The Ultimate Macbook Wireless Internet Guide
Setting Up Your Home’s Wireless Network
The first step to getting online with your Macbook is to set up a wireless network in your home. This is usually pretty easy, and depending on your Internet provider, they may just do it all for you. Even if not, however, just follow this easy to read guide and you’ll be set in no time.
Another way to connect to the Internet, if you don’t have a home network, is to use your phone. This is a bit more complicated than the traditional method, but still easily doable as long as your phone has Internet access.
So you’ve got your network (or phone) set up, and now you need to get online. Wait though, first you need to protect your computer from the many evils of the Internet by configuring your general OS X Internet security options. Take a look at this guide to do so.
After your general Internet settings are completely configured, it’s time to set up the big barrier of entry for programs to take advantage of your Internet access, the firewall. This only takes a few minutes, and after everything is good to go, not a single program will be able to sneak in without your expressed permission, preventing many different problems, including viruses.
Monitoring Spyware From Your Macbook
Another thing you’ll want to check out before getting online is Spyware prevention. Spyware is sort of like a virus, only generally more annoying and less destructive. Still, it’s something you’ll want to watch out for either which way, so learn how to monitor it and stop it directly from your Macbook.
Network Security Software for your Mac
One of the last things you’ll want to consider before actually getting online is some network security software, such as anti-virus, anti-malware, and many other things. All of this software, both free and paid, is covered in this guide for you to look at and be informed by. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether you want to buy any of this software, but it’s certainly something to consider.
Choosing the Perfect Internet Browser
Okay, now you’re totally ready to get online? Good. Great. So now we have to choose an Internet browser. Macbooks all come with the browser known as “Safari” built-in, and many people find this to be to their liking. For the picky surfers, however, other options like Chrome or Firefox could be to your fancy. Check them all out here.
Speeding Up Slow Flash Connections
A hugely popular website these days is known as Youtube, and it runs using an application called Adobe Flash to play videos. Sometimes, flash is going particularly slow and you need to do some work to get things back into working order. Here’s a guide on speeding up slow Youtube videos, and slow flash connections in general.
But wait… didn’t we forget something? What about the browser you used to use on your Windows known as “Internet Explorer”? Well, don’t fret, because you can get that one on Macs as well; it’s just a little harder. Here’s how to get it running as quickly as possible.
Setting Up and Using MAC Addresses
The MAC address (media access control) is a number that every Internet-connected computer has. It tells certain networks how to communicate with you and transmit data back and forth. Sometimes, you need to find your computer’s MAC address for troubleshooting purposes, and this is how to do just that.
Sharing a Wired Connection Among Macbooks Using Wireless
What if you’re, say, in a hotel but there’s only one ethernet outlet to share between you and your friend? Can anything be done aside from switching off who gets Internet access? As a matter of fact, there is. Here’s how to “share” an Internet connection with another Mac, even if you have only one wired outlet.
Hosting a Server On Your Macbook
Sometimes you need to use your Mac as the hub for many other computers to connect to. This is called “making your computer a server computer”, and it can be done on Windows, Linux or Macintosh computers without too much hassle- just takes a little skill before you’ll really get it down to a science.
Troubleshooting Your Airport Card (Macbook)
Let’s say you’re working one day just fine, but the next day, your airport is just not working. You can’t connect to any network, you can’t see any networks, and the whole Internal wireless card just seems to be broken. Here’s how to troubleshoot a problem like that to ensure you don’t have to replace it.
Troubleshooting Your Airport Card (Macbook Pro)
Similar to the guide above, this one will tell you how to troubleshoot an airport card that’s giving you Internet troubles, only this article focuses on the Macbook Pro over the traditional Macbook.
Replacing Your Airport Card (White Macbook)
At the end of the day, sometimes you do just have to replace a wireless card instead of spending hours and hours trying to fix the dang thing. This is where this guide comes in handy, it’s primarily for the older white Macbooks. See below for a guide on the Unibody versions.
Replacing Your airport Card (Unibody Macbook)
If you have a unibody Macbook and your airport card breaks, it’s a little more complicated to replace. Not impossible, but it will take more work from you. That’s okay though, because this guide will guide you step-by-step through the whole process, getting you in and out in no time.
Lose Your WEP Password? Get It Back
Finally, if you leave home for a while with your laptop and then come back, imagine what would happen if you totally forgot the password to your wireless network. What would you do? Could you replace it? Reset it? Well, you can, but not without calling the ISP and having them do it. There is, however, another way, and it’s covered in this handy guide.
Ultimately, Macbook