WPA2 and Leopard

[Quadraman]

So I've been creating ad hoc networks to get my Powerbook G4 online since my wireless router went down but I can't get the Powerbook to connect to the network I set up with my Windows laptop using WPA2. I can only get it to connect using WEP. I live in an area with a lot of wi-fi users so it's only a matter of time before someone hacks the WEP key, even though I use a different one each time. How the heck do you get Leopard to connect using WPA2?

 

[Mike Richardson]

If your PowerBook G4 has a regular AirPort Card (not Extreme) then WPA2 is not supported.

Run the WEP network at low power. I have to run a WEP network at the warehouse so that OS 9 Macs can log on. I used a long, completely random 128-bit password that you can only type in hex, disabled the SSID broadcast, and set the power down very low as the signal only needs to cover a very small area. You would need to park directly in front of the office just to pick up the signal.

 

[Gorgonops]

I gave away my last 802.11b Airport-equipped Powerbook a while back, but I'm *positive* that they do support WPA (not WPA2) with TKIP (Not AES). WPA+TKIP is a vast improvement over WEP, so if you can provide that instead you should be good to go.

(You might find warnings that WPA+TKIP has been "broken", but the exploit in question is basically limited to DoS attacks. It doesn't allow someone to meaningfully join your network or listen to (real) data traffic. Unlike WEP, which is trivially broken wide open.)

 

[MacJunky]

You do have the option of using some broadcom based CardBus cards that Max OS X will consider to be AirPort Extreme cards(like the Linksys WPC54G version 3). You can also get USB ones. Many cheap USB ones use a ralink chipset and those have terrible terrible OS X drivers unfortunately.

When it comes to buying wifi hardware you have to actually get the model number and the version number if possible then look online to see if it will work with OS X. Companies change chipsets all the time so it can be a hassle sometimes.

 

[Quadraman]

The thing is when I pull down the Airport menu it gives the option of connecting using WPA2, it just never does. And it is Airport Extreme not the original Airport.

 

[Gorgonops]

The thing is when I pull down the Airport menu it gives the option of connecting using WPA2, it just never does. And it is Airport Extreme not the original Airport.

Oh, that's different.

Just based on a quick Google (since I don't do Windows) it looks like having problems with trying to use WPA for ad-hoc networks with Windows isn't an unusual state of affairs. Based on a lot of agony dealing with Apple's WPA supplicant over the years (don't ask*) it's no surprise you'd find OS X having "issues" with such a thing.

* You know you're dealing with an "Enterprise-Ready" company when a front-line support person has the gall to say "We don't support using Macintoshes with anything but Airport Extreme base stations" when called about a reproduceable issue with MacBooks randomly falling off a Cisco Aironet-based WPA2 Enterprise network. Uhm, yeah, nice try. Let's speak to your manager now...