Michael G. Noll
My digital moleskine

1. Emilio Guede Jr. Aug 27.06 / 3am

   Finally, a piece of advice that solved my problem. Switched to 128 WEP encryption and solved the slowdown. Now my wireless connection is as fast as wired. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
2. Michael G. Noll Aug 30.06 / 4pm

   Great to hear it works for you, Emilio!

   Be aware however that WEP (even with 128 bit) is too weak an encryption and can easily bypassed by attackers. If you have an alternative encryption method available such as WPA/WPA2 with AES, I strongly recommend switching.

   Just to give you an example, the German law forbids unauthorized access to “secured networks”, meaning that any break-in attempt would be violating current law. However, German legislature does not consider WEP-encrypted WLANs as “secured networks” anymore based on the argumentation that it is publicly known that WEP encryption has been broken already. This means (at least in Germany), if you are using WEP and fall victim to a cracker attack exploiting WEP’s weakness, you’re out of luck from a judicial point of view.
3. Emilio Guede Jr. Sep 26.06 / 12am

   One of my routers, unfortunately, does not support WPA2, so I’ll have to stick to 128-bit WEP to avoid the slowdown. Thanks for the tip, though.
4. Jason Bennett Nov 26.06 / 7am

   I had the same thing happen with my new MacBook Pro. Changing to WPA2/AES corrected the problem, but now I can’t seem to join my Airport Express to the (3rd party) network. WPA/TKIP allowed both the MacBook Pro and the AE on the network, but with a major performance hit on the MacBook.

   Any suggestions?
5. Michael G. Noll Nov 26.06 / 5pm

   The Airport Express supports WPA2/AES, at least if you are running a recent firmware (see the links to the Airport Express Updates on the right side). However, some users report problems when adding the Airport Express to a WPA2/AES network.

   I suggest you take a look at the official Airport Express support forum on Apple’s website. Can’t help you much here as I neither have a MacBook Pro nor an Airport Express station.
6. Jason Bennett Nov 27.06 / 9pm

   I spoke with the Apple support folks who assured me that the MacBook Pro works with WPA/TKIP so I tried it again and it works fine now. The AE station also works. It could be that other changes and updates corrected the problems I was having, but I’ll never know.
   Thanks.
7. Darlene Dec 14.06 / 7am

   Occasionally, I notice that my wireless connection is changed to a “linksys” in my area. Of course, that is not my network and wanted to know if there is a way to lock my WiFi in to my own connection and not some other network in the area. I use WPA Personal, MAC filtering, SSID not broadcasted, etc. Does anyone know what would cause my wireless connection on my MacBook to change without my knowledge?
8. Michael G. Noll Dec 14.06 / 7am

   Darlene, configuring Airport to use “preferred networks” should do the trick.

   To do so, go to System Preferences > Network and select Show: Airport. On the Airport tab below, set the By default, join: dropbox to Preferred networks and put your own network name on top of the list (you may want to remove all the others you don’t need).

   Hope that helps, Michael
9. Luke Mar 23.07 / 7pm

   I have the 17″ MacBook Pro Core2Duo. I can connect with no security, WEP and WPA2…but, not with WPA. The problem is that my other wireless notebooks don’t have WPA2 available and I’m not comfortable using WEP or no security. Kind of stuck here, with no more updates to install. Let’s see if my support call to Apple causes any fixes.
10. Luke May 09.07 / 6pm

    Same problem here with iMac Intel Core Duo, only works correctly with WEP haven’t been able to get WPA/WPA2 working as I get 10-20% packet loss on ping.

    This has happened with both a Linksys and D-link wireless router. Currently making do with packet loss but very annoying still looking for a solution.
11. Paul Larguinho Jun 17.07 / 3pm

    Have a Mac Mini with Intel Core Duo 1.66MHz., and a new Airport Extreme N Base Station. Also have a Asus Pundit P1 with Win. XP and a W138g Wireless PCI Card and a Toshiba Satellite A200-12X laptop with Win. Vista and a Wirleess Draft n card. The Mac and the Base Station will work with WPA/WPA2 Personal on. The Toshiba will also work with WPA/WPA2, but can’t find the HP6800 printer on the Base Station. The Asus finds the wireless network that my Base Station is transmitting but cannot plug into it(arrgh!!). I did buy the Apple Base Station for it’s known “simplicity” in setting up a wireless network but it look’s like that in not that simple. Any suggestions?
12. Michael G. Noll Jun 18.07 / 5pm

    Hi Paul, sad to hear you are struggling with WLAN setup. Unfortunately, I neither own nor have any experience with an Airport base station, so I can’t really help you out there.

