[vwgtiturbo]

Hello there, I upgraded my Macbook to Leopard in October, and have never had a problem with it. I love it. However, this past week, I changed my wireless networks encryption from WPA2 to WPA and shortened my password (from 35 characters to 15-20ish) to accommodate some other systems on the network. Now, when I turn on Airport, it sees my network, but won't connect, telling me that my preferred network isn't available (although it is in the list of networks that Airport sees). I entered in the new password and checked remember, but no dice. I then went into 'Keychain Access' and deleted all references to the Airport Networks, and I STILL can't get Leopard to remember the network. It's odd because it used to work just fine when the network was WPA2 and had a 35 character password (my son's setup didn't play nicely with this, which is why I changed it). Any insight would be greatly appreciated, as it is SUPER annoying having to select a network and enter a password every time I turn on Airport or wake from sleep...

[Big Mac]

I don't even know if this applies in Leopard, but in previous versions of the OS the Airport login isn't reliably saved unless it's put in as the default network in the Network System Preferences pane.

[tripletaker]

I have a similar problem and can't find a fix either.

[Big Mac]

Yeah, I just saw your thread tripletaker. I guess it's a real problem. I would be very annoyed if this were happening to me, but I don't have a Mac laptop running Leopard yet. Does it occur in all versions of Leopard?

[ghporter]

This is an "intermittent" problem: it does not anywhere near affect EVERY Mac laptop running Leopard. My MBP works fine on both the network at school and my network at home. Never a blip.

[peeb]

Likewise Leopard on my Powerbook works well. Intermittent problems are a bitch to troubleshoot.

[vwgtiturbo]

What makes it even more annoying is that it worked just fine before. No problems. On top of that, Airport SEES my network. It is in the list of available networks. If I select my network, the password dialog comes up, and the password is already entered. The darn thing just won't connect to it automatically.

[peeb]

Does it happen in all user accounts?

[lgtmvt]

When in doubt reset your PRAM.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by lgtmvt 

When in doubt reset your PRAM.

That's so OS 9ish.

The OS X voodoo method is Repair Permissions.
Which actually *CAN* repair some weird behavior.

I had Kernel Panics once every time I shut down my iMac. Well, until I ran repair permissions, that is.

-t

[ghporter]

The PRAM (or whatever it's called on Intel Macs) shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not your AirPort card saves preferred network status. Permissions being screwy could, but it's a stretch. Your AirPort LOCATION, on the other hand, could have a LOT of affect on this.

Have any of you tried deleting your current location, or if you're using Automatic, establishing a new location? This tends to do a couple of things-it sets up a new Keychain entry, which could fix things if there's something screwy about what's in your current entry, and if it doesn't work it shows that-which is important in tracking down where the problem is.

[Simon]

PRAM is still called PRAM on Intel Macs.

The things that changed its name is the PMU. What used to be the PMU is now known as the SMC (although the SMC does somewhat more [mainly temps/cooling] than the PMU did). And actually this doesn't have anything to do with the Intel transition either. The SMC was introduced with the G5.

</OT>

[ghporter]

So many acronyms, so little time. Thanks for setting me straight.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

So many acronyms, so little time. Thanks for setting me straight.

Ain't that the truth.

Acronyms, which were supposed to save us time, now cost us extra time because you have to Google new ones all the time.

-t

[tridentinecanon]

If you haven't already, please... please... please... call Apple and let them know you are having this problem. I have a similar problem, but it is slightly different. I'm still waiting to hear back from Apple and will let everyone know what they tell me, if anything.

BTW, what Airport devices do you have in your home? (Firmware versions?)

What happens if you turn Bluetooth off?

[Ratspittle]

yep, happened to me the other day too! out of the blue..I didn't change a thing, no software updates, nothing...it just quit auto connecting after sleep or restarting. It's driving me bananas! grrrr....

[tridentinecanon]

So the latest firmware updates did not fix this...

[Ratspittle]

I found a solution that works for me....after the firmware updates, and time machine/airport updates all failed to work, I tried swtching my security on the router from wpa to wpa2 and viola, my mbp now recognizes and connects to the router automatically upon waking or restart. YAY! Hope this helps someone out there.

[ghporter]

Ratspittle, it looks like your change of security schemes re-did the entry for that network. There is a history of fixing this problem by completely deleting the "preferred" network (or networks) that the computer won't automatically connect to and then allowing them to be recreated. Perhaps you've found a shortcut. I'd be interested to see what happened if you changed back to WPA.

[Ratspittle]

Actually, I did delete the preferred network, and all the com.apple.preferences related to internet,with all combinations of restarting to boot (ha!) and that didn't even help. If I get some time later I will switch back to wpa and report back to you (I was wondering the same thing btw). Before it was almost like the mac wouldn't remember the network....I mean, it saw my network, but gave me the error "there was an error joining the network"chadsnetwork"". I could only join through network diagnostics, where I was prompted to enter a password, and then told that my network settings had changed and then that my connection was fine. The entry was even saved to my keychain, but for some reason it wouldn't/couldn't access that setting on waking/restart...

[Ratspittle]

in response to my earlier post, ghporter, after switching back to wpa, it still connects after waking from sleep. We'll see if it sticks.