Macinstruct Tutorials

How to Connect an iPhone to a Wi-Fi Network

mcone — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:31:05 +0000

If you're a new iPhone owner, one of the first things you'll want to learn how to do is connect your iPhone to a wireless network. That's because there are certain times when your cellular data connection just won't cut it, even if you're lucky enough to have an unlimited data plan. Using Facetime, downloading content from iTunes, and even surfing the web can be painfully slow without a wi-fi connection.

Fortunately, it's a relatively simple process to connect an iPhone to a wi-fi network. Just be sure to commit this process to memory, because it's something you'll need to do over and over again, unless you set your iPhone to automatically detect and prompt you to connect to wi-fi networks.

Here's how to connect an iPhone to a wi-fi network:

From the home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Wi-Fi. The window shown below appears.

Verify that the Wi-Fi slider is in the On position. This allows your iPhone to detect and connect to wireless networks.
Tap the wireless network you want to join. If the network is not password protected, the iPhone will connect immediately.
If the wireless network you selected is protected with a password, you will be prompted to enter a password, as shown below. Enter the password and then click Join to connect to the network.

If the wireless network you selected is protected with a captive portal, you will be prompted to enter a password, or a username and password combination. These are increasingly common in hotels, airports, and on college campuses.

Congratulations! Your iPhone is now connected to the wi-fi network. From now on, the iPhone will automatically connect to this network when it is in range. If you accidentally selected the wrong wi-fi network, you can tell your iPhone to forget it.

How to Tell if Your iPhone is Connected to a Wi-Fi Network

There are several indicators you can use to verify that your iPhone is connected to a wi-fi network. The easiest way to visually check to the status bar in the upper-left corner of the iPhone's screen. The wi-fi symbol is displayed when you are connected to a network, as shown below.

If you're curious about which wi-fi network the iPhone is connected to, open the Wi-Fi settings. The network name is displayed in the sidebar, and a checkmark is also displayed next to the connected network, as shown above.

Meet Your Macinstructor

Matt Cone, the author of Master Your Mac, has been a Mac user for over 20 years. A former ghost writer for some of Apple's most notable instructors, Cone founded Macinstruct in 1999, a site with OS X tutorials that boasts hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per month. You can email him at: matt@macinstruct.com.

Make Your iPhone Ask to Join Wi-Fi Networks

mcone — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:04:59 +0000

By default, your iPhone automatically connects to known wi-fi networks. (To stop an iPhone from automatically connecting, you can tell your iPhone to forget a wi-fi network.) But what happens if you take your iPhone to a new location? You'll need to manually connect your iPhone to a wi-fi network.

That's a hassle. But if you have the foresight and inclination, you can save yourself time in the future by making your iPhone ask to join wi-fi networks when no known networks are available. Instead of having to open settings to join a network, you'll be able to easily select a network from an on-screen prompt.

Here's how to make your iPhone ask to join wi-fi networks:

From the home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Wi-Fi. The window shown below appears.

Move the Ask to Join Networks slider to the On position.
The next time you're in a location with no known networks, your iPhone will prompt you to connect to an available wi-fi network, as shown below.

In the future, this prompt will be displayed when no known networks are available. (To actually see the prompt, you'll need to do something that requires network access, like try to check your email or open a webpage.) To connect to a wi-fi network, select a network and enter a password, if one is required.

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Tell Your iPhone to Forget a Wireless Network

mcone — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:08:54 +0000

When you connect an iPhone to a wi-fi network, the iPhone remembers that network and will automatically attempt to connect to it in the future. This is a great feature for wi-fi networks you trust and use frequently. But mistakes happen. If you connect to the wrong network at a coffee shop, your iPhone will automatically attempt to join that network every time you visit the coffee shop in the future. And if the password for a known network changes, your iPhone might have trouble connecting to it.

What's the solution? Telling your iPhone to forget the wi-fi network. Forgetting a network will remove the network's password and prevent your iPhone from joining it automatically in the future.

Here's how to tell your iPhone to forget a wireless network:

From the home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Wi-Fi. The window shown below appears.

Locate the wireless network you want the iPhone to forget, and then tap the blue arrow next to the network name. The window shown below appears.

Tap Forget this Network. The iPhone will forget the wireless network.

You have successfully told your iPhone to forget the wi-fi network. The iPhone will not attempt to connect to the network in the future. And if the network required a password, that password has been forgotten.

