Wireless Connection - "Connection timeout"

Conrad11

Conrad11

Conrad11

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Joined
12 Jun 2005
Posts
5,361
(I'm new to OSX)

Whenever I try to connect to my home wireless network it tries to connect and then comes back with the error "Connection timeout".

I have narrowed it down to being something wrong with the Macbook or OSX.

- It isn't a signal issue as I went close to the router.
- It isn't because the WEP key is wrong.
- I've double and triple checked that the MAC address is correct on the router filter.

What's going on?
 
Do you have to be using WEP?

WEP is both incredibly **** and generally troublesome (I tried for no real reason to get it working on my MacBook with a router and it wouldn't budge).

Trying changing it to WPA or WPA2 :)
 
I think this is an issue with OSX. I've had this problem on so many different occassions with my new macbook and my old macbook pro, on different routers. If you look on the apple forums there's posts all over the place and no official apple statement on the matter. To be honest I think the only way I sorted the issue for me was to use WPA and use G instead of N mode. PITA!
 
WEP is the original one that has been cracked to high heaven. It uses a hexadecimal key or something like that.

WPA is an BIG improvement on WEP which uses TKIP (I think!) to encrypt the data. And you have a 1-63 character key.

WPA2 is pretty much WPA but using AES encryption. Again 1-63 character key.

Simply: If all devices can use WPA2, go with WPA2. If a device will only support WPA, go with that for everything. If a device only supports WEP, i'd suggest throwing it out!


To give you an idea of how insane I am with a wireless network: I use WPA2 ONLY with a 63 character (entirely random, all over the place, using symbols, numbers letters etc.) key :p
 
Strange thing is that I don't know why I use even WEP. Surely the MAC filter I have on the router is the best thing? (Only lets certain MAC address' connect)
 
I recommend avoiding relying on MAC filtering, hidden SSIDs, and WEP encryption ;)
 
As others have said. Use WPA1/2.
Don't bother with MAC address filtering it's pointless for intrusion prevention. Only useful for traffic/administration management.

If it doesn't work using WPA then either your router is poop or you don't know how to set it up.
 
Because it can easily be cloned or spoofed. If you're running a home network they could just clone your primary PC which would then lock you out of doing anything. If they are persistent enough and have the tools to crack WEP then spoofing the MAC is trivial.

If you're having issues connecting just turn it off. When you're all sorted you can re-enable it if you think it's worth it.
 
yashiro said:
They can get on the network if you use WEP. Keep up old chap. :)
Click to expand...

But if a Mac filter is in place HOW CAN THEY??!

Surely the Mac filter only lets certain Mac address' on the network and obviously their Mac won't be in that list or have I misunderstood what a Mac filter does? The only way that they can get the Mac address' of one of the local machines is to have physical access to it?
 
Is the MAC address sent plain? If so then it doesn't take much packet monitoring to find it. For some reason I seem to think it's sent unencrypted.
 
If your network is unencrypted, then you just cap the packets and extract the mac address when it's sent, or in some cases just try sending arbitrary arp into the network and get it for free.

WEP is useless for security unless you have absolutely no other choice.
Mac filtering offers no protection against anyone who really wants in. It's like a plastic bolt on a door.

You want to be using WPA2, AES only encryption, with a huge non dictionary based keyphrase.
My iMac was fine using these settings on a Dlink router.
 
Last edited:
Conrad11 said:
(I'm new to OSX)

Whenever I try to connect to my home wireless network it tries to connect and then comes back with the error "Connection timeout".

I have narrowed it down to being something wrong with the Macbook or OSX.

- It isn't a signal issue as I went close to the router.
- It isn't because the WEP key is wrong.
- I've double and triple checked that the MAC address is correct on the router filter.

What's going on?
Click to expand...

I had this problem. Think its the wireless card failing, even a format and reinstall wouldn't fix it.
 
yashiro said:
If your network is unencrypted, then you just cap the packets and extract the mac address when it's sent, or in some cases just try sending arbitrary arp into the network and get it for free.

WEP is useless for security unless you have absolutely no other choice.
Mac filtering offers no protection against anyone who really wants in. It's like a plastic bolt on a door.

You want to be using WPA2, AES only encryption, with a huge non dictionary based keyphrase.
My iMac was fine using these settings on a Dlink router.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I wasn't saying that what you were saying was wrong/wouldn't work....I was just interested to find out how they got the MAC address of someone who is on the network.

Thank you for the information.
 
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