When I first got my Macbook (actually, it’s an iBook, I think) I tried to connect to a neighbors wireless network, before I got my own network set up. Problem is, every time I start up my computer, it wants to connect to her wifi network, not my own. How do I fix this?
By default, Macs have a nice habit of remembering every wireless network you ever join, whether it’s six months ago or 17 minutes earlier. This is usually no problem, except sometimes you can get into a situation where it detects one network faster than another and without asking you automatically connects to the wrong 802.11 net.
There are two ways to fix this problem, both of which are done at the very same spot in the Mac OS X system: System Preferences –> Network –> Airport.
You can get to that spot from the Apple menu, of course, but I prefer actually taking a shortcut:
The last item is the shortcut. It’s fast and it takes you directly to:
The solution isn’t on this screen, however. You need to click on “Advanced…”:
That’s the ticket!
If you want to tweak things so that one network is selected in preference to another when both are present, you can simply click and drag the names of the networks to the order you prefer. For example, you might want to have your home network the top priority so that if it’s ever around, you’re connected instantly.
If you’d rather just axe networks that you don’t want, that aren’t relevant anymore or that are from your neighbor, simply click once to select the specified network then click on the “-” button. Poof! Gone.
Finally, if you’d rather that your Mac OS X system didn’t automatically remember every single wireless wifi 802.11 network you join, simply uncheck “Remember any network this computer has joined.”
When you’re done tweaking and fiddling, just click “Okay” and close the System Preferences window.
Done!
I have tried to do all these steps but the net works for the AIRport are in light grey and will not let me move or adjust any of them. Going crazy please help
I’ve read that you can get to the aiport and forget networks. But for me, I don’t see “airport” anywhere on my Mac whenever I open network preferences. I’m still getting automatically joined to this guest network that requires a password whenever I first got here, then I got my own router and got my own wifi. Where can I get to the “airport” in network preferences whenever it doesn’t automatically show up?
Under the wifi menubar icon menu choose “Open Network Preferences”, then click Advanced. You should see a list of networks. Find the one you want to forget, select it, then click the “-” button to forget it. Done.
Does not really work. Yes, you can delete the network, but if you try to connect again it will log on without asking for the network key.
That’s not my experience, Scott. Are you sure you don’t have additional entries for the sane network? Did you *add* the correct preferred network?
Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou! This was driving me CRAZY! LOL. Simple fix!
Thanks Dave!
Thanks, Dave. Works great!
And Steve, the reason your advanced screen is dimmed is because you locked the network screen. Unlock by clicking on the symbol of the lock on the bottom left of your network screen and entering the admin password.
Dave, help!!! I have this problem, but, the “remember any network this computer has joined” is dimmed (greyed out) and I can’t de-select it.
The problem started when I had an old wireless named “homenetwork” and I bought a new router and just set it up with the same name: “homenetwork”. It seems like the Mac is trying to connect to the old one first. I have to manually go in and choose “other” (in the Airport menu) and join it there. This is an older Mac running 10.4.11. Old XP PCx, Kindles, iPhones, etc. have had no issues, just this one Macbook Pro. Is there another way to make it “forget” the old location. I’d rather not rename the network, but I know if there’s no way to do it, that’s probably what I’ll have to do.
I’ve seen that before, Jonny, and I believe the way I fixed it was to restart my computer. At that point it might have been a visible network/password in the Keychain list, but it might have also just vanished (haven’t experimented in a while)
I have tried to join a network at work but I entered my username incorrectly, my mac seems to have remembered the wrong username so the network will not connect. That network has not been added to the list you show above so I have no way of deleting it. Do you know where I can find the saved details for a network that the mac has failed to join? Please help..
Dave, I so wish that I’d seen this yesterday. I was trying to show a new client something on the web and he gave me an incorrect WiFi key for his network. Could I get the Macbook to forget the wrong passcode!!! I couldn’t see where to forget it so that I could enter the correct code – what a mess. I now know how to sort it out. Brilliant….
(It didn’t help when I was told by the client as I fumbled around “You should buy a PC”… 🙂
tried using the “-” button to delete a network, nothing happened.
Awesome. Clear, succinct, straight-forward, to-the-point, and right on the money! Thanks!
Who’s stolen my network Apple 007?
Oh THANK YOU. My neighbor’s crappy, unsecured, slow wireless network was taking over my life. Not any more!
Worked Perfect!!!! If one of the screens are locked make sure you click the small lock on the corner of the window. You just helped me out so much, thanks a lot!!
Fantastic! Seeing my neighbor’s linksys had been driving me batty… it was unsecured for years and I inadvertently found myself using their router for browsing!
What a joke! If I were unethical, I could have canceled our internet service and just used theirs! No wonder that strange car keeps parking near their house and the driver has a laptop! 🙂
So, with this tip, I no longer see linksys, nor will my MacBook Pro log onto to theirs when our router is turned off (we turn it off nightly).
Thank you soo much! I don’t understand why that’s an “Advanced” setting.
Thanks Dave. It’s always a pleasure to see your site ranked 1 on google for an answer I’m looking for.
Thanks so much! I was using my neighbour’s network for a couple weeks after I’d just moved in, and it’ll be nice not to have to switch away from it every time I open my laptop! Site bookmarked.
thanks for information on this worked fine
Thank you so much for this clear explanation and solution! There’s an unprotected network near my house which kept coming up first. I didn’t want to get rid of it forever (in case our system goes down!), and I’d never noticed the priority moving.
I’ll remember to come to you first from now on.
Even if you “forget” a network, AirPort will still automatically connect to a secured network if it finds the key in the Keychain if a preferred network is temporarily unavailable. So make sure you remember to remove the key from the Keychain if you don’t want to switch over to an “old” network if your new one temporarily goes down.