How to help AirPort recall passwords
Jul 07, '09 07:30:03AM
Contributed by: davewashere
The following situation describes a common problem people seem to be having with AirPort reconnections. While most people do not seem to have these symptoms, many, including me, have experienced the following problem with AirPort:
You connect to a password-protected wireless network. In the process, you check the box requesting that AirPort remember the network and password. When you start up your computer, or when you restart your AirPort card, AirPort connects to your preferred network with no difficulty. Hooray, AirPort remembers the password!
However, if you get disconnected and try to reconnect without restarting AirPort or rebooting, AirPort prompts you for a password. For some reason, AirPort forgets that it already has the password. If you try to switch networks on-the-fly, the same thing happens -- AirPort seems to forget that it already has the password.
What's really going on here is that on-the-fly network switches utilize password and permission information from the user's keychain, and the keychain does not have the correct information. This is somewhat more likely to be a problem on systems with more than one user account.
Here's how to solve the problem:
- Open the KeyChain Access application; it's in Applications » Utilities.
- Under Keychains, select Login; under Category, select All Items.
- Look for a key with the same name as your SSID, and double-click it to bring up the Edit menu. (If one does not exist, create it by clicking on the [+] and entering the following information in the dialog box: for Name, use your SSID; for Account Name, use your SSID; for Password, use your wireless network password. When you return to the Keychain Access menu, double-click on it to bring up the edit menu.)
- Click on Attributes and edit any of the following information that is incorrect:
- Name should be your SSID
- Kind should be AirPort network password
- Account should be your SSID
- Where should be AirPort Network
- Click on Access Control and edit any of the following information that is incorrect:
- The selected radio button should be Confirm before allowing access. (Actually, you should be able to select the Allow all applications to access this item button and then skip to the Save Changes step. I haven't tried it, so I cannot say for sure if it will work. Selecting the Allow all button should solve the problem, but it will make your system slightly less secure, so I did not select that option.)
- Ask for Keychain password should not be checked.
- The following three applications should be listed in the Always allow access by these applications field: AirPort, SystemUIServer, and System Preferences. (Strictly speaking, System Preferences doesn't have to be in the list, but having it there will save you some trouble if you have to make any changes to the settings for this access point -- so, if it is not there, you might as well add it now, while you're here.)
- If any other items are in the list, that is probably OK.
- If you need to add any or all of the three applications to the list, click on the [+] to add them. Here is where you can find them:
- SystemUIServer: Macintosh HD » System » Library » CoreServices » SystemUIServer
- AirPort => Macintosh HD » System » Library » CoreServices » Menu Extras » AirPort.menu
- System Preferences => Macintosh HD » Applications » System Preferences
Click Save Changes and back out.
The next time you switch to the network, you'll probably get prompted for a password. But after that, you shouldn't get any more unnecessary password prompts.
[robg adds: I haven't seen this problem, and I haven't tested this solution.]
Comments (6)
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2009063022354146