How to "untrust" a WiFi network?

On Jan 16, 2007, at 1:51 PM, Sue Boettcher wrote:
> How do I "untrust" this network so I can reliably connect to my own
> without having to double-check all the time? I haven't been able to
> find any options or dialogs anywhere which address this.

I believe that the phrase used in the dialog (in Tiger anyway) is
'preferred network'. Anyway the way to remove a network from the
preferred network list is to go to the Network Preference pane
(either via System Preferences of the Apple menu->Locations->Network
Preferences. The Location drop down should show your current
location. Drop the 'Show"; drop-down to AirPort. Be sure that the
lock icon shows that the window is unlocked. You will now see a list
of preferred networks in the the order of preference. Either drag the
unwanted network to a low position on the list (to assure that it is
still there but unlikely to be accessed) or highlight it and click
the '-' icon to remove it. Allow the change to be applied and you are
done.

Alan Forkosh Oakland, CA
aforkoshmac.com

Also, in that same window, click the "options" button, make sure it says "ask before joining an open network"

Scott Wyant Information Systems Analysis and Design LLC 310.839.0958 scott_wyantsbcglobal.net swyantgmail.com

On Jan 16, 2007, at 3:51 PM, Sue Boettcher wrote:

> I live in proximity to 6 or 8 other WiFi networks, most of which
> are locked down with passwords. One, however, isn't. On one
> particular occasion when my network was down and I needed to send
> out an email urgently, I connected to the open network just long
> enough to send the email. I had to add it to my "trusted networks
> list" via that dialog that pops up, in order to connect to it.

I'm sure you'll get detailed steps to do this. This particular popup
used to fool me, too. You do not need to accept/add the indicated
network to your "trusted networks list" when that window pops up.
Just decline. Then in the airport menu item in the main menu, select
the network to connect to. The reason it seems confusing is that when
you decline to add the network to your list of trusted networks, the
window goes away, but that is all that happens. You are still not
connected. That's because it's NOT in the list to auto-connect when
available. It thinks you will realize this and manually connect
through the pull-down menu. I have to routinely connect Macs and
Windows XP systems to a wireless network, and I have actually found
the Window XP Pro system a little easier to figure out than Apple's,
if you can believe that! I'm not sure why, but XP seems to have a
more intuitive setup than Apple's, at least for the basic no-brainer
aspects. For more customized approaches, I'm not sure if either is
better than the other.

Jeffrey