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Controlling AirPort Network Access with Time Limits

mcone — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:39:03 +0000

If you own an AirPort base station, you can use the Timed Access feature to control the days and times when users access the Internet. This could come in handy in a variety of situations. For example, if you own a cafe and provide free wi-fi access, you can configure the AirPort to block all access to the Internet when your business is closed. And if you have children, you can set time limits for specific devices in your home.

There are two ways to use the timed access feature. You can create a default allow policy to allow all devices to access the Internet at any time, and then specify custom schedules for specific devices. Or you can create a default deny policy to prevent all devices from accessing the Internet according the schedule you specify, and then exempt specific devices by creating custom schedules.

Here's how to control AirPort network access with time limits:

Open the AirPort Utility application. (It's in Applications → Utilities.) The window shown below appears.

Click the AirPort Extreme's icon. The status pop-up window appears.
Click Edit. The settings window appears.
Select the Network tab. The window shown below appears.

Select the Enable Access Control checkbox.
Click Timed Access Control. The window shown below appears.

Select the Unlimited (default) option. By default, this allows all of the devices connected to your AirPort to access the Internet all day, every day, but you can change this to block Internet access for all devices (except the ones you specify later) during the times you set.
If you'd like to limit the days and times that a specific device can access the Internet, click the + button under the Wireless Clients field. The window shown below appears.

Enter a name for the device in the Description field.
Enter the device's MAC address in the MAC Address field. You can use the following tutorials to find the device's MAC address.
Use the + button under the Wireless Access Times field to create a schedule for this device's Internet access.
Once you've added all of your devices and customized the schedules, click Save.
Click Update. The AirPort will restart to apply the changes.

Congratulations! You have successfully set time limits for the devices connecting to your AirPort network. The schedule you created is effective immediately.

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How to Change Your iPhone's DNS Servers

mcone — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:10:34 +0000

Just like in Mac OS X, you can change the DNS servers on your iPhone. This can significantly speed up Safari and other iPhone apps that use the Internet. For a general introduction to DNS, and to learn why you would want to change the DNS servers on your iPhone, see How to Change Your Mac's DNS Servers.

Before we start, you should know a couple things about how iOS handles DNS. First, these instructions only work for Wi-Fi connections - iOS does not allow you to change the DNS servers when connected to cellular networks. Also, the changes are network specific, so you'll need to change the DNS servers every time you connect to a new wireless network. The good news is that iOS remembers the settings, so you won't have to do anything the second time you connect to a network.

Here's how to change your iPhone's DNS servers:

From the iPhone's home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Wi-Fi. The screen shown below appears. The available wireless networks in range of your iPhone appear, as shown below.

Find your wireless network in the list, and then click the arrow. The screen shown below appears.

Tap the DNS field.
Delete the current DNS servers, and enter the new DNS servers. (If you enter more than one DNS server, be sure sure to separate the servers with commas.)
- To use OpenDNS, enter 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
- To use Google DNS, enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
Test your new DNS servers to make sure they're working.
- If you're using OpenDNS, visit the OpenDNS test page.
- If you're using Google Public DNS, follow these testing instructions.

That's it! You've updated your iPhone's DNS servers!

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How to Find Your iPad's MAC Address

mcone — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:19:41 +0000

Your iPad's Wi-Fi interface has a permanent, unique serial number called a media access control (MAC) address. Some universities and employers may request your iPad's MAC address to monitor or limit your access to certain Wi-Fi networks.

MAC addresses can also be used for less nefarious purposes. For example, if your iPad is stolen on a university's campus, the IT department may be able to use its MAC address to trigger an alert when the criminal connects your iPad to a university network. For reasons like this, it can be a good idea to find and store your iPad's MAC addresses.

Here's how to find your iPad's MAC address:

From the home screen, tap Settings.
Tap General.
Tap About. The window shown below appears.

The iPad's MAC address - referred to as the Wi-Fi Address in iOS settings - is displayed on the screen.

This is important: You should not share your MAC address with anyone except authorized IT personnel. MAC addresses are unique and permanent, but they can also be spoofed by attackers. In a worst-case scenario, a malicious individual could acquire and spoof your MAC address, and you could be blamed for the illegal activity conducted by the malicious individual. So please, protect your MAC addresses!

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How to Find Your iPad's IP Address

mcone — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:04:40 +0000

Your iPad is assigned something called an IP address when it connects to a Wi-Fi network. Other devices that are connected to the same Wi-Fi network can use this unique identifier to transfer information to and from your iPad. If this sounds confusing, it might help to think of an IP address as your iPad's home mailing address. Just like physical mail, which is routed to your home via a unique address, digital information is routed to your iPad using an IP address.

