Interference from neighbor's wireless network

Hello,
Whenever I boot up my computer the airport card on it somehow defaults to my neighbor's wireless network. How can I prevent their wayward signal from interfering?
Thanks!

Assuming you are using Tiger, go to System Preferences>Network>AirPort Tab and By Default Join Preferred Networks. Delete all inappropriate networkks, and make sure yours is on the list. Apply the Changes.

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I get booted from my own wireless network whenever my computer sleeps

I just purchased a MacBook and connected it to my already existing wireles network. It works great, but my wife's ibook G4 keeps kicking her off the wireless network whenever her computer sleeps. This never hapened before, but seemed to coincide with my connecting my new MacBook to the network. To reconnect, all she has to do is to select our network from the list that pops up, but that gets annoying if you have to do it every time. Any help?

I too continually get booted, but not even when going to sleep. After a certain period of time, my Powerbook G4 disconnects from my Aiport. AND, everytime I start up, I have to manually select my Airport - it keeps wanting to connect me to the neighbors Linksys first. I have to say "no do not add Linksys to my preferred networks", then I have to manually select my Airport.
How do I stay connected to my PREFERRED network?

Neighbor's wireless network not secured, anyway to block it?

Hi guys,
I'm using road runner and have parental control so that I can monitor my kids using the internet. The problem I have is that one of my neighbor's Linksys wireless network is not secured and my kids are using it to play on line games, you tube, etc. and stay up late at night and not doing home work. Anyway that I can block his signal? Like to have your opinion about this situation. Thank you and any help will be greatly appreciated.
Message Edited by ono8ono on 10-21-2008 01:32 AM

Well, then either lock down the computers of your children, take them away during night. Even if you convinced the last person to secure his wireless network you would still have to tell everyone to use WPA2 or WPA with a strong passphrase. WEP is easily cracked within a few minutes with tools readily available. Plus, if you see eight wireless networks broadcasting their SSID you probably have a few more not broadcasting the SSID, a couple of them will probably be open or WEP secured, too.
And then, once you have them all convinced to use WPA you must constantly monitor the environment for new wireless routers.
So basically, for most people trying to block their children through the router or even through the computer is futile. Children have far better resources at hand to tackle any problem you may cause them limiting internet. The only really reliable way to do this is the good old way of limiting access to the computer/device. Just like TV. Far more reliable, far more secure, far easier to implement, far easier to understand.
If you thought so far that a high tech computer and a high tech router should be able to do high tech things to keep your children out: computers are still dumb devices and no match to a teenager desperate enough.

How do I add a printer to my macbook pro from my home wireless network?

I have a wireless network that includes a printer, a pc, and my MacBook Pro. When I go into system preferences and printers the wireless printer does not appear in the list. What do I need to do to add this wireless printer to my MacBook Pro?

Which os do you have?
Check Apple's Knowledge Base for Printer Troubleshooting solutions and suggestions for your particular os.

My Neighbor's Wireless Network

I'm able to get a wireless signal from my neighbor. However, I'm not able to send/receive mail or publish iWeb updates. Is this is a firewall issue? Is so, is there a workaround?
Thanks.

hi maydayphoto - Welcome to Apple Discussions!
um, does your neighbor agree to this? is he sure his ISP is o.k. w/ this?
if yes and yes, i assume you get a valid IP and can surf the web etc as expected...
if you cannot send/receive email, are you using a web-based service like gmail or yahoo or s'th else? or apple mail? what is your email service when you're not going through your neighbors pipe?
re: publishing iWeb updates: i don't use iWeb, but can you connect to the destination machine in some other way (command-K, or ssh, or (s)ftp, or...)?
overall, you need to provide more details. your neighbor can probably help too (again assuming (s)he agrees to your piggybacking on their connection)....
cheers

