Wireless and Mac

I've got a Startec Wireless B router and a few computers on the network.

1 Wired Windows XP
1 Wireless Windows XP
1 Wireless Powerbook G4 (OS X using an AirPort)

This network is set up in an appartment where there's a couple other
wireless networks around. I've named our network and turned off the
broadcast and left the encryption off. The XP boxes work fine. My
problem is trying to get the Mac to "stick" to our network name. For
some reason I can type in the SSID name, it'll find it, but when I go to
the network setup assistant it can't locate/connect to it.

Would it help if I turned ON the broadcast? I'd prefer to leave it off
and not have to use encryption. It's just easier that way.

Any help would be appreciated, thnx.

Paul

I'm sorry I'm not responding directly to your question, I have worked with
MACs a very little bit on my wireless 802.11g and had no trouble.

But what I wanted to point out is that not broadcasting the SID is
ABSOLUTELY no security whatsoever. What that does is make it hard for your
neighbor to accidentally authenticate to your network. It doesn't stop a
wardriver with, oh, Netstumbler from seeing your network. Turn on your
encryption. It's not that hard to set up. You don't have go with WPA
(although it's strongly suggested because WEP is heavily flawed), WEP should
be fine if you pick a good passphrase. WEP won't keep out anyone making a
concerted effort at breaking your network (which should be unlikely in
reality), but it will stop the casual wardriver: why waste time with a
network that's locked with WEP when I see 25 more around me totally open?
You get the idea.

Paul

"Paul E Mak" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:IpSdnR83z7i6zg_cRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've got a Startec Wireless B router and a few computers on the network.
>
> 1 Wired Windows XP
> 1 Wireless Windows XP
> 1 Wireless Powerbook G4 (OS X using an AirPort)
>
> This network is set up in an appartment where there's a couple other
> wireless networks around. I've named our network and turned off the
> broadcast and left the encryption off. The XP boxes work fine. My
> problem is trying to get the Mac to "stick" to our network name. For
> some reason I can type in the SSID name, it'll find it, but when I go to
> the network setup assistant it can't locate/connect to it.
>
> Would it help if I turned ON the broadcast? I'd prefer to leave it off
> and not have to use encryption. It's just easier that way.
>
> Any help would be appreciated, thnx.
>
> Paul
>

Well, that's all I need is to keep the neighbours from accidentally
using the network. There's plenty other open networks for them to "use"
if they want. But I still need some help with the MAC thing.

Pablo wrote:
> I'm sorry I'm not responding directly to your question, I have worked with
> MACs a very little bit on my wireless 802.11g and had no trouble.
>
> But what I wanted to point out is that not broadcasting the SID is
> ABSOLUTELY no security whatsoever. What that does is make it hard for your
> neighbor to accidentally authenticate to your network. It doesn't stop a
> wardriver with, oh, Netstumbler from seeing your network. Turn on your
> encryption. It's not that hard to set up. You don't have go with WPA
> (although it's strongly suggested because WEP is heavily flawed), WEP should
> be fine if you pick a good passphrase. WEP won't keep out anyone making a
> concerted effort at breaking your network (which should be unlikely in
> reality), but it will stop the casual wardriver: why waste time with a
> network that's locked with WEP when I see 25 more around me totally open?
> You get the idea.
>
> Paul
>
> "Paul E Mak" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:IpSdnR83z7i6zg_cRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>I've got a Startec Wireless B router and a few computers on the network.
>>
>>1 Wired Windows XP
>>1 Wireless Windows XP
>>1 Wireless Powerbook G4 (OS X using an AirPort)
>>
>>This network is set up in an appartment where there's a couple other
>>wireless networks around. I've named our network and turned off the
>>broadcast and left the encryption off. The XP boxes work fine. My
>>problem is trying to get the Mac to "stick" to our network name. For
>>some reason I can type in the SSID name, it'll find it, but when I go to
>>the network setup assistant it can't locate/connect to it.
>>
>>Would it help if I turned ON the broadcast? I'd prefer to leave it off
>>and not have to use encryption. It's just easier that way.
>>
>>Any help would be appreciated, thnx.
>>
>>Paul
>>
>
>
>