Ok.

BSS ate my post, too, so now I am really mad. Almost.

I have a Macbook pro. There's no way I can make it retain WiFi configuration so that it connects automatically upon boot. I found several users who have similar issues on line, and still, after trying any single recommended solution, and dozen of attempts of my own, I can't fix this. I can connect manually, entering the SSID and WEP key, but I can't have this info retained or rather just USED by the Mac, because I see it's there, somewhere.

I think I have a proper keychain entry set up. I think I have it accessible to all applications, assuming that matters or is even recommended. I think I have a proper location set up, and the WEP key seems to be in some way associated to the proper SSID, even though I seem to have to tell the OS to look for it, in those configuration pages where I can do so.

Because, I am now officially lost among all the config pages I went through. If there was anything intuitive in it, it went lost among the dozen of attempts I made. Honestly, I can't see how this is any better than the overwhelmingly nested menu system of Windows Vista. I admit maybe this is because I am much less familiar with OSX than with Vista, but still, I am going crazy.

Could any OSX expert guide me through a step-by-step, idiot proof, procedure to simply do the following:
1. Setup a SSID, WEP protected connection
2. Have it automatically detected and used upon system boot, possibly with no or little user intervention?

Thank you very very much.




Edit: subject spelling error.

Just to be clear, by "on system boot", you mean "before anyone logs in", right? I've never solved that one, either, but it's not been a big concern for me.

No, actually my problem occurs also AFTER a user logs in. I can give up the laptop being connected before users login, even that would eventually be our goal (and what you said is not promising at all! ). For now, I'd be very happy if I could have users login and then connect automatically to the network!

That worked trivially for me, and has since OSX came out. It's been a long time and I've been through several upgrades since then without any change to my network settings, so I don't remember how to do it, but it seems to me that you're working too hard at it. Maybe go back and start over and do the simplest setup possible.

In my experience with a similar issue (albeit without using WEP at the time) the problem was caused due to some preferences error or other. I believe I had to delete a batch of cache files and prefs files to get things working again.

The problem manifested itself after having gone over to a friend's house and properly connecting to their network. For some reason after returning home my machine would no longer automatically connect to my network. Every time I booted the machine I'd manualy have to pick my wireless connection from the wireless menu.

Another symptom of this issue was that my Airport pref pane was missing an option or two. It wasn't presented the same as on another of my machines.

Currently (with everything working) I have my Airport prefs set to "By Default Join Preferred Networks" - in the network list I have numerous networked listed, with and without encryption. My home network using WPA2 is listed first, above everything else. In the "Options" window I have only "Ask before joining an open network" selected and the "Automatically add new networks to the preferred networks list" checked.

You might consider manually deleting all preferred networks from your list while disconnected and then reconnect to see if re-adding (manually or automatically) fixes the issue.

So do this before exploring manual file deletion:

0. Disconnect from the wireless network (and/or turn off Airport from the menu extra at the top of your screen)
1. Open System prefs
2. Select Network
3. Select "Airtport" in the Show pop-up menu
4. Make sure "Airport" is the selected tab
5. Select "Preferred Networks" from the "By default join" pop-up menu
6. Select the first listed network and press the "-" button to delete it.
7. Repeat #6 for all listed networks
8. Press the Options button
9. Select "Ask before joining open network" in "if no..." pop-up menu at top.
10. Check the "Automatically add..." item
11. Uncheck all other items
12. Press OK.
13. Press "Apply Now"
14. Close System Preferences
15. Turn on Airport
16. Select the SSID for your desired network from the Airport menu at the top of the screen (SSID broadcasting should be on in the access point/router - if not, select the "OTHER" item from the menu
17. If you selected the network by name it should identify the type of protection being used and prompt you for the security key/password - otherwise you will type the SSID into the "Network Name" box of a connection window and select the encryption type from the "Wireless Security" pop-up menu. Then select "show password" and type your password into the box provided.
18. When you press OK it should connect.
19. Put the computer to sleep.
20. Wake the computer and it should reconnect to the network.
21. Restart the computer and as in #20 it should reconnect after logging in.

Thank you all very much. This is very useful. At least i know a procedure that is supposed to work.

Anyway, I have an update of 1 minute ago. We switched on the laptop for the 100th time, without any configuration change from the last 7 or 8 reboots, during which I could only connect by entering the WEP manually; and, this time, it did connected automatically. This is completely puzzling to me.

The only difference I am thinking of is that the laptop was, this time, powered using the power cord. Do you guys think it is possible that while on battery the wireless interface was somehow powered down, maybe just during boot? Some wrong energy saving settings?

Also, maybe this time, for some reason, some configuration file was properly updated, deleted/recreated?

The laptop is being used by its owner, in this very moment, but we'll have few more Macs to work on in the next days. Hopefully not this one, but I don't know what to expect at this point.

Thank you a million for your step-by step procedure. By looking at it I seem to have done all that you listed, but I am not sure aboutnr. 10.