Configure iMac Airport for WPA/WPA2 ? ?

[drayman86]

I can't seem to find the option under System Preferences/Sharing/Internet that allows me to set my Aiport Extreme in my iMac for WPA/WPA2 security for internet sharing.

Am I missing an update? Software update check shows all software current.

Is there a download I'm missing?

Thanks!

 

[mkrishnan]

Internet sharing allows, as far as I know, for WEP but not for WPA.

I'm not sure if you're trying to do something OS X does not support or you're confused in doing something it does:

Internet sharing means, in essence, that the Mac acts as the router. You plug an ethernet cable into it and then it broadcasts a network over Airport, to which other computers can make 802.11 connections either using no security or WEP. It doesn't support WPA, MAC filtering, or anything else fancy like that.

If you use a router, then you don't set the wireless security setting on the Mac -- you set it on the router. You turn WPA2 on, on the router, and then the Mac automatically follows suit and connects with WPA2. You don't need to adjust the internet sharing prefs for this.

 

[drayman86]

Thanks for the prompt reply !

Internet sharing means, in essence, that the Mac acts as the router. You plug an ethernet cable into it and then it broadcasts a network over Airport, to which other computers can make 802.11 connections either using no security or WEP. It doesn't support WPA, MAC filtering, or anything else fancy like that.

If you use a router, then you don't set the wireless security setting on the Mac -- you set it on the router. You turn WPA2 on, on the router, and then the Mac automatically follows suit and connects with WPA2. You don't need to adjust the internet sharing prefs for this.

I suppose I am a bit confused.

I'm sharing the Built-In Ethernet connection through Airport, right?

Airport functions as both a wireless router AND a wireless receiver, right?

It was suggested that my iMac cannot share an internet connection with a PC running XP due to the fact that the iMac's security setting is using the "antiquated" WEP encryption format. I was directed to the Airport Extreme Utility within my iMac to change from WEP to WPA or WPA2. When I access the AP utility, there's no option to change security settings for the Airport Extreme in the iMac.

Girlfriend's G4 can share my connection and network with my iMac using the WEP encryption, but the PC cannot.

This is my problem: PC using XP cannot access the network on my iMac.

Didn't have any luck with a solution in the Hardware forum, so thought I'd try this iMac forum.

Thanks for all the views and replies.

 

[mkrishnan]

Mmm, okay....

I did some googling too... there seems to be some compatibility issue where, if you use WEP with internet sharing, you cannot connect an XP client, although occasionally people claim that it did work for them. You cannot use WPA with internet sharing.

You have a couple of options....

1) Your best option is to get a wireless router. 802.11g routers that use WPA, such as Netgear's WGR614 and Linksys' WRT54G cost very little (shop around and you can get them for $20-30), and they really solve all your problems. Plus that particular Mac does not need to be on or awake for the network to work. The Apple hardware, such as the Airport Express or Extreme BaseStation, are also good options, although much more expensive.

2) Otherwise, you can turn the security off on the network.

Sorry.... I personally would get a router. Internet sharing is fine for occasional use, but your setup really is sufficiently complicated that you should just get a router.

 

[Sherman Homan]

I second the motion for a router. The ability of the Mac to provide internet sharing is convenient in a jam, but you have three machines. Even if you figure out how to get them all connected with decent security, your host Mac can never go to sleep. You will pay for a router in the course of a year!

 

[drayman86]

Thanks for all the responses and the views of this thread.

Just another question, if I may?


If I install a router, does this mean that the router will then serve as the way to share my internet connection, instead of through the iMac's built-in Airport? (OK, I'm a total newbie to wireless networking.)

P.S. The local Mac guy at Comp USA suggested that the file sharing option had to be enabled for both the iMac AND the PC. Logical?

 

[drayman86]

Sorry.... I personally would get a router. Internet sharing is fine for occasional use, but your setup really is sufficiently complicated that you should just get a router.

Oh, well. I guess no technology is perfect, even an iMac.

 

[Sherman Homan]

Just another question, if I may?


If I install a router, does this mean that the router will then serve as the way to share my internet connection, instead of through the iMac's built-in Airport? (OK, I'm a total newbie to wireless networking.)

P.S. The local Mac guy at Comp USA suggested that the file sharing option had to be enabled for both the iMac AND the PC. Logical?

First question: yes. The router becomes the point of contact to the internet. It gets the one public IP address from your ISP. The router then does a bunch of magic with electrons and provides a range of internal IP addresses for your Mac, PC, XBox, Wii, whatever.
Second question: That is why he will always work at CompUSA, forever.

 

[mkrishnan]

Yeah, so the router will let all your devices have either wired or wireless connections. If that desktop mac has a wireless card, it can just join in wirelessly, otherwise, it can be plugged in via ethernet. The two laptops can join via ethernet. You can typically have four ethernet devices (computers, DVRs, printers, network attached storage, video game consoles, etc) and more or less as many wifi devices as you want (laptops, desktops, PDAs and smartphones that have Wifi, handheld game consoles, etc).

P.S. The local Mac guy at Comp USA suggested that the file sharing option had to be enabled for both the iMac AND the PC. Logical?

To clarify the previous response ( incidentally) when you share files, one computer *serves* a disk to the other. The computer in which the disk is physically placed is the host or server, and the other computer is the client. The basic rule is that servers need to have the options enabled and clients do not. So if you want a PC disk accessible on the Mac, you have to enable file sharing on the PC and then you find the PC in the network neighborhood of the Mac. If you want to have the Mac disk available on the PC, you enable file sharing on the Mac, and you find it in the network neighborhood of the PC. Make sense? You would only enable file sharing on both if they were both serving volumes.

 

[saxify]

solved

here's something i've dug up on another forum, it works, i now share my ethernet on my mbp with an xp and win7 machines
"To conclude the original question, i tried adding the WiFi network manually and had success with the following:
set up standard 128-bit WEP-protected WiFi internet sharing on Mac
on Windows go to Wireless Network Connection Properties/Wireless Networks
add new WiFi network
enter network name matching your Mac access point
set Network Authentication: Shared <------------THIS IS WHAT WAS THE ISSUE FOR ME
set Data Encryption: WEP
uncheck "The key is provided automatically" option and enter (and repeat) your 13 character password under "Network key"
uncheck "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication ..." under Authentication tab


p.s. you can generate a wep key using this site http://www.wepkey.com/ it will automatically show you 60b and 128b equivalent of a word(password) of your choice