How to tell the difference between two identically-named wireless networks on OSX 10.5

November 15, 2007 10:19 AM

How can I stop my macbook from connecting to computer-to-computer wireless networks with the same name as the network I trust?

Someone in my dorm has a wireless network with the same name as the school-run network. Since upgrading to Leopard, my computer prefers connecting to the private network, and never prompts about whether it should connect, despite the fact that I've never told it to use that network. Network Preferences doesn't help, it identifies networks by name.

Isn't this a major security flaw? It seems to beg for mitm exploitation.

posted by tylermoody to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Tell the school's IT people about it and have them shut down the person in the dorm who is running the counterfeit network. Easy peasy.
posted by The World Famous at 10:26 AM on November 15, 2007

In the meantime, don't have that network name in your list of allowed networks. The paranoid never put any names in the list for this exact reason.
posted by TeatimeGrommit at 10:28 AM on November 15, 2007

Get rid of all your preferred networks and uncheck the "Remember all networks this computer has joined" box. You can still store the WEP and WPA keys in your keychain.
posted by mkb at 10:47 AM on November 15, 2007