Manually creating network connection
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.
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
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.
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.
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.