Can mac os x connect to Airport pre-logon?

Question

Hi all,
I'm trying to get an iBook to connect to a wireless network pre-logon. Here's what's in place:
Windows 2003 domain (active directory based), mac XServe (10.4.2) 'managing' the mac clients on the network, in terms of security and all the rest of it.
The iBook is bound to the active directory domain, and all is working properly when the ethernet cable is plugged in, but we have a pretty big issue with airport.
I want to know whether i can set the iBook up so that it joins our wireless network when it boots up, so that active directory users can login to the laptop via wireless. I know that we can use 'mobile' accounts, but what about users that almost never logon to the iBook..
I want to get away from using mobile accounts.
I can save all the wireless information into Internet Connect (under a 802.1x connection), is there any way of accessing this when the computer boots up, so it automatically logs on to the wireless network, and then we have full network access? This MUST happen pre-logon.
if anyone has an ideas, please let me know!
David.

Answer 1

I'm trying to figure out the same thing.
OSX Client 10.3.9
Airport Extreme client adapter v400.17 (3.90.34.0.p11)
Airport utility is 4.2
AP is Cisco 1230AG, with Microsoft Win2003 Server IAS backend.
eapolclient - this is the 802.1x client.
I am able to connect manually after logon using EAP-TLS, by putting the CA cert in X509Anchors, and identity cert in System (private+public pair). eapolclient accesses the keychain successfully, and automatically logs on (without the password prompt).
But when I logout, or switch user, the connection drops. And a reboot doesn't connect either.
I also notice that the "eapolclient" process disappears in these cases.
Would this issue be related to the eapolclient running as a user space program at runtime, rather than being a "system" process run at boot time.
Anyone come across a reason for this? Fixes? Bugs identified.