    One thing you should make sure is that the encryption settings are the same for all devices (e.g., you might have WPA with TKIP or WPA2 with AES configured – check that all devices including the base station have exactly the same settings). While my Mac – set to WPA/WPA2 Personal – has so far been able to auto-detect whether to use WPA or WPA2 etc., I had to manually specify the WLAN settings for my PC laptop so it would use WPA2/AES and not any other combinations such as WPA2/TKIP. So it might be a good idea to read the Airport base station manual and find out which encryption settings are offered by the base station to potential WLAN clients when it is set to “WPA/WPA2 Personal”, and then set your PC devices to these values.

    If this doesn’t solve your problem, what about contacting Apple support?

    EDIT: As an example, my Palm TX comes with WPA/TKIP support but does not understand WPA2/AES without a paid update. Your HP printer might suffer from similar limitations. The printer manual should give you all the details.
13. kevin Jul 04.07 / 9pm

    I am trying to connect wirelessly to a router and modem in my home. When I view my available connections i can see the network. however when i try to connect it says an error occured and can not connect. Now the airport is fine since it connects to the neighbors network. Also, my roomate can connect to this network in our home, and i have double checked to make sure i was attempting to connect to the proper one. Any ideas? I am totally stumped. Thanks.
14. Michael G. Noll Jul 05.07 / 12am

    Maybe double check if the password you entered is correct…?
15. kevin Jul 05.07 / 3am

    there is no password protection on it. thanks anyhow, maybe the router is too old.
16. sim Aug 29.07 / 1am

    hi, my laptop is not detecting my own network but detecting other unsecure networks. how to enable laptop to detect my prefferred network, and also stop covering of others. thanx
17. Michael G. Noll Aug 29.07 / 1am

    Hello Sim,

    seems like you’re having a general problem with your wireless networking setup, so this article might not really help you. The best thing you can do to fix your problem is to read and follow the instructions on Apple’s support website:

    Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger Support: Getting Online (general networking tips)
    Apple Support: AirPort (going wireless with AirPort)

    Hope this helps, Michael
18. Simon Sep 02.07 / 11am

    Hey,

    Finding this page has done wonders for my sanity! I am using the new imac (alu intel core duo 2) to acces the web via a Netgear WNR834B. I have tried hard resets and updated all firmware on the router and updated my mac.

    I can access the web with security off but as soon as I click WPA-PSK (TKIP) + WPA2-PSK (AES) I cant. The router only has the following 2 settings for wireless security:-

    None
    WPA-PSK (TKIP) + WPA2-PSK (AES)

    Accessing the network with no security is fine, but not ideal.

    Using WPA-PSK (TKIP) + WPA2-PSK (AES) gives me a message of ‘there has been an error connecting to netgear’

    The starnge thing is I also have a Macbook pro, same OS as my imac and I can access the web fine with the security on?

    Help!

    Confused in England.
    Si
19. Michael G. Noll Sep 04.07 / 12pm

    Hi Simon, here are some suggestions, or better: guesses.

    - are you sure you entered the password correctly?
    - is MAC filtering enabled on the router, and if so, is the MAC address of your laptop 1) entered and 2) entered correctly?
    - is the wireless network’s SSID hidden? Some of my machines had problems connecting to the WLAN when its SSID was hidden, and they worked fine when it wasn’t

    Hope this helps,
    Michael
20. human_v09 Sep 08.07 / 5pm

    For what it’s worth, disabling and reenabling the Airport allowed me to successfully reconnected to a no-name wireless router after changing the cipher mode on the router from TKIP to AES. Initially I kept getting the “error connecting to” message.
21. Michael G. Noll Sep 08.07 / 7pm

    Interesting observation, human_v09. Thanks for your tip!
22. Pluggo Oct 25.07 / 3pm

    Finding this page has done wonders for my sanity! I am using the new imac (alu intel core duo 2) to acces the web via a Netgear WNR834B. I have tried hard resets and updated all firmware on the router and updated my mac.

    I can access the web with security off but as soon as I click WPA-PSK (TKIP) + WPA2-PSK (AES) I cant. The router only has the following 2 settings for wireless security:-

    None
    WPA-PSK (TKIP) + WPA2-PSK (AES)

    Accessing the network with no security is fine, but not ideal.

    Using WPA-PSK (TKIP) + WPA2-PSK (AES) gives me a message of ‘there has been an error connecting to netgear’

    The starnge thing is I also have a Macbook pro, same OS as my imac and I can access the web fine with the security on?

    – - – - Simon is having precisely the same problem I am with the same hardware. Did any of the suggestions help?? I am getting frustrated. I will try the MAC address and filters tonight. Thanks! Please post results!!
23. Michael G. Noll Oct 25.07 / 8pm

    I haven’t received any news from Simon, so I can’t tell you if it finally worked for him or not.

