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How do I prevent my MBP from connecting to certain wireless networks?

#1
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4/21/08 at 4:34pm
  • Joined: January 2000
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I'm in a condo unit, so there are several surrounding wireless networks my MBP detects. Most of them are secure, including mine (as secure as wireless can be I guess), but there is one that I think is in one of the neighboring units that is unsecured, and I've noticed my MBP will try to connect to that one instead of mine sometimes. Is there a way I can tell it NOT to connect to certain available networks?

Brian
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#2
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4/22/08 at 2:09am
  • Joined: July 1997
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Re: How do I prevent my MBP from connecting to certain wireless networks?

I wish I were writing this from my Macbook Pro right now.

Someone else is going to give you the definitive answer but
I would suspect clicking on the Airport wireless icon in the upper
right toolbar, selecting LOCATION and EDIT LOCATIONS may be
the key to removing networks you don't want to connect to.
Ronald J Epstein
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#3
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4/22/08 at 1:21pm
  • Joined: September 1999
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Re: How do I prevent my MBP from connecting to certain wireless networks?

Go to System Prferences, then Network, click the Advanced button. Click the + button and add the network you want to auto join to the Preferred Network box. Add or remove any as you wish. I believe it chooses by order from top to bottom. Maybe uncheck Remember any network this computer joins so it won't add any automatically to the list that you happen to use like coffee shops or airports. This is the steps in Leopard. I forget the steps in Tiger but it's similar. Hope this helps.

Daryl L 
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D
2GB Ram, 160GB HDD
15" LED Glossy Widescreen
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB GDDR3 Vram

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#4
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4/22/08 at 3:57pm
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Re: How do I prevent my MBP from connecting to certain wireless networks?

Daryl: OK, that's basically what I tried yesterday, and it does seem to have worked. It's annoying using the net for awhile then realizing you're stealing the neighbors bandwidth. Then again, if it's the noisy neighbors, I guess I really don't mind so much! But my Internet is way faster than theirs.
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#5
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4/22/08 at 4:16pm
  • Joined: September 1999
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Re: How do I prevent my MBP from connecting to certain wireless networks?

Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianShort
Then again, if it's the noisy neighbors, I guess I really don't mind so much! But my Internet is way faster than theirs.
Hehehe, good one.

I have the same situation. Three local wireless networks (not including mine), 2 secured and 1 unsecured that's slower than mine. No problem of accidently connecting to that unsecured network with the procedure I posted above.

Daryl L 
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D
2GB Ram, 160GB HDD
15" LED Glossy Widescreen
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB GDDR3 Vram

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