Print to Windows Shared Printer from Mac on wireless network

My set up is: HP Deskjet 1050 410 USB to a WIndows 7 PC. The PC has 4 users, each password protected for login and public (not protected) folders. The Macbook is running OS X 10/6/8. I have downloaded the latest HP drivers.
I found the printer on the workgroup network and installed it as the only printer on the Macbook. When I send a job to print, I am prompted to either login as a guest or as a user with a password. Either way, I get an eror message "On Hold (Authentication required)" Under Job Info is the following message "NT_STATUS_INVALID_PARAMETER"
THis is an improvement over what was happening before when I could not find the printer in the list and had to manually use the IP address. Even then, I could not print, I would get a communication error.
The first time I installed the printer driver (an earlier driver and earlier release of OS X 10.6) I had no problems printing from the Macbook. It found the printer and printed without any password authentication. Nothing has changed on the PC, the printer is shared with all users on the network, but I can't seem to print.
I noticed many postings with similar issues but I did not see any resolution. Help! (Thanks!)

hey just want to say thanks to you guys... I just this week switched to Mac after 14 years of heavy PC use. Mac's been awesome except for that I couldn't print to my PC based printer... now I can... and I couldn't of done it with out this apple discussion thread about HPIJS.

Choppy video streaming from samba on wireless network

Hey all,
I have a macbook pro with leopard 10.5.7 installed. The server setup is a Linux server running samba which is wired to a wireless router. I connect my macbook pro wirelessly to the router. Everything is all set up; my computer can connect to the server and browse the files without a problem. However, when I try to watch videos stored on my server through samba, the video is extremely choppy and practically unwatchable. I know this is a wireless problem with my macbook pro because my windows desktop has no problems at all watching videos over the wireless connection and when I wire the laptop directly to the router, the video streams just fine i.e, no choppiness. I have browsed the fourms and the internet but no solution has come up yet. I was hoping someone here might have a solution.
Thanks,
schne1derman

Thank God! I thought I was the only one having this problem.
I also have a Ubuntu box with all my movies and I stream videos wirelessly from it to my macbook using XBMC (ubuntu) and Plex (mac). At first I thought the problem was the wireless G speeds from my previous router so I bought an Airport Extreme Base Station and connected it via ethernet to my existing ADSL/Wireless router on a bridge configuration. Both ubuntu and macbook are now connected at 300Mbps but I'm still experiencing occasional choppy video. The wireless connection stays up at all times so it's not a wireless connectivity issue.
I tried NFS but the problem persisted. I also installed Windows 7 RC on my bootcamp partition and had the exact same problem. Which means it can be an issue with the Airport on the macbook. I don't have another computer with Windows so I cannot say if it would work better on a PC.
At first I suspected the problem was with ubuntu so I posted this on the ubuntu forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7324538
As you can see on the description I was getting those messages on the mac logs:
26/05/09 6:02:19 PM KernelEventAgent[198] tid 00000000 type 'smbfs', mounted on '/Volumes/MediaCenter', from '//ed@ed-linux/MediaCenter', not responding
26/05/09 6:02:19 PM KernelEventAgent[198] tid 00000000 found 1 filesystem(s) with problem(s)
26/05/09 6:02:19 PM loginwindow[197] 1 server now unresponsive
At first I thought it was a problem with the arp tables on the mac. I created a static entry for my ubuntu box. Now the connection is better and the samba volume doesn't disconnect as often and when it does, it reconnects after a while. Before the arp table static entry I had to reconnect manually:
26/05/09 6:02:32 PM kernel smbiodreconnect: Reconnected to ed-linux
One other thing to add. Before installing 10.5.7 (i.e running 10.5.6), I had this problem and the video used to get frozen (samba share disconnection) once or twice on a 1 hour video and reconnected 15 to 20 seconds right after it. Not a big deal. Now it happens several times (5 or 6 times on a 30 minute video) and it takes around 30 to 40 seconds to reconnect.
Message was edited by: edvar

Wireless network is under performing

At my house, I have 2 AXs; one set up as a wireless router connected to my cable, and the other acting as a wireless print server. On my network, I have an iMac, a Mac Mini, a Powerbook, an iBook, and a Tivo.
With this configuration, I had the router set up in b/g mixed-mode, 128bit WEP, and a multicast rate of 5.5. I also have it set to channel 9 to avoid interference from neighboring networks.
Since I don't use my Tivo much and living in a condo I'm concerned about security, I decided to change these settings. Now my router is set to G-only mode, WPA-PSK, and a multicast rate of 24. The PSK passphrase is a 64 character hex string... if that matters.
It's my understanding that each of these changes should increase my network speed, however it's no faster than it was before. All machines are within 75-95% signal strength and there's only one wall separating the iMac from everything else (but there's an open door which should help some).
I set up file sharing between the iMac and Powerbook and transferred a 250MB file. It took 7.5minutes which equates to about 4.4Mb/s... that's poor even for an 802.11b network!!! I was expecting something in the 15-20Mb/s range.
Any ideas on why my network would be so slow?
Thanks

