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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts Network
I finally figured out where Apple stores the list of access points which it asked you if you wanted to remember or not. This was recently a problem for me because, when I was showing someone with a new PowerBook stuff, he chose to NOT automatically connect to the AirPort that is most common on campus, hence after that, he would always have to select it.

If you check out com.apple.airport.plist in your user's Library/Preferences folder, you can see which AirPorts you are selected to automatically associate with, and add and remove them as necessary.
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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts | 11 comments | Create New Account
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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: JHromadka on Apr 13, '05 10:24:16AM

I took a look in there and don't see any of my airports listed.

---
James Hromadka



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: morgion on Apr 13, '05 10:33:52AM

Excellent! The annoying auto-connect open access network that interferes with me at work has now been nuked from the list.

I think I knew this existed before (I got really annoyed one day and went digging), but since I forgot about it, it's new to me again. :-) Thanks!



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: adlr on Apr 13, '05 10:35:47AM

While that does show some networks, I know others are stored in:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

They are stored in a hard-to-access serialized format, so you can use this software to open that file and modify it. THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THIS SOFTWARE.

binary: http://gizmolabs.org/~andrew/WifiEraser.zip
src: http://gizmolabs.org/~andrew/WifiEraser-src.zip

probably best to save a backup of that file just in case.

-andrew



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: joewiz on Apr 14, '05 11:59:39AM

Interesting! I didn't realize at first that I had to select File -> Open, and navigate over to the path you listed in your message. Next, I was able to remove entries, but when I tried to save the file, it said, "Couldn't save file". Is this a permissions problem? Is there a way to run this utility so it can save the file in question?

Thanks!
Joe



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: sweetsdream on Apr 13, '05 03:03:00PM

Funny, I don't have that file in my prefs. I've connected with many 802.11 networks and I have one I would like to get rid of but I don't see the file. Any ideas?

---
Cheers,

Sweetsdream



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: matsur on Apr 13, '05 06:05:55PM
BTW, just noticed this tidbit on Apple's Tiger feature list:
AirPort Preferred Networks
Specify and rank multiple specific AirPort networks in the networking setup of System Preferences.


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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: hart808 on Jan 19, '06 09:55:43AM

To achieve this sorting of preferred networks open System Prefs, then select Networks. Then select Show : Airport. In the resulting window, change the "By default, join:" item from Automatic to Preferred Networks. This will give you a list of the networks that have been remembered, and you can remove or add networks, edit the particulars of a network (i.e., network name, security type, and password), or reorder the preference by dragging networks into the desired order.

cheers -

b



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: steffi on Apr 13, '05 08:12:06PM

I've used

http://www.paulschreiber.com/download/getAirPortNetworks-pl.txt

successfully to show me the list of airports.



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: wgscott on Apr 14, '05 12:49:29AM

Worked great!

Thanks for posting that perl script



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: rajulkabir on Apr 15, '05 03:40:26PM

Has anyone figured out a way to explicitly choose an access point based on SSID and channel?

I was recently in a hotel where there was an access point on each floor, all with the same SSID. They cycled through the channels (first floor on 1, second floor on 6, third floor on 11, fourth floor on 1, etc.).

The access point on my floor happened to be disconnected from the router, so it was useless. And there was no technician around to fix it (I would have, or at least disconnected the power, but it was locked in a closet).

With NetStumbler, I could see a good signal on the access points above and below me. But the Mac would always grab the one on my floor, which had the strongest signal, thereby keeping me from getting online. I had to ride the elevator downstairs and sit on the floor in the hall. Meanwhile my Windows and Linux colleagues could simply specify the channel they wanted, and get online without a problem.



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Access and modify the list of 'remembered' AirPorts
Authored by: rfrankel on Nov 15, '05 06:22:33PM

I couldn't find the preferences files mentioned in this thread.
And on this page:
<http://www.paulschreiber.com/download/getAirPortNetworks-pl.txt>
I didn't know how to turn the text there into a program I could run



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