iPad incorrectly sees Mac Pro as a wireless access point

[danamania]

I have some stupid happening with my iPad

My home network is a Billion 7402G currently with the SSID 'Velociraptors'. I have a Mac Pro connected to the Billion by Cat5 only, and it has no wireless networking. I also use an iPad, iPhone, and sometimes an older PowerBook wirelessly through the Billion

From time to time the iPad (but not the iPhone or PowerBook) believes that my wireless point's name is the Mac Pro's network name. Currently, my Mac Pro's name is 'Raptormania', and when I pop into the iPad's wireless prefs, the only wireless point available is 'Raptormania'. If I change the Mac Pro's network name, it soon appears to the iPad as the new name of the only accessible wireless point.

Somehow, the iPad is occasionally mixing up my Billion with the network name of a machine connected to it via Cat5. It never mixes it up with the names of any other machines connected. If I do a network reset of the iPad and then a hard shutdown, it fixes things for a while, but it's come back a few times now.

Any thoughts on what's happening?

 

[Peace]

Sounds like you have internet sharing turned on on your Mac Pro.

 

[danamania]

It's like it does, yeah - but that's turned off. Even if it were on, it shouldn't (afaik) be possible for the Mac Pro to take over another device's wireless network and broadcast its own through it.

 

[cuestakid]

Have you tried to manually add the network to the iPad (ie selecting other and then putting in all the network info by hand instead of automatically)?

Are all your other devices using DHCP (ie they all get their IP info from the router instead of being manually added)? Some ISPs only allow x number of devices to connect to the web.

 

[danamania]

I'd tried adding the network manually, yes - while it was both secured and unsecured, and got nowhere as the iPad couldn't find the network - the same one the iPhone/Powerbook connect to OK.

(interestingly regarding security, the iPad still sees the Mac Pro's name as a network when my modem's wireless is set to WPA2 - somehow the Pro's name is leaking out of the network as a non-working SSID, which is probably some kind of really interesting security concern even before getting to the oddity of it only affecting the iPad)

All my other devices use DHCP, yes.