There may be certain situations when you'll need to find your iPad's IP address. Here's how to find it:

From the home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Wi-Fi. The screen shown below appears.

Locate the connected Wi-Fi network, and then tap the blue arrow next to the network name. The window shown below appears.

Your iPad's current IP address for the selected Wi-Fi network is displayed at the top of the window, as shown above.

Congratulations! You have successfully found your iPad's IP address.

Note that your iPad is probably assigned a dynamic IP address, which is a temporary address that is unique only to your internal network. These addresses commonly start with 192.168 and 10.0.1. Since these addresses are dynamically and randomly assigned by the router every time a device connects to a network, you can't expect your iPad to have the same dynamic IP address every time you connect.

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How to Find Your iPhone's MAC Address

mcone — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:11:24 +0000

Your iPhone's Wi-Fi interface has a permanent, unique serial number called a media access control (MAC) address. Some universities and employers may request your iPhone's MAC address to monitor or limit your access to certain Wi-Fi networks.

MAC addresses can also be used for less nefarious purposes. For example, if your iPhone is stolen on a university's campus, the IT department may be able to use its MAC address to trigger an alert when the criminal connects your iPhone to a university network. For reasons like this, it can be a good idea to find and store your iPhone's MAC addresses.

Here's how to find your iPhone's MAC address:

From the home screen, tap Settings.
Tap General.
Tap About. The window shown below appears.

The iPhone's MAC address - referred to as the Wi-Fi Address in iOS settings - is displayed on the screen.

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Setting DHCP Reservations on Your AirPort

mcone — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:48:56 +0000

In a previous tutorial, you learned how to set a static IP address in Mac OS X to create a permanent, private IP address for your Mac that doesn't change from one day to the next. But if you own an AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, or Time Capsule base station, you can use something called DHCP reservations to do essentially the same thing.

What's the difference between a static IP address and a DHCP reservation? The end result is the same - your Mac will be assigned a static IP address when it connects to the AirPort network. But DHCP reservations are easier to set up. Since all configuration is performed in the AirPort Utility application, you can quickly and easily assign static IP addresses to multiple computers and devices without reconfiguring them individually.

How it Works

You'll use the AirPort Utility application to assign a static IP address to your Mac's MAC address. After you create a DHCP reservation, the AirPort will monitor the network for your Mac. When it detects that your Mac has connected to the network, the AirPort assigns the static IP address you specified in the AirPort Utility application. Since the AirPort base station takes care of everything, you don't have to worry about setting up Network Locations in OS X.

How to Set DHCP Reservations on Your AirPort

Ready to take the plunge? Here's how to set DHCP reservations on your AirPort:

Find your Mac's MAC address for the Wi-Fi network interface. See How to Find Your Mac's MAC Address for instructions.
Open the AirPort Utility application. (It's in Applications → Utilities.) The window shown below appears.

Click the AirPort Extreme's icon. The status pop-up window appears.
Click Edit. The settings window appears.
Select the Network tab. The window shown below appears.

Click the + button under the DHCP Reservations field. The window shown below appears.

Enter a descriptive name for your Mac in the Description field.
From the Reserve Address By menu, select MAC Address.
Enter your Mac's MAC address in the MAC Address field.
Enter the static IP address you want to assign to your computer. For more information, see step 9 in How to Set a Static IP Address in Mac OS X.
Click Save.
Click Update. The AirPort will restart to apply the changes.

Now your Mac will be assigned the static IP address every time you connect to the wireless network. You can repeat this process to assign static IP addresses to all of the computers and devices connected to your network.

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How to Find Your Mac's MAC Address

mcone — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:57:14 +0000

Each of your Mac's network interfaces — such as the ethernet and Wi-Fi cards — have a permanent, unique serial number called a media access control (MAC) address. Some universities and employers may request your Mac's MAC addresses to monitor or limit your access to certain networks.

MAC addresses can also be used for less nefarious purposes. For example, if your computer is stolen on a university's campus, the IT department may be able to use its MAC address to trigger an alert when the criminal connects your computer to a university network. For reasons like this, it can be a good idea to find and store your Mac's MAC addresses.

Here's how to find your Mac's MAC address for a network interface:

From the Apple menu, select System Preferences.
Select Network.
From the sidebar, select a network interface, such as Wi-Fi. (Remember, every network interface has a different MAC address.) The window shown below appears.

Click Advanced.
Select the Hardware tab. The window shown below appears.

The MAC address for the selected network interface is displayed in the window.

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Macinstruct Tutorials

How to Connect an iPhone to a Wi-Fi Network

How to Tell if Your iPhone is Connected to a Wi-Fi Network

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