After doing some research, I decided to make some more changes to my network to improve performance:
1.) Raised the AX base station from about 4" off the ground to 24" and placed it in front of my TV.
2.) Turned WDS on the AX base station and added the AX print server as a remote station. This remote station is near my iMac.
3.) Lowered the multicast rate from 24 to 5.5 and then to 2.
I also tried going to 802.11b-only mode, but that didn't help.
The good news is that I got about 6Mb/s when transferring a file from my iMac to my Powerbook via ssh. So, I figure over an unencrypted connection it might be closer to 10Mb/s.
The bad news is that streaming my iTunes content from my iMac to my Powerbook didn't work much better. I'd get about 30-45s of continuous streaming and then it'd start skipping. Since my recording settings yield 2.1GB/hr files, I figure I need about 6Mb/s to stream it which I should be getting.
I've been told by people that when operating in 802.11g mode, speeds are very sensitive to signal strength. I wouldn't think this would be much of an issue in my condo since all machines are within 20ft of each other and only 1 wall separates the second AX and iMac from everything else. However, if I just use the readings from the Konfabulator WiFi widget, I'm still in the mid-upper 70% signal range on both machines. From what I was told, anything under 90% causes significant slow downs.
So, what else could I try? I suppose I could cash in the $125 of Apple gift certs I got for Xmas (that I wanted to save until after MWSF!!) and get an Airport Extreme base station and antenna, but will that really help???

Will several wireless networks in the same house disrupt APort connection?

I live in a two-family house and in the past week my AirPort has detected several new networks which I have good reason to believe are coming from the upstairs unit. I'm about to get Fios installed but am worried that there will be so much interference from all the other networks (I haven't a clue why they've created so many) that I will have major problems with my wireless connection. Given that I have a Powerbook I don't really wanted to be tethered to a modem.
Also, I know that an 'n' card would put me on a different frequency, but I'm pretty sure I can't upgrade to that on my old G4-is this correct?

At least two networks on each of those channels is a lot. Their effect on a wireless "g" network that you create can't be determined until you try it though. At the very least I'd suspect network-intensive activity such as streaming video or even Airtunes will be a problem, but those other networks present too many unknown variables to be certain.
Here's Wikipedia's entry for "dongle": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle I recall its original use amounted to slang, but it seems to have crept into common acceptance.
Head over to the Powerbook G4 forum. The USB adapter I've seen recommended is this one from Other World Computing:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_XLR8YourMac.cfm?ID=10303&Item=NWTMXP802NU2C
I have no personal experience with it so do some research to make sure it will work for you. OWC's support is excellent.
I don't recall the problem with the visiting Macbook Pro. It's not able to connect to anything, anywhere?

Graphite Connects to Someone Else's Wireless Network

When I startup my eMac (10.4.8) I sometimes cannot connect to the internet via Airport. I discover, upon launching Internet Connect, that I am connected, but not on our wireless network. Instead, Airport shows me connected on something called "linksys" (which I assume is a neighbor's wireless network), and the signal is very weak. I can switch to our network via Internet Connect & all is well, but it's a hassle having to go through this every time. It used to be that I'd immediately be connected to our own wireless network & Airport upon startup. Help! How can I "teach" my Airport to always connect via OUR network & not "linksys"???

