Is there a way to set up a guest password/network on my Airport so when people come over they can access my wireless but I don’t have to give them my pw for the main network?
Reader Interactions
60Comments
Comments are closed.
by John Cole| 60 Comments
This post is in: Science & Technology
Is there a way to set up a guest password/network on my Airport so when people come over they can access my wireless but I don’t have to give them my pw for the main network?
Comments are closed.
Calming influence
John, just email me your admin username and password and I’ll do it for you. No problem.
raven
Axe and ye shall
ellie
I have the option, through my router, to allow guest wireless access. It is a separate password so you don’t have to give them yours.
am
Best I could find on quick notice: http://www.macinstruct.com/node/541
Calming influence
Oh, and I’ll need your social security number as well.
piratedan
@Calming influence: don’t forget his HIPAA data too….
shortstop
Damn you, piratedan — I was just typing that.
Baud
@Calming influence:
jcole
mustard
Violet
@Calming influence: You need to get in contact with Lily, Rosie and Steve for that info. They’ve got the dirt on John. Probably know where the mustard is hidden too.
Eric U.
credit card number too, just in case
cathyx
John, we all know that your password is Lily, so don’t bother with this.
dopealope
Depends on how new your Airport is. The newer ones provide the facility for a guest network, but the old ones don’t.
raven
Damn, I posted the directions.
Calming influence
Here’s a thought: From insurance industries secret “! DO NOT INSURE !” files, you could probably find out a lot about Cole. Dude can’t walk from his front door to his mailbox without dislocating or lacerating something.
Karen in GA
As long as you name the network “NSA Receiver.”
different-church-lady
I don’t know about you folks, but when people come to my house I take away all their wifi gadgets so they have to pay attention to me.
Calming influence
@Karen in GA: “PRISM Portal” would also be acceptable.
Omnes Omnibus
@Karen in GA: That one is already connected.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
“I will not be ignored!”
joseph castillo
From Apple Support:
When you set up a guest network, a portion of your connection to the Internet is reserved for “guests,” wireless clients that can join the guest network and connect to the Internet without accessing your private network.
If sharing services are set up on the client computers, guests can also communicate with each other.
To set up a guest network, the Apple wireless device must be set up to share its public IP address using DHCP and NAT.
Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
Select the wireless device on which you want to set up a guest network, and then click Edit.
Click Wireless, and then select Enable Guest Network.
Give the guest network a name.
Choose None, WPA/WPA2 Personal, or WPA 2 Personal from the Guest Network Security pop-up menu, and then type a password for the guest network.
Clients wanting to join the guest network will need to enter the password.
joseph castillo
From Apple Support:
When you set up a guest network, a portion of your connection to the Internet is reserved for “guests,” wireless clients that can join the guest network and connect to the Internet without accessing your private network.
If sharing services are set up on the client computers, guests can also communicate with each other.
To set up a guest network, the Apple wireless device must be set up to share its public IP address using DHCP and NAT.
Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
Select the wireless device on which you want to set up a guest network, and then click Edit.
Click Wireless, and then select Enable Guest Network.
Give the guest network a name.
Choose None, WPA/WPA2 Personal, or WPA 2 Personal from the Guest Network Security pop-up menu, and then type a password for the guest network.
Clients wanting to join the guest network will need to enter the password.
Ivan X
Mac consultant reporting in.
Open AirPort Utility (if you can’t find it, use Spotlight, or look in the Utilities folder of the Applications folder). It’s probably the shitty new version 6.x. Click your AirPort, then click Edit. Click Wireless. Check Enable Guest Network. Choose the security you want, or none (not advised; use your phone # or something that you don’t mind people having). All done.
If you instead are still on Snow Leopard and have AirPort Utility 5.6.x, click Manual Setup, then the Guest Network tab.
If you have an older 802.11g AirPort that you have to use AirPort Utility 5.6 for, download the Snow Leopard version, then use Pacifist (shareware) to drag it out of the Application folder.
Any other questions?
diana
@dopealope: yeah, the new ones give you a guest network automatically. My network is named after my cat, “ironpaw,” so my guest network is “guest of the paw.”
Calming influence
@different-church-lady: The Wave Bubble saves time.
Kitty
You can set it up using the Airport Utility in your Utilities folder.
max
@Calming influence: John, just email me your admin username and password
User: JCOLE
PW: NOPANTS!1!
max
[‘What? Tunch set it up back in the day.’]
