General Mac hardware discussions forum: Airport won't connect to password protected networks

my mistake. my routers are both encrypted in WPA-2 and not WEP-2. don't know where my mind was.

But I didn't like it's routing capabilities since I already had a faster 802.11n router in use. The 2Wire only supported up to 802.11g. So, I came across two solutions:

1. Plug in the external router to the 2Wire and leave the 2Wire's routing capabilities ON. This will work so long as you do not try to connect to the 2Wire with anything but the external router. Or else you get into trouble. But, if you want to use something like Back To My Mac, you're stuck because having two routers actively working together will cause a dual-NAT problem which I have had. All connections to the internet go through as you would expect though; it just blocks some protocols because of this setup. My advice? Go to the Homeportal Management page with the AT&T branding. Just follow one of the recommended links, which is listed here. There should be a few pictures of the Home Network pane that I am talking about. Once you find it, go to the right hand window, and click on disable wireless. Once done, your 2Wire will stop broadcasting and you can use the external router exclusively, which should be better. You don't want two router broadcasting simultaneously if they are using the same connection (unless you are using a range booster which is different). At least, that is what I have been led to believe.
2. This method is what I use and recommend over the easier setup. Via some instructions such as these, I set the 2Wire into bridge mode. This disables all routing functions of the 2Wire gateway, making it just a modem, which is all I wanted out of it. Then you setup PPPoE on the other router, which should work. If those instructions don't work for you, try Google. Keep in mind that you may have to reset everything to get the modem to go back to factory/default settings, which is what I have had to do in the past. That can be a pain if you have to use the AT&T software disk to make it work (it's unstable and gave my old PC the BSOD).

*Note: you are going to want to hardwire your machine to the 2Wire in order to modify anything. Messing with the WiFi settings over WiFi isn't gonna work so well! You'll have to take the external router out of the picture until the 2Wire is configured to your liking.

Now my point is, nothing should be able to access the internet through the 2Wire if you have connected an external router to it, from my understanding. It doesn't work. The 2Wire should be connected to the Extreme and only that. If your MacBook can connect through the AirPort Extreme, then we know that both devices work to a certain degree. That's good. If your MacBook cannot connect to the 2Wire, this too is normal and should be expected. But if it can't connect to other WiFi networks outside of your home setup, then you may have a problem, but this does not make any sense really. The MacBook should be able to connect to any properly encrypted networks if all the gear is setup correctly. You may have to experiment some more I'm afraid. Normally I'd think that removing the keychains and saved passwords would help, but if it doesn't, who knows where the problem lies? If you find that the problem is really only with the 2Wire signal, then forget about it and setup your network to work around the 2Wire as I explained earlier. Then you should be good to go. If this keeps up, try going to an Apple Store and have a Genius look at it. Their WiFi is usually open, but they probably have stuff in the back to test everything. Still, if it can work with the Extreme, then it probably works, and something else is wrong with these other networks you may have tried...

Well, good luck, and let us know what happens.

-BMF

Maybe a move to plain WPA, broadcasting SSID and no other tinkering will work but I can't see where you did that. I know that WPA and Apple hardware works in that setup but do not have your 2wire router to test with. Again, I've found failures with WPA-2. You are free to repeat my findings.
Bob

I see we talked about SSID, the security and a little more.

For the length of your post I can't find those details. Can you share how your network is set up?
Bob

Best Buy replaced the hard drive on my daughter's mac but she can't get online at home.

My son's computer is still at apple.

We have a Netgear Hub and D Link router. We have three access points to cover any voids in the house.

I wonder if our problem has something to do with a password protected network. They seem to work in Best Buy and Apple which are not password protected. Yes, I know the password as I have entered it over and over with no problem.

I am suspicious there is some sort of glitch in the software where it can't recognize it because it forgets the password. Maybe there is a glitch in the airport card because I've read about the trouble many have had with it.

The hardware has been checked and according to the phone tech with Apple, it's fine. He didn't know what it could be because they apparently did everything possible in terms of trouble shooting.

I reloaded the operating system, updated and the computer wouldn't connect. The settings have been configured a few times. The IP address has been released. The router has been rebooted over and over. Safari has been reset and the cache dumped. If there were something wrong on my end with the router, there would be a problem with all the computers. Oddly, the macs were on our Internet in the past but suddenly in December, two wouldn't connect.

Thanks for the tip. It worked like a charm for me.

Hi -

I experienced a similar problem - my Mac would not auto-connect at home on a consistent basis. Some times it would, but most of the time I had to enter the password. I finally convinced ATT to send a service tech and he asked me to run speedtest.net by simply entering it on the search bar. It showed the download and upload speeds between the router and my Mac. The he said, every so often you need to reboot the router by unplugging it for 30 seconds. He was right, the speed increased dramatically after the reboot and the Mac was auto-connecting again. About 10 minutes later, the speed dropped off. I rebooted, it ran great for 10-15 minutes. After doing this for a few days I called ATT and convinced them to replace the 2wire router. Replacing the router eliminated the issue completely.

I suggest running speedtest.net a few times to establish your baseline pattern - it will record your results for you!

Good luck!

J