Automatic connection to wireless before login?

Question

Hi all,
Can anyone tell me how to make my Mac Mini (old PowerPC version) connect to a wireless network at startup, before the user is required to log in? It is running OS X 10.5.8 with a standard configuration.
I have tried playing with the network settings, but it does not seem to associate itself with the wireless network until after a user account has logged in. (Once I do log in, though, wireless association happens quickly and normally.)
Any ideas?
Thanks!
- Essd

Answer 1

Ugh! I was hoping to avoid having to do some UNIX hacking, but since no one else has piped up, I figured out a semi-reasonable way to do it.
In /Library/LaunchDaemons, create a file called "com.example.airport.plist" and place the following in it:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/
PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Debug</key>
<false/>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.example.airport</string>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/YOURUSERNAMEHERE/bin/join-wifi.sh</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
This tells it to run the script /Users/YOURUSERNAMEHERE/bin/join-wifi.sh at start-up. Obviously, replace YOURUSERNAMEHERE with your OS X username so that this corresponds to a folder off your home directory.
Then, in your home directory, make sure that you have a "bin" folder for storing scripts. Create a file therein called join-wifi.sh that contains this:
#!/bin/bash
networksetup -setairportpower en1 on
networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 your-network-name-goes-here 'your-WPA-key-goes-here'
In this last file, replace the your-network-name-goes-here with the name of the wireless network, and replace your-WPA-key-goes-here with your wireless network's password.
The next time you reboot, it should join the wireless network automatically.
That did it for me, but I sure wish there were a more elegant solution!
- essd