WiFi at school

[iMatt mini]

Someway, somehow, I have no clue, our school's wifi doesn't let Mac's connect. They didn't do it on purpose or anything, they're just idiots and the "tech department" is dumber than me. Except they won't let me help or anything because I'm only a student and they laugh at me when I tell them stuff. Anyone ever heard of Mac's not being able to connect to a wireless connection? It's not just protected (trust me, they couldn't figure that out), some of the teachers with Macs can't connect either. But students running Windows can...
Any ideas?

 

[Shamus]

That is the EXACT thing which is happening to me, except I am the only person in the school who has a mac. The computer 'technician' just sits there all day doing nothing, and when you knock on the door he gets all disgruntled. That part is kinda funny. But I have been trying to get my iBook to connect for about 6 months now, without success. I do know that it can be done. the techy at school has told me that. But he also told me he doesnt know how to do it....and then starts asking me 'why didnt i get a windows.'

hehe, keep trying, im sure you will work it out sometime. If i work something out, ill let you know.

Does your iBook need to have the school 'certificate' installed in the Keychain in order to connect?

 

[CoMpX]

....and then accuses me of getting a macintosh....asking me 'why didnt i get a windows.'

Sorry to get off topic, but I HATE when people say this. They are like, why did you get a Mac? Why didn't you just get a PC? I'm like because I didn't want a frekking PC!!! People are sooo ignorant! But that's a whole other topic.

 

[Shamus]

Sorry to get off topic, but I HATE when people say this. They are like, why did you get a Mac? Why didn't you just get a PC? I'm like because I didn't want a frekking PC!!! People are sooo ignorant! But that's a whole other topic.

hehe, indeed, it is the most frustrating thing, but I dealt with it by telling the techy exactly why I got a mac.....superior OS, way cooler, more intuitive....etc etc....the list goes on . But its hard to tell a windows techy this, especially when they are surrounded by windows computers everyday, and dont know the first thing about how to configure a mac.

 

[ITASOR]

Or you could be like my school. Name the SSID "wireless", broadcast it, leave it totally unprotected, and not hook it up to the firewall/porn blocker that the wired network is hooked up to.

 

[ChrisWB]

Try finding a wifi stumbler such as Kismac. It'll detect the network and, if locked, it'll let you crack it.

 

[grapes911]

It could be a long preamble vs short preamble thing. Macs generally only support the more standard one (I forget which one that is). Many times PCs support both.

If that is the problem, then it is just a simple setting in the router that has to be changed.

 

[Eidorian]

Yeah, I don't see why you can't connect to the network. My university uses a painful authentication process on Windows that's just casually carried out in Internet Connect on OS X.

 

[Shamus]

Yeah, I don't see why you can't connect to the network. My university uses a painful authentication process on Windows that's just casually carried out in Internet Connect on OS X.

Most definately, it can be done, but the problem lies in the techo's not knowing how to configure it.

 

[Shamus]

Or you could be like my school. Name the SSID "wireless", broadcast it, leave it totally unprotected, and not hook it up to the firewall/porn blocker that the wired network is hooked up to.

Yeah, our network was like that last year . Open any app (such as limewire, msn, iTunes etc) and it would automatically bypass the proxy. Free high-speed downloads for all . It, appears the techy has wised up this year though hehe.

 

[yg17]

Yeah, I don't see why you can't connect to the network. My university uses a painful authentication process on Windows that's just casually carried out in Internet Connect on OS X.

802.1x? My university uses that...took 10 seconds to set up on OSX. I had to help a friend with a windows laptop set his up for 802.1x....painful process in Windows.

 

[steelphantom]

Yeah, I don't see why you can't connect to the network. My university uses a painful authentication process on Windows that's just casually carried out in Internet Connect on OS X.

At Penn State, to connect to the network you have to log on to the campus' VPN. On Windows, it's about a 5-step process. On my iBook, I just click the drop-down menu on my menubar and click "Connect." It's the little things...