Connecting to base station not by SSID

jwink3101jwink3101
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hello,



Sorry if this is better in Hardware. I am not sure.



Anyway, at my school, I tend to not have any problems getting on the wireless, except there is one place where I can get a connection to the wireless access point, but it will not give me an IP address. I tried release and renew on many occasions. I also tried restarting and all the regular stuff. My school's tech support was not too helpful.



I spoke to some people who have had similar issues and they said, that they have had it with some routers and not other. Because of the nature of the network, there are a lot of base stations all broadcasting with the same SSID. They suggested I try to connect to one of them.



The problem is, by default, OS X connects the station with a given SSID that has the strongest signal. Is there a way to connect to the other ones. Using a widget, I see the other base stations with the same SSID. How do I tell my computer to connect to those?



For what it is worth, I have a 2.2ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook with 2 gigs of Ram and all the latest versions of everything.



Thanks



-Justin Winokur

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jwink3101 View Post


    Hello,



    Sorry if this is better in Hardware. I am not sure.



    Anyway, at my school, I tend to not have any problems getting on the wireless, except there is one place where I can get a connection to the wireless access point, but it will not give me an IP address. I tried release and renew on many occasions. I also tried restarting and all the regular stuff. My school's tech support was not too helpful.



    I spoke to some people who have had similar issues and they said, that they have had it with some routers and not other. Because of the nature of the network, there are a lot of base stations all broadcasting with the same SSID. They suggested I try to connect to one of them.



    The problem is, by default, OS X connects the station with a given SSID that has the strongest signal. Is there a way to connect to the other ones. Using a widget, I see the other base stations with the same SSID. How do I tell my computer to connect to those?



    For what it is worth, I have a 2.2ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook with 2 gigs of Ram and all the latest versions of everything.



    Thanks



    -Justin Winokur



    Check if the access point hardware is one of those POS access points that are compliant only with WinXP/Vista/2k systems only.



    All access points that support Linux, support OS X and vice versa. Not all access points that designed for Windows will support anything but windows clients.



    It's quite dickish.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    jwink3101jwink3101 Posts: 739member
    Many people have no problems what-so-ever with thier mac on the access point. Also, given the school, Cartnegie Mellon University, they tend not to skimp (too much) when it comes to technology like this. The tech support said the following:



    -----------------

    It looks like you are caught in the problem described below



    The Macbook Airs (and possible other new macs) are unable to recognize two frequencies in hte 802.11a band. These frequencies are not enabled on the Aruba access points (which is the main campus academic buildings), but there are some Xirrus access point units that have these frequencies.

    ------------------



    I think this is a bit bogus. I can connect, just not get an IP address which makes me wonder how good this answer is. Also, I have a macbook, not an air



    Any helo would be good
  • Reply 3 of 4
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,410moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jwink3101 View Post


    The problem is, by default, OS X connects the station with a given SSID that has the strongest signal. Is there a way to connect to the other ones.



    If you set the airport to show in the menu bar, when you click it, it will list all available routers/access points that you are able to connect to. By choosing one in the menu, it will connect to it.



    You can also try assigning an IP address yourself. Change the network system pref to DHCP with manual address or manual and enter one such as 192.168.0.25 - they may have custom IP addresses though but you can get this from someone who is connected. If there are a lot of people connected, the address pool might be used up. They are usually about 100 or so by default but they might limit it for router/network performance.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    jwink3101jwink3101 Posts: 739member
    Thanks Marvin. The problem with the drop-down is that you select by SSID so the 8 or so base stations show up as one and the computer connects to the one with the strongest signal.



    Next time I am over there, I was planning on trying the manual IP thing. I will probably take my girlfriends laptop, take her IP address and then make the DHCP give her a new one. Hopefully that will work.



    Thanks
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