Lazycoder

Windows vs OS X for wireless networking

I brought my “take-home” Dell laptop in to work because we are hosting some meetings this week and I needed a Wintel box to run some demos. This laptop came pre-configured by our IT dept. to connect to our campus wide wireless network. I can’t get it to connect to my home wireless network UNLESS I turn off ALL security. Right now I’m only performing MAC address authentication at home and the Dell laptop can’t even handle that. I’m at work now and I can’t connect to our network even if I plug into the hard-wired network.

I knew I should have brought my iBook in today and just used RDC to connect to my workstation. I’ve never had any problem connecting to any wireless network using my iBook. No matter what kind of security was in place.

Update: I removed the MAC Authentication from my WAP at home and set up WPA. Now both my Dell and my iBook are able to connect to the WAP with no problems. I have no idea why MAC authentication screwed with the Dell so much.