Industry guru Dave Taylor answers free tech support questions about a wide variety of business and technical topics, including blogging, Google AdSense, MySpace, Sony PSP, Apple iPod, Mp3 players, management, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Microsoft Windows.

How can I have my Mac auto-connect to my wifi network?

I don't know what the story is, but sometimes I go to places and my Mac automatically connects to the wireless network, but other times it requires that I select the network. The password to the network is in my "keychain", but something's still missing... ?


Dave's Answer:

The issue you're talking about is related to what Mac OS X calls a preferred network. Depending on how you have things configured, your Mac might well only connect to those networks you've specified as preferred. Generally, any network you access succesfully should be on that list, but I have seen that sometimes it doesn't work. My sneaking suspicion is that it's something to do with 802.11b versus 802.11g networks, but I have no actual data to prove my case. :-)

Let me show you how to specify that a given network is a preferred wireless network, however, and you can go from there...

Start out with Apple --> System Preferences... and choose Network. Most likely, it'll look like this:

Mac OS X: System Preferences: Network: Network Status

If you have something else, no worries. What you want to do is specify Automatic for Location and Airport for Show. Now it'll look like this:

Mac OS X: System Preferences: Network: Airport (wifi/802.11) Status

You can see that I have "By default, join Preferred networks", the other choice is "automatic", but given your description, I'm betting yours is set similarly.

Below that is a list of preferred networks, including Aerie, AngelNet, Steve Hardesty, Angelnet and quite a few more. Frankly, you can see where I use my laptop based on the names of the networks I have on this list!

To change a preferred network connection, select it and click "Edit", and do remove one that you no longer want to have on your preferred (auto-connect) list, simply delete it from the list by selecting it and clicking on the "-" button.

To add a new preferred network, click on "+" and you'll see:

Mac OS X: System Preferences: Network: Airport (wifi/802.11): Add Preferred Network

Type in the name (SSID, base station ID, whatever you want to call it) of the network you want to join, then specify the correct security, if any. If the network does use some sort of password scheme, you'll be promoted for the network access password too: type that in, click "OK" and you should now have a new preferred network on the list, the network you want to be able to automatically join whenever it's detected.



Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Simpy.

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

WOW. this helped me ALOT :)
Thanks Dave :D

Posted by: Matt at December 3, 2007 4:38 AM

funtime thx sionara

Posted by: hy at February 3, 2008 4:11 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!









Remember personal info?


Please note that I will never send you any unsolicited commercial email. Ever.

While I'm at it, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site.









Search
Find just the answers you seek from among our 1700+ free tech support articles by using our Lijit search engine.


Help!





Subscribe to
Ask Dave Taylor!

Add to Google Reader
Add to My Yahoo!
Subscribe in NewsGator Online

RDF   XML

Free Updates!
Sign up and get free weekly updates and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.


Recent Entries
Join the List!
Join my author info mailing list, where you'll learn about my upcoming books, speaking gigs, and more!


Book Links
© 2002 - 2008 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site.

[whiteboard marker tray]