Try each of the following, in order, until resolved:
1. Run the Disk Utility to repair Disk Permissions.
2a. Delete Preferred Network(s)
- System Preferences > Network > AirPort > Configure
- In the "By default, join:" pull-down menu, select "Preferred networks"
- Delete the network(s) you regularly use from the list
2b. Delete AirPort Keychain Entries
- Launch the "Keychain Access" application located in Applications/Utilties.
- Click on the "Kind" filter at the top, and look for any "AirPort network password" entries...and delete them.
- Restart, or log out then back in.
2c. Add Preferred Network(s)
- System Preferences > Network > AirPort > Configure
- In the "By default, join:" pull-down menu, select "Preferred networks"
- Add the preferred network(s) using the "+" button.
- Restart or log out then back in.
3. Create a New User Account
- Create a new user account.
-- System Preferences > Accounts
-- Click "+" to add a new account
- Log off, then log back on with the new user account.
- Try connecting with the AirPort.

WVC210 Camera selects wrong wireless network ... How to select wireless network? (multiple networks)

I have a WVC210 camera that works fine wired.
But I can not use it wirelessly, because on startup it connects to the wrong wireless network. All of my neighbors have wireless networks, so there are six wireless networks within range of the camera, it is therefore not suprising that the camera might select the wrong one first.
So.. how do I specify the wireless network that I want my camera to connect to?
I have tried various experiments, such as disabling all security on my wirless networks, but the WVC210 camera still selects the wrong wireless network.
I can tell that it is going to the wrong network, because after DHCP completes on my camera, the resolved IP is not from the subnet of the wireless network in my house.
For comparison, I found the PDF for a Linksys WVC54GCA it is possible to select from all available wireless networks... But I can't find a way with my WVC210 to select from all available wireless networks and stop the WVC210 from defaulting to the wrong wireless network.
Is there a way to list the available wireless networks and specify a chosen wireless network with the WVC210
For reference search for "select wireless" in the following PDF to see how this is acomplished with the Linksys Wireless G camera:
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=Content-Type&blobheadername...
What is the equivalent technique for the WVC210?

Hi,
I bought linksys wireless ip camera wvc210 four years back. I lost camera installation CD. I tried to search it on internet but failed. Can you send me the link from where I can download or email me at [email protected]
regards
Hassan

Legality of using an unsecured wireless network

If you pop open your laptop and see it has found a wireless connection and you know it isn't a public access point, is there anything wrong with using it?

j.v. wrote:
I pay for my own DSL service, and I lock down my wireless access, so I really don't have a dog in this fight, but if it's not considered to be theft of services at Starbucks, then it would seem to me (granted, I'm no lawyer) that it would be incumbent upon the owner of the service to inform the freeloader that it was NOT an open public access point, if the owner doesn't want the freeloader to use it.
No, as Starbucks is explicitly providing wireless Internet for customer use (and it's not free, either.)
After such notification is given in writing, then I could see continued use being considered theft of service. I've read the analogies here of "if the front door of the neighbor's house is unlocked, is it okay to take his TV?" But how about this analogy? "If the neighbor sits his 60" HDTV inside the unlocked front door of your house, is it okay to keep/use the TV?"
This is the same argument posited by the first satellite "pirates" who used the argument that the signals were being broadcast into their backyards so they were free to obtain the equipment capable of receiving and viewing it without paying.
Though signal providers then scrambled, the "it's being broadcast, I can receive it" paradigm has been shot down in court again and again. Look at analog cell phones in the U.S. - it was illegal to listen to the unencrypted phone calls, and the U.S. Government enforced this by making sale of receivers that could receive the band in question unavailable to the general public.
A TechRepublic blog (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=356) stated, in part:
Many states have criminal laws that prohibit accessing any computer or network without the owner’s permission. For example, in Texas, the statute is Penal Code section 33.02, Breach of Computer Security. It says, “A person commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses a computer, computer network or computer system without the effective consent of the owner.” The penalty grade ranges from misdemeanor to first degree felony (which is the same grade as murder), depending on whether the person obtains benefit, harms or defrauds someone, or alters, damages, or deletes files.
The wording of most such laws encompasses connecting to a wireless network without explicit permission, even if the wi-fi network is unsecured. The inclusion of the culpable mental state of “knowing” as an element of the offense means that if your computer automatically connects to your neighbor’s wireless network instead of your own and you aren’t aware of it, you haven’t committed a crime — but if you decide to hop onto the nearest unencrypted wi-fi network to surf the Internet, knowing full well that it doesn’t belong to you and no one has given you permission, you could be prosecuted under these laws.
A Michigan man was arrested for using a café’s wi-fi network (which was reserved for customers) from his car in 2007. Similar arrests have been made in Florida, Illinois, Washington, and Alaska.
Bottom line - pay for your own Internet and encrypt your network if you have a wireless access point or router to stay legal.

