Can iMac detect an existing wireless network?

[darthchris]

I'm going to buy my first Mac - a 20" iMac Core Duo next week, but I'm a little worried about the Internet connection. I already have an IEEE802.11b wireless network at home using Windows, but can this new iMac automatically detect this network to get online? Thank you.

 

[kretzy]

It certainly should be able to pick it up and use it without too many hassles, if any. The only thing that I can think of that may need doing is reconfiguring your wireless router to include the MAC address of your iMac in the list of computers allowed to use the network.

 

[mad jew]

max_altitude is right as usual, but adding the MAC address (not to be confused with Mac) should only be necessary if you have MAC address filtering enabled on the network as a security measure. By default, most routers won't have this enabled. 🙂

 

[janey]

ya, 802.11 is a standard 🙂

Provided you didn't do anything special (i.e. mac filtering, LEAP/RADIUS) with the existing network, either OS X will pop up a box asking you if you want to connect to the network, or most of the time you should be able to click on that little icon on the right hand side of the menubar that looks like a bunch of curved bars stacked on top of each other and click on the name of the network to connect.

However, the iMac you're getting supports 802.11g as well as 802.11a (well, not 100% sure about 802.11a support in OS X with the card in the iMac, but i am sure about g), so depending on what you're wanting to do and your internet connection (what if your wifi is slowing it down? 😱 😱 ) you might want to upgrade to a g router, because 11b's max is 11mbps theoretically and 11g goes up to 54mbps, and with proprietary stuff like speedbooster in some routers, can go up to 125mbps.

 

[coal]

It will absolutely be able to detect your network (and any others nearby too) without any work right out of the box. (Haven't you seen the new commercials?!? j/k)

As the previous poster mentioned, you may have to add its MAC address if you're filtering at the router level or provide the passcode for your chosen WEP or (better) WPA standard.

Good luck!

edit: I step away to check the rice and all of these other posts! Too late!

edit (again): janey's exactly correct about MAC filtering.

Check this out for tips on securing your network: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/Ou/?p=43

 

[janey]

might add that absolutely none of the above mentioned authentication methods really work if you're trying to keep people out, so i mean if you're filtering by MAC addresses...that's got to be one of the most useless things i've heard of, it's drop dead simple to spoof MAC addresses (and it's not hard to get mac addresses of clients connected to the network with valid mac addresses either, you probably know where i'm going with this.).

Mine is great. It's WPA, the password is the same as the SSID. I figure anyone who can figure that out is free to use my network, just they might want to keep in mind that the connection does indeed go both ways, so..

 

[EricNau]

I accidentally picked up my neighbor's wireless network when I turned my iMac on for the first time.

...It's that easy. 😎

 

[darthchris]

Thanks, everyone. I'm really excited and can't wait to join the Macworld! 🙂

 

[netdog]

If you don't have SSID Broadcast enabled on your wireless router, you will have to name the network on the iMac when first setting up the conneciton.

I actually keeps SSID Broadcast disabled and use MAC Address filtering, only allowing access by known addresses, both to give just a little more security as I live in a city and can see 8 other networks. That, along with 128-bit WEP, is not foolproof, but it all does make the network a little more difficult to hack wirelessly.

 

[balamw]

Just note that for some reason I have yet to understand the Intel Macs are completely blind to any networks created by the Westell 327W router that Verizon DSL provides to many of its customers, so I hope that's not your router...

B