    You might also want to test what happens when you set the wireless settings of your Mac to use “WPA Personal” (WPA/TKIP) and then “WPA2 Personal” (WPA2/AES). If I remember correctly, I could connect with both settings but only the latter (WPA2/AES) would give me a high-speed network link.
24. Michael Barrett Dec 27.07 / 8pm

    WOW!!! Thank you for this advice. I swear I was about to trade the iMac in for another PC. Excellent information!!!
25. Graham Jan 04.08 / 9pm

    Same problem as Simon and Pluggo, except i cannot get acceptable page loading speed on my 9 month old imac 24 cd whether i set my netgear wnr834b to WPA or to no security at all, and the drop off is getting worse. For 6 months after buying the imac it worked fine then started slowing around October time. I upgraded to Leopard when it came out but this made no change. If I put the imac downstairs, close to the router it works OK but this is still an unexplained deterioration of performance which relates to the imac – my Macbook intel cd works fine in any location in my 2 floor house. Before xmas i took it to my local warranty dealer who could find no fault (close to their access point no doubt) but they did replace the airport card just in case after consulting apple engineers. No change -I have updated the firmware and re-done every setting i can think of but this is driving me mad. Looking across the web i can see many people having airport problems with their macs – is Apple likely to even acknowledge this never mind do something about it? I have only been a convert for about a year and am seriously thinking of going back to PCs unless anyone can help. Thanks for listening
26. Bert Wilhelm Jan 17.08 / 5pm

    Hello all,

    I am so glad to hear I was not the only one going crazy with the iMac Duo.

    I have a 2Wire model 2701HG-B from AT&T and it has been configured for WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK and TKIP. The 2Wire did not give me an option to select TKIP or AES, it just defaulted to TKIP.

    My laptops were able to connect, but not the iMac.

    I discovered other forums regarding WPA and WPA2 when it comes to TKIP and AES options.

    Here is some of the info I pulled.
    “In the WPA spec, support for AES is optional while support for TKIP is mandatory. The WPA2 spec makes AES support mandatory.

    Because AES is not a mandatory part of WPA, you’ll find manufacturers and the WiFi Alliance touting AES encryption as one of the benefits of WPA2 devices, but AES has been working great in devices that came out long before the 802.11i spec was officially ratified.”

    Some router vendors has chosen not to support AES in WPA like 2Wire. Once I changed to WPA2-PSK, the iMac was able to connect and get access to the internet and local resources.

    My laptops supported WPA2-AES with a driver upgrade. Contact your laptop vendor for the driver.

    Hope this helps everyone.
27. Alex Robertson Jan 21.08 / 3pm

    Hi there,
    Got a new intel iMac (alu) and had these problems.
    Got a new airport base station but that didnt help, so changed the security to ones listed and it works fine now… However…
    have used bootcamp to install a windows partition and for some reason windows will not let me connect!!
    Obviously ive checked passwords etc, and it appears on the network list. When i go to connect it wont even let me enter a password it just sits there doing nothing! (Win XP)

    Any ideas?
28. Michael G. Noll Jan 23.08 / 5pm

    Hi Alex,

    nice to hear that these tricks helped you to solve your wireless troubles on Mac OS X!

    Regarding your question about your iMac’s connection problems on Windows XP, I’m sorry to say I don’t have any experience with Bootcamp or running Windows natively on a Mac. Maybe someone other than me can help you out?

    Michael
29. Daniel Feb 01.08 / 8pm

    This fix has been working for 2 days straight! Keep your fingers crossed! Thank you, Mr. Noll. Why hasn’t Apple said anything about this?!

    I still have a small problem, Airport won’t connect automatically to my wifi network upon wake-up and start-up; I have to manually select the network under the Airport icon. But this is minor compared to not being able to connect at all!

    Dan
30. Runbuh Feb 01.08 / 11pm

    Thank you everyone for this great dialog. I just “switched” to an iMac and was becoming very frustrated with the wireless issue. Alex – the person who was asking why XP wasn’t working – please ensure that you have applied the XP WPA2 update (this was a post-SP2 update). I think you can search the M$ support site for KB893357. The key to the Microsoft XP world is that both the network driver, and the OS itself, must support WPA2 (assuming you are using Microsoft’s Wireless Zero Config). The KB will get the OS updated. I’m not sure what you need to do in a BootCamp scenario to get the wireless NIC drivers updated (I just got my iMac yesterday).