Apple TC and Netgear Router behaving as one Wireless Network

Having had a problem recently with an HP 7520 printer suddenly begin to disconnect and reconnect to the wireless network of my Apple TC I have tried several workarounds.
My setup includes a Netgear Modem/ Router (providing wireless network A) which is connected to an Apple TC (providing wireless network B) by an ethernet cable. The Netgear hands out ip addresses to all devices on my network and the TC is in Bridge Mode and provides the wireless network that all my computers and devices connect to.
To try and identify if the issue is with my printer or something to do with my network or routers I tried connecting my printer to the Netgear router (wireless network A) seperate from all the other devices on my network which are still connected to the TC (wireless network B). This seems to have stopped the printer from repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting from the wireless network so it looks like a recent firmware update to the Apple TC may be the cause for the repeated disconnections.
As the printer is now on a different network to all my other devices I would, from all I've ever read about networking, not expect to be able to print from devices on wireless network B to the printer now on wireless network A but I can. All devices are connecting wirelessly to my networks. The only wired link is from the Netgear to the TC which if disconnected stops the ability to print from devices on wireless network B to the printer on network A. It is as if the ethernet connection between the two routers is connecting the two wireless networks together. Bothe wireless networks have a different SSID and different types of security and passwords. Is this normal behaviour? Am I missing something obvious?
Thanks for any help offered.

Sorry I have to copy and paste to just read your reply now.. stupid site.
If I understand you correctly in effect the TC is a client of the Netgear router so is just another access point on the Network. Rather than connecting to the Netgear via a wireless connection, it is connected with an Ethernet cable and receives an IP address from the Netgear like any other device. Although the Netgear and TC create 2 different wireless networks/ access points it is actually just one network?
Yes, all just one big happy network now.
Any idea why my printer has started disconnecting/ reconnecting approx every 5 mins from the TC wireless network? This has only just started in the last couple of months and does not appear to happen when the printer is connected via the Netgear wireless network connection.
I think you mentioned in your first post a suspicion about the latest firmware.. it is really poor.. downgrade to 7.6.1 and I think it will work better.
But also remember HP is a PC company.. have you setup your TC with all nice SMB names.. short, no spaces pure alphanumeric.. not nasty apple names with horrible worms.. like these, ' and spaces..
Also too much auto .. fix and lock everything down.. mode, channels, etc.
Another question you might be able to help with. Would it make any difference, good or bad, if I just used the Netgear as a modem and let the TC do all the routing functions?
The Netgear must be able to be bridged and the TC has to be able to get authentication.. I am not sure if this is adsl or cable.. but if adsl and your ISP uses pppoe then yes it is possible and routing with the TC is ok.. no better than the Netgear though.. and worse .. much worse if you have PC or games consoles. All of which want upnp which TC cannot supply.

When I change the setting on my third generation time capsule to "extend a wireless network", the update fails. Why?

I purchased a new router. Everything is working great except for a third-generation time capsule which will not accept a change from join a wireless network to extend a wireless network as it did before. Does anyone know how to fix that?

You cannot extend a non-apple router..
So what new router did you buy?? If it don't have an Apple Symbol on it.. it aint gonna work.

TC can't join existing wireless network

Hi,
yesterday I played around with my TC and tried to extend my existing wirelss network. Therefore I changed the settings from "Connect to wireless network" to "Extend a wireless network". After I found out that this feature only works on only n-enabled networks I wanted to set everything back to "Connect to wireless network". But this option disappeared! And I can't get it back on my network.
What did I wrong? Can I reset everything (keep my Backups) and connect it again? Of course, I didn't save my configuration at first hand! The software version is 7.3.2
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Okay, some days later I found out that the feature I was looking for is not provided in the "expert mode" where you can tweak the settings on your own. Nope, "Connect TC with an existing network" is only provided in the assisted setup.
A little bit astonishing not to list all possibilities in the expert mode but that's life...

Interference from neighbor's wireless network

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