Telling just one machine to forget a wifi network

[joe-h2o]

Is there a way to have just one of my devices forget a network? I have two networks in the house, a 2.4 and a 5 GHz system, with two different names.

I want the iMac to only ever connect to the 5GHz network, due to throughput reasons, but because I am signed in to my apple ID on it then it "helpfully" remembers all of the networks that my iPhone and Macbook Pro have connected to (yeah, cheers, I really need that airport wifi on my iMac).

If you try to have it forget that network it warns you that it will be forgotten for *all* of my devices.

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD DESIGN?!

Now when I reboot the iMac it always connects to the 2.4 network first, even though it is much lower in the list (I have the 5 GHz network at the very top) but it always finds and connects to the 2.4 first.

Is there any way around this? I already tried disabling the Safari link sharing thing between my Macbook Pro and iMac and even with it turned off, it still pops up that button to the right of the Finder icon on my iMac when I open a new website on my Macbook Pro, even though they're meant to be disconnected.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[robiwmor]

Is there a way to have just one of my devices forget a network? I have two networks in the house, a 2.4 and a 5 GHz system, with two different names.

I want the iMac to only ever connect to the 5GHz network, due to throughput reasons, but because I am signed in to my apple ID on it then it "helpfully" remembers all of the networks that my iPhone and Macbook Pro have connected to (yeah, cheers, I really need that airport wifi on my iMac).

If you try to have it forget that network it warns you that it will be forgotten for *all* of my devices.

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD DESIGN?!

Now when I reboot the iMac it always connects to the 2.4 network first, even though it is much lower in the list (I have the 5 GHz network at the very top) but it always finds and connects to the 2.4 first.

Is there any way around this? I already tried disabling the Safari link sharing thing between my Macbook Pro and iMac and even with it turned off, it still pops up that button to the right of the Finder icon on my iMac when I open a new website on my Macbook Pro, even though they're meant to be disconnected.

Anyone have any ideas?

You’re lucky, I can’t even get my Macbook to connect to my 5ghz wifi. Iphone and ipad no problem, macbook nope

 

[ShinyDren]

Is there a way to have just one of my devices forget a network? I have two networks in the house, a 2.4 and a 5 GHz system, with two different names.

I want the iMac to only ever connect to the 5GHz network, due to throughput reasons, but because I am signed in to my apple ID on it then it "helpfully" remembers all of the networks that my iPhone and Macbook Pro have connected to (yeah, cheers, I really need that airport wifi on my iMac).

If you try to have it forget that network it warns you that it will be forgotten for *all* of my devices.

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD DESIGN?!

Now when I reboot the iMac it always connects to the 2.4 network first, even though it is much lower in the list (I have the 5 GHz network at the very top) but it always finds and connects to the 2.4 first.

Is there any way around this? I already tried disabling the Safari link sharing thing between my Macbook Pro and iMac and even with it turned off, it still pops up that button to the right of the Finder icon on my iMac when I open a new website on my Macbook Pro, even though they're meant to be disconnected.

Anyone have any ideas?

The WiFi networks are part of the Keychain sharing option in iCloud settings. Apparently one side affect of sharing the networks is that it tries to get all the synced devices to use the same network (if close enough/available), ignoring your preferred order.

IF you don't use the other features of the keychain syncing (Safari passwords, credit cards, etc) then you could disable the keychain portion of iCloud. But if you want those other items available then that isn't an option.

Another possible solution might be to change your network setup to have the same name and password for both the 2.4 and 5 GHz networks. Then the OS would decide which band was better to connect to. This may not work as you want if the OS thinks the 2.4 GHz is the "better" signal.

This is a time when it really would be good if Apple allowed more granular control for these things.