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Excluding SSID from Airport pick list

JNB

JNB

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 7, 2004
6,872
9
In a Hell predominately of my own making
Someone in the neighborhood has just gotten a new wireless router, and suddenly the MacBook insists on grabbing their network ("default", so creative :rolleyes:) every time it wakes or boots up. My own network is almost never picked up without intervention. I figure it's gotta be one of three neighbors, gonna go chat with them today.

Assuming I can't find the owner and SSID broadcast is not turned off*, Is there a way to permanently exclude a given wireless network from the MacBook's "previously discovered" list? Or an SSID blacklist? Simply removing it from the Network (Advanced) pref pane for Airport doesn't do it.

* - One definite plus of not broadcasting your SSID: not annoying your neighbors ;)
 
merl1n

merl1n

macrumors 65816
Mar 30, 2008
1,095
0
New Jersey, USA
JohnNotBeatle said:
Someone in the neighborhood has just gotten a new wireless router, and suddenly the MacBook insists on grabbing their network ("default", so creative :rolleyes:) every time it wakes or boots up. My own network is almost never picked up without intervention. I figure it's gotta be one of three neighbors, gonna go chat with them today.

Assuming I can't find the owner and SSID broadcast is not turned off*, Is there a way to permanently exclude a given wireless network from the MacBook's "previously discovered" list? Or an SSID blacklist? Simply removing it from the Network (Advanced) pref pane for Airport doesn't do it.

* - One definite plus of not broadcasting your SSID: not annoying your neighbors ;)
Click to expand...

Go into System Prefs -> Network and select your Airport. Uncheck "Ask to join new networks". Then click on the "Advanced" button. Under the Airport tab, select the networks you don't want to be accessed and hit the "-" (minus) button so that it is removed. Click OK, and Apply.
 
JNB

JNB

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 7, 2004
6,872
9
In a Hell predominately of my own making
That doesn't remove the undesired SSID from the Airport dropdown (and by extension, I assume that it would grab it if my preferred network weren't seen). I'm looking to specifically exclude a network altogether.
 
merl1n

merl1n

macrumors 65816
Mar 30, 2008
1,095
0
New Jersey, USA
JohnNotBeatle said:
That doesn't remove the undesired SSID from the Airport dropdown (and by extension, I assume that it would grab it if my preferred network weren't seen). I'm looking to specifically exclude a network altogether.
Click to expand...

You can't remove it from the Airport dropdown. The airport is designed to search for any wireless networks in its range and will then list them. But if you did what I instructed you to do, you shouldn't have a problem. You disabled "automatically join another network" and you removed the unwanted networks from your preferred networks list.

Just ignore it.
 
TEG

TEG

macrumors 604
Jan 21, 2002
6,621
169
Langley, Washington
On your preferred networks list in the System Preferences, move your network to the top of the list (and remove all others if desired). Your system will default to connecting to your network. You CANNOT exclude networks from the drop down list, as it is designed to list all networks broadcasting SSIDs, but you can bump your up in priority.
 
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