Help connecting to net

[jyang]

Greetings all,
I'm staying at a friends place while he is OS and I am having trouble connecting my imac to his wireless network. The mac recognises his network but when I enter his password it comes up with a message saying incompatable security.

I called apple who said i need to access his router to change his settings? Surely there is an easier way??

Can anyone help?

[blakat]

if the router has MAC based filtering you will need to add the MAC address of the imac to the permitted list. also you may need to manually specify the type of wireless security when you're connecting to the network.

why not just plug into an ethernet port? that's be much easy good.

[Wally]

I am curious, you already posted this somewhere.

Wally

[arkenstone]

Give us the whole error message - mgiht help us help you more

[shihyuan]

Do you know what type of authentication is the password for the wireless network? WEP or WPA?

Try to go to the advanced settings for AirPort again and click the network name and then that tiny pen icon next to + (add) and - (remove) icons which should take you to specifics of the authentication and try to change it from either WEP to WPA Personal, WPA2 Personal etc. it's most likely a wrong setting in the authentication protocol that causes problems.

[jyang]

I doubt the router would have mac filtering as the guy whose house it is doesn't use macs and is a pc freak.

How do i manually enter the settings?

Also I cant use ethernet as his server and modem etc is downstairs stashed away

[jyang]

I think its a WEP. Can I change his settings from my mac? Sorry if these are stupid questions. Beginner

[jyang]

the error message just says incompatible security.

[gaehl]

Originally Posted by jyang

I doubt the router would have mac filtering as the guy whose house it is doesn't use macs and is a pc freak.

MAC = Media Access Control unique address for a network card.
Mac = an Apple computer

[jyang]

Originally Posted by gaehl

MAC = Media Access Control unique address for a network card.
Mac = an Apple computer

Ah, thanks for clearing that up

How do I add/find the MAC address of the imac and how do I add it to the permitted list?

[drewbles]

Originally Posted by gaehl

MAC = Media Access Control unique address for a network card.
Mac = an Apple computer

I laughed at that one too. MAC and Mac are two things

Sounds like it's using WEP/WPA when it should be using the other. Try clicking on the airport logo in your system tray, selecting 'other network' and typing the network SSID in and selecting the WEP/WPA/WPA2 method. Try all three. Also, how many characters is his password? If it's stupidly long, chances are it's WEP. If it's under 10 Characters, chances are it's WPA/WPA2.

YMMV but give it a whirl. Failing that, ethernet is the best option (as mentioned). It is also possible that the AP is using MAC address restrictions as mentioned. Check the Management Interface of the AP for that

[jyang]

his password is ten digits long. Ill try the other network idea. I read elsewhere that you can add a $ to the front of the password and sometimes that works. That true?

[drewbles]

Originally Posted by jyang

his password is ten digits long. Ill try the other network idea. I read elsewhere that you can add a $ to the front of the password and sometimes that works. That true?

Never heard that one. One thing to do would be to check the machines he currently has on his wifi network. The configuration options for his wifi should say if it's WEP/WPA/WPA2 and if it's AES, TKIP or TKIP+AES. They are all pretty standard though.

What type of wifi access point is he using? Can you access the administration page for it via an ethernet connected machine rather than wifi? You can then examine the setup of the WiFi directly from the access point itself, eliminating any confusion.

[jyang]

I can access his router etc, the only prob is i dont know what i'm doing in regards to what port to plug it into etc

[drewbles]

Originally Posted by jyang

I can access his router etc, the only prob is i dont know what i'm doing in regards to what port to plug it into etc

Using a normal ethernet cable, plug your mac into the ethernet switch ports at the back of the router. This will then give you an internet connection. You're still going to need a username and password to access the administration page. Do you have that?

[jyang]

He gave me his network username and password for the wifi. Is that the same thing?
Again sorry for the novice questions

[drewbles]

Originally Posted by jyang

He gave me his network username and password for the wifi. Is that the same thing?
Again sorry for the novice questions

If he gave you a username and password, that won't be for the wifi. The wifi usually just has a password.

Do this:

a) plugin your mac to the router via ethernet using a standard ethernet cable (usually blue, can be yellow if it came with a linksys).
b) Wait 60 seconds or so and try and access the internet
c) if you can access the internet, you'll need to try and access the administration page for the router. This is usually via a web page. To find out the IP address of the router, go to System Preferences -> Network and click on 'Ethernet' on the left. Look on the right for 'Router'. This will usually be something like 192.168.1.254.
d) load Safari/Web broswer and type in "http://" followed by the IP address from the router address you got in part c).
e) Attempt to login using the username/password your friend gave you.

See if you get an admin page. If you do, look for wireless settings (may be under LAN). This will depend on which model you are using.

If you can tell me the access point brand/model it's probably easier to help.

See how you go with that.

[jyang]

Ok I'll give that a go. Ill have a look what the brand is tonight after work and get back to you.
Thanks for all your advice. Much appreciated

[jyang]

Ok, I plugged an ethernet cable into the router and straight away was able to connect to the net. I accessed the modem page and had a look around for wireless settings. When I tried to access them I was prompted for a password which I thought would be the same ten digit number as the password but doesn't seem to want to work