Redshirt
LOL. Why does Cole ask questions here? Not like he’s going to read the answers.
catclub
Upside down internet for ‘visitors’ on a network. Link is very old.
http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html
LanceThruster
Yes!
xD
Redshirt
Sounds like Walt’s got a virus.
tybee
@Karen in GA:
a few months ago, when my eldest moved into a new neighborhood, the wifi router was named “NSA”.
some of the new neighbors mentioned that….
Quinerly
totally unrelated: http://science.time.com/2013/10/22/the-united-states-of-attitude-an-interactive-guide-to-americas-moods/
I mostly lurk and make very few comments. However, I found it interesting that this study/test characterizes West Virginia as the most “neurotic state.”
carry on.
Felanius Kootea
@different-church-lady: I should do that too!
different-church-lady
@Felanius Kootea: It’s not so great, actually — we usually just end up staring at each other in awkward silence.
Felonius Monk
What! Macs have their own Airport? Whocuddanode.
Ecks
@Baud:
FTFY
ruemara
If you have a dual band, like my new Belkin, you should have an option for a guest network. I have that as the roommate/guest access portal, while my main network (plus NAS) is not visible to anyone scanning. It’s pretty sweet.
shortstop
@cathyx: Look, he’s a crafty bastard. It’s L1ly.
Anne Laurie
@different-church-lady: Especially after you ‘coercively interrogate’ them. Weaklings!
MikeJ
@Quinerly: There’s nothing halfway about the Iowa way to treat you if they treat you which they may not do at all.
Botsplainer
@Calming influence:
Moms maiden name and first elementary school attended.
Oh, and first pet name.
Seanly
@different-church-lady:
Funny, that’s what I do to
the people I swipe off the street and keep in my basement dungeonmy guests. There’s other stuff I do to them, but we won’t get into that.RE: Cole’s question. Once you set up the guest wireless, give it a terrible password – long with lots of capital O’s & zeroes. Then give them a hastily scribbled post-it with the password (no lines through the zeroes!). Good times.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Felonius Monk: Well, Saint Ronnie, peace be upon his name, does so it’s only fair.
Squarely Rooted
Buy a dual band router. 100% worth it.
Jay C
@Redshirt:
Naaah, he does: but it’s not like it was back in the Good Old Days of Balloon Juice, when John would pop into the comment threads after half an hour or so, and tell snarky or annoying commenters to go fuck themselves, and occasionally thank the
nerdstech-savvy for their input. We’ll just have to adjust our expectations to dealing with Cole 2.5, and snark away at ourselves…. *sigh*@shortstop:
Or “St3ve”
different-church-lady
Can we have a World Series open thread?
Yeah, I know there’s no game tonight — I’ve just been having such a good time on the WSOTs that I’ve got a craving for one.
shortstop
@different-church-lady: Yeah, why does this lovely lady have to keep asking for one?! Give it to her, y’all!
Redshirt
@different-church-lady: Can the Sox hit Wacha? I think not, except Papi. So, we got to work him, get him pulled in the 6th.
I no want a 7th game. Peavy? Scary. What happened to him – he seemed great in the Tampa Bay series.
Heliopause
I found a great nerd site that answers questions like yours, John.
First, go to http://www.google.com. Click on “images”. Once the page comes up type “midget porn” in the search box and hit “enter”. Most of the page one results should take you straight to the appropriate site. Don’t worry about the pictures, those are just insidery iconic things that tech nerds use.
Apocalypse Tom
One thing that I’ve found in dealing with these Airport Base Stations is that the requirement that they be configured to provide Network Address Translation (NAT) and DHCP (dynamic assignment of client IP addresses), the Airport Base Station effectively needs to be the router for your network connection to the Internet.
If you have another router or firewall that is performing that role and you’ve configured the Airport as a “bridge”, the Guest network won’t work–you can check the box to enable the Guest network, but the Guest network won’t provide the connecting computer with an IP, which in turn means that it won’t be able to pass traffic to the rest of the network.
Oaklakeman
John
Here’s some info from Apple.
Oaklakeman
John
Here’s some info from Apple. //support.apple.com/kb/HT3477
SiubhanDuinne
Bet you say that to all the girls.
SiubhanDuinne
@Botsplainer:
O
Mister Purr Puff, right?
Karen in GA
@tybee: Ha!
raven
I guess I should understand that embedding a link to the Apple documentation is just way over the top for this outfit.
YellowDog
Open the Airport Utility, click on the base station, click on edit in the dialog box, click on the Wireless tab. From there, you can enable the guest network, name it, set the security level, and set the password. Alternatively, RTFM.
Ruckus
@raven:
Some people may not have internet access.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Lily and Rosie?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Username: Chunkylover53
Password: 12345