Manually creating network connection

javacowboyjavacowboy
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I know how to use the Help wizard to create a network connection to a router, but I haven't figured out how to do it manually.



My connection is already set up (through the wizard), but I would like to learn to do this for purely educational purposes and to better understand my system.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    jwink3101jwink3101 Posts: 739member
    Under the apple menu select "System Prefs" and there is a network pane
  • Reply 2 of 4
    javacowboyjavacowboy Posts: 864member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Jwink3101

    Under the apple menu select "System Prefs" and there is a network pane



    Obviously. I tried manually setting it via the Network part of System Preferences, choosing options that would seem obvious, but I could never get a proper network connection going.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    Hmm. Help wizard for a network? Did you just switch from Windows? Such things usually just happen automagically on this side.



    To configure your Mac to use a local network, you do the following:

    1. Plug in the ethernet cable.



    To configure your Mac to use a wireless network:

    1. Select the network to connect to from the menu bar icon

    2. Enter the password, if necessary



    Really, there's (almost always) no need for wizards, help, manual configuration, whatever. If you really want to tweak settings by hand, or if you just can't yet trust a computer to do the Right Thing, open up the Network panel in System Preferences, and select the device (ethernet, wireless, modem) from the "Show" pull-down. You can browse all the various settings, and set Manual to your heart's content. But really, why bother? Trust your Mac.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    That said, you still probably just want to learn what all the numbers mean. Easiest thing is to let the computer connect automatically to the network (via DHCP), and then look and see what all the numbers are. If you then enter the same ones manually, the network should still work. The correct values for the various numbers differ depending on the details of the network. There's usually three critical ones:

    1. The router/gateway IP address

    2. The subnet mask

    3. Your IP address



    If you connect via DHCP, the Mac seeks out the first DHCP server it finds on the network - usually the nearest router - and gets the correct values for all three things from it. Manually, you first need to figure out the router/gateway IP. On a home network with your own router, this is usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 - the instructions that came with the router will say exactly what it is. If you're connected directly to a cable or DSL modem, the gateway will have a real IP* as defined by your ISP (but often still ending in .1). The subnet mask defines what IP address space is controlled by that router. This is often 255.255.255.0, which means that all computers connected to that router have IP addresses that differ only in the last digit. Your IP address can be anything in that range, but usually must be unique to work properly.



    * IP addresses in the 192.168 range are for internal use only - they don't work in the outside world of the general internet. If you have a home router, it must be assigned a valid IP by your ISP. It can then assign 192.168 numbers to the devices connected to it to keep traffic sorted out on the LAN. As far as an outside observer is concerned, they all have the same IP as the router. Your router, therefore, actually has two IP addresses simultaneously - the "real" one, that anyone on the outside sees; and the internal one that only devices on the inside can see.
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