Cant connect my new iMAC wirelessly?

[Rushy]

The suspense is killing me

My bed awaits, doesnt yours

Its the WEP problem

The Apple iMac defaults to one type of WEP and unfortunately when you've put the WEP key in it doesn't compute because your router is using a different WEP encryption than Apple's default WEP encryption.

Go in your router and see what type of WEP is in use 40 or 128 bit. Then match that in your advanced settings for RUSHY on the iMac.

Personally WEP is the devils work and highly insecure (which is probably why you're locking down devices by MAC address?). WPA would have been childs play

Taking all encryption off the router as a temorary test to ensure the Mac connects will however rule out a problem with the Airport card

Thanks , i'll have a go at that (channel 9 didnt work) and then its up the wooden hill

edit : the router encryption is set on 64 bit , only other option is 128bit

 

[Rushy]

i've disabled the security restarted the router , the mac can see the unsecured SSID and still wont fekkin connect.

I can see nothing in the advanced setting on mac that allows you to change the encryption from 64 bit to 128bit etc.

The thing looks lovely and is working great via an ethernet cable but Airport is pants.

Thank you and good night.

 

[alistairl]

(deleted the access control bit - you know about this)

The other issue I've seen with the mac is deciding on what standard of wifi to use - 802.11b, 802.11g or one of the higher speeds. You may need to adjust this.

 

[Dahoum]

My bed awaits, doesnt yours

No - I'll be up till 2 at least (Ashes) when they take lunch.

I must say tho - I had the same Netgear router and changed to BT broadband with one of their routers about 6 months ago and my iMac connected pretty much out of the box to both. I never set or changed anything - airport just saw the routers and I connected. All I needed to do was set up the password security.

Good luck with the set up

 

[Rushy]

Another 2 hrs wasted surfin the net looking for solutions. It seems most problems are from a few years ago and relate mainly to the US and a Verizon router problem. Most recommendations are to switch to a Belkin router or the netgear router that I have

I couldnt figure out how to change the encryption on the mac so I changed it on the router from 64 to 128 and back again, no success.

I set the Airport status to appear in the menu bar. Airport is on. If I click on the icon then a new pane opens , 'Network'. In that pane it confirms that airport is on but " Airport does not have an IP address and cannot connect to the INternet"

Very disappointed......

 

[shugie]

Another 2 hrs wasted surfin the net looking for solutions. It seems most problems are from a few years ago and relate mainly to the US and a Verizon router problem. Most recommendations are to switch to a Belkin router or the netgear router that I have

I couldnt figure out how to change the encryption on the mac so I changed it on the router from 64 to 128 and back again, no success.

I set the Airport status to appear in the menu bar. Airport is on. If I click on the icon then a new pane opens , 'Network'. In that pane it confirms that airport is on but " Airport does not have an IP address and cannot connect to the INternet"

Very disappointed......

Well I had a bash at trying to get the same problem as you with my iMac and a more recent Netgear router using WPA encryption only, and it worked just fine. Stops working, as you would expect, if I set it to access control on MAC addresses. I didn't try WEP though, as Judge says it's not secure. Which model router do you have, the full part number is needed because there are at least four variants that I can see. If you let me know that I will look at the manuel to see what encryption it can do. Can all the other devices use WPA?

If you know that the router works with other wireless devices, can you be certain that there is not some sort of problem with the Airport circuits in the iMac? Can you test it with another wireless access point anywhere?

 

[Rushy]

If you know that the router works with other wireless devices, can you be certain that there is not some sort of problem with the Airport circuits in the iMac? Can you test it with another wireless access point anywhere?

Thanks for the offer shugie but this is exactly what I hope to do tomorrow. I have access to another wireless router thats the same model , wpa encryption instead of WEP but I dont know the password...yet

 

[judge]

If you know that the router works with other wireless devices, can you be certain that there is not some sort of problem with the Airport circuits in the iMac?

I suggested that back up there

Taking all encryption off the router as a temorary test to ensure the Mac connects will however rule out a problem with the Airport card

 

[boredrider]

iMAC

A new day, and another take on this one - presuming your router is acting as a DHCP server, is the iMAC set to obtain an IP address from the router?

 

[stolzy]

A new day, and another take on this one - presuming your router is acting as a DHCP server, is the iMAC set to obtain an IP address from the router?

That's a good thought - what ip address does the mac have?

 

[shugie]

I suggested that back up there

Indeed you did, but sound advice bears repeating.

 

[Rushy]

That's a good thought - what ip address does the mac have?

Thats an interesting question becuase for the first time tonight when I tried to join my network a different error message came up an it gave an IP address for the Airport card which it hasnt done before.

I'm pretty sure its the WEP issue as judge said . If I click the airport icon in the top tool bar it brings up 5 networks in the area including mine. All the other 4 when I try joining them say they are WPA protected and ask for a password BUT if I ask to join my network it comes up with an error "unable to connect to internet " pane with a button to select diagnostics....... which cant solve the problem.

I have another wireless network in the house which belongs to my employer (i'm home based 2 days a week) and the IT guy at the centre says I can speak to him tomorrow and he will give me the passwords I need to tyr to join that network.

If that works I guess I'll have to change my router to WPA encryption and then change the laptops & Wii

Thanks anyway guys

 

[(RIP) DitchWater]

This Is Becoming...

...As additctive as The Archers,

I look forward to hearing what the solution to the problem is: I'm surprised the Mac is having difficulties. In the recent past I was asked to find the solution to connecting a Sony HDV player to a PC to offload some video into a subtitling software application and failed. With this I suggested using the Mac and then transfer the file via the local network to the PC. The Mac found the HDV VCR straight away and the job was done in no time at all.

BTW, I'm not a fan of wireless at all .

 

[shugie]

If that works I guess I'll have to change my router to WPA encryption and then change the laptops & Wii

Thanks anyway guys

I'd do that anyway, WEP is not secure, and if you can see four other networks it's a certainty other people can see yours, so it is open to being hacked. I've not tried it, but believe it's easy enough to do.

 

[Rushy]

WEP was the problem

As predicted by a few of you it was simply the WEP issue.

I got the password to my employer's router and just 2 clicks and I was online.

Just changed the security on my own router to WPA and ...hey presto , I can log on here to get some more abuse from you lot for being a luddite

Keep subscribed if you really want to see how hard I manage to make the simple task of resetting the PC based laptop and the Wii.......

Thanks to all those who made sensible suggestions and Stolzy for the PM

 

[DollyRocket]

I was going to suggest moving to WPA or WPA2 as wep is now old technology.

One other thing for Mac users that I have to do once a month or so when I start to have wireless connection issues is to turn the airport connection off, then on again. Effectively the MAC drops down to a private local address which you can only get rid off by entering a manual address or turning off and on again. (I think the Mac DHCP client has a wobbly sometimes if leases get taken away from it)

 

[judge]

As predicted by a few of you it was simply the WEP issue.

He shoots, he scores

Quite why so many routers BT's, (No)Talk(No)Talk, and others still come with routers pre-configured with WEP encryption is beyond me when they are so weak on secuity