    OH – he’s the Microsoft URL for the update:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357/en-us
31. Runbuh Feb 02.08 / 2am

    As a follow-up, thanks again! I just got home and reconfigured my router to support WPA-PSK + WPA2-PSK with TKIP + AES. My iMac is now speeding along wirelessly. Even with the keyboard and mouse being Bluetooth, everything is cranking along. Woo-hoo!
32. Daniel Feb 21.08 / 10am

    I can’t believe it , I’ve finally got Leopard on my brand new iMac, which was supposed to come with it pre-installed! A friend who has Leapord came over and saw my screen and icons and said, ‘that doesn’t look like Leopard, you should reinstall.’ We did, and now everything works great (including printer, Bluetooth A2DP and Spotlight, which hadn’t been working prior). Airport works, too, but it was working before thanks to the WPA fix. Somehow my Intel iMac, purchased in December from the San Francisco/Marina Mac Store, came with a faulty OS installation. I wasted soooo much time trying to fix it when I just needed to reinstall (w/o erasing my HD). Maybe this can help others having similar problems. Happy Mac-ing!
33. Dan in Austin May 06.08 / 12am

    I have the 24 inch Imac and I am experiencing the weirdest thing. My Airport finds my network connects completely and when I try and pull up a web page via Safari I get an error message stating the server quit responding.

    Keep in mind that when I run a diagnostics it shows me as completely connected with a strong signal!

    All my laptops are able to connect AND pull up a web page just not the IMAC. Both Apple and DLink are stumped. I just want to pull up a website on my Imac via wireless but I cant but ALL my other boxes can! Any suggestions?
34. Michael G. Noll May 06.08 / 8am

    Hi Dan,

    wireless connectivity (WLAN/Airport) and network settings (most likely TCP/IP for you) are two different kinds of things.

    Even if you can successfully connect to your WLAN with the iMac, you must still make sure that the “normal” network settings. Think of correct WLAN settings/connectivity as an equivalent of proper physical cabling in cable-bound networks. In both cases, you still have to set up your computer in terms of network configuration.

    In other words: if you use DHCP, is DHCP enabled for your iMac? If you don’t use DHCP, you might have to set the iMac manually to a correct IP address etc.

    Another thing to keep in mind: sometimes the DNS settings are the problem. Can you ping the IP address 4.2.2.2 but you can’t ping http://www.google.com? Then most likely your DNS is messed up.

    (to ping a host, open the Network Utility and go to the “Ping” tab; then just enter “4.2.2.2″ or “www.google.com” into the network address field and click the “Ping” button)

    Hope this helps,
    Michael
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36. Dan in Austin May 06.08 / 11pm

    I appreciate the quick response! Thanks for all your help!
37. BETO Jun 05.08 / 3am

    Im a new macbook owner and am having issues with internet connectivity as well. I, on the other hand, am having issues with both wireless and ethernet. I have a Netgear router that i have two other pc’s on (Alienware desktop and a Dell laptop). I can run both via wifi and cat 5 flawlessly. I have changed cat 5 ports and all and dont know what to do. I click on several websites on my macbook and then do the same on my windows pc’s and they load up instantly while my macbook is stuck halfway, with no images loaded. What’s the deal? Im really close to returning this piece of beauty. Help. Thank you.

    Ps. My home connection is slow, at my neighbors house it’s slow. It’s slow here at the Library but when i went to the apple store at my local mall, it worked super fast. Im really confused.
38. JParis Nov 14.08 / 8am

    Hi. I’m a new imac user, and have problems with my wireless. It will connect for a while and work just fine with full strength, but then all of a sudden disconnect. When i try to reconnect it keeps saying connection timeout. Sometimes when i restart my computer it helps or if I just turn off my airport and turn it back on it sometimes works, but other times it won’t work at all and I have to reset the router. It’s running off a WPA2 personal. Any ideas???
39. SWK Nov 17.08 / 6pm

    Hi,

    I’ve been using TKIP for a long time, but never used my iMAC on wireless network until recently.

    I found that iMAC has very very slow wireless speed while my ThinkPad T60 has no issues.

    I could fix the problem thanks to your blog. Also, found that TKIP was cracked and published on Nov 07, 2008 -> http://netsecurity.about.com/b/2008/11/07/wpa-encryption-cracked.htm

    Now, I’m using WPA2/AES and it works great and fast. Now, WPA2/AES looks the only option for secure wireless networking in SOHO environment.

    Thanks again.

    SWK
40. Scott Jan 14.09 / 6pm

    Glad I found this thread. I had a network setup which was working just fine until a few weeks ago when I instaleld Mac OS X 10.5.6 updates. After that, the wireless connections on both my MacBook Pro (Intel) machines became very, very slow. It turns out I can now replicate this problem at will: by switching from AES to TKIP, I can slow down the network. Switched to using a linksys WAP54G, which lets me specify AES or TKIP, and as long as I use AES, every device is happy.

    TimeCapsule and AirportExpress don’t give the fine-grained control over this choice, and it appears Apple screwed up the TKIP implementation in their latest AirPort Extreme firmware update (2008-004, included in 10.5.6 update).

    Calls to Apple produced no results; they engaged their engineers, and then … radio silence (which I guess is apropos).
41. Frans Apr 27.09 / 4pm

    Thx Michael

    Your solution worked perfect to me.

    Frans

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