the WEP/WPA change, where do you do that? I can't find any information on this anywhere on the apple site. The only thing I can find is that WEP is the one that is supported with a wireless router that is NOT an airport. I don't see where to change this setting anywhere.

We have an iMac 24" wirelessly connected to a Netgear wireless router, and 2 Macbooks and 2 PC laptop, plus the Wii game console connected remotely to the LAN/Internet.

Your router will usually have a web-based Admin program where you can login. There, you can generate your WEP key. My settings are

WEP
Automatic Authentication
64 bit (could be raised to 128)
and then my 10 digit WEP key

Then on your OSX, you enter the same WEP key.

Otherwise, no communication and no go between the two.

HEY HEY!

I got it!

I found some ranting thread on a website that has a couple links to other websites complaining of 2+ hours airport setup time. I'm right at 2 hours for something that should have taken less than a minute but I digress..

So I'm following some instructions on a website about setting up an airport connection. Mind you that these instructions are not from Apple, I could NOT find any instructions on Apple's website about setting up an Airport connection, these are from some person who was pissed off and decided to make their own website about it.

Now for the fun part. The instruction's screenshots don't look anything like my screens. I fumbled around a bunch to find that if I choose "join by: preferred networks", delete everything and create a new connection that the only thing that worked was manually creating a WEP hex connection. The problem is that I had to do it 3 times before it finally connected. I knew I was typing in the correct info but it kept blanking out the connection in the "internet connect" box.

Well I'll see how this works.

EDIT:

Your router will usually have a web-based Admin program where you can login. There, you can generate your WEP key.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's the first thing I did was doublecheck the router settings. I've set these networks up a number of times but since I have other machines running on this network I already knew that it was setup correctly. It's just that the Mac would see the network but would not connect no matter what I did. I had to clear out all of the other connections and start fresh before it would connect. I don't know why but that's what it took.

Hey Chris,

Man that is weird. Like others I have no problem login onto 802.11 wireless routers... in fact here in SA you will find MOST are 802.11 and VERY few Airport systems... I log on fine here at home and at the studio, both using 802.11 protocol wireless routers.

Both of the routers have web based admin systems as shared before, just login in, enabled wireless routing and then use the default WEP/WPA which is normally written underneath or on the router itself.

Occasionally I've had a problem logging in with the WEP on some routers and in this case you need to put an "$" in front of the hexcode (you may alreayd know this).

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon!

Cheers

Matt

Yup, that's the first thing I did was doublecheck the router settings.

Click to expand...

thats always the best place to start.
In the router you want to check the security settings, pick either WEP or WPA. WEP 64 bit requires a 10 digit key. I usually pick something i can remember rather than use the generator so its not an issue trying to get back in later on with another laptop, or a friend's machine, etc.

While still in the router, make sure the SSID (Wireless network name) is unique so that you know which network you're connecting to. You'd be surprised how many people leave the default name (such as "Linksys") in place and then you don't know which one you're attempting to connect to. That can also cause issue with the Preferred networks setting, if they have the same name & security setting type. Especially so here in NYC where having 10 available networks is fairly common.

Once you have those settings squared away, you should simply select your wireless network from the Airport Menubar Item up near the clock and enter your security key. Don't forget to check the box to remember your network key in your keychain.

If you have issues trying to connect to the router in WEP, then switch to WPA & give that a shot. Some Mac Airport Card chipsets (the Atheros based ones anyway) have issues connecting in WEP to certain routers, but will work fine when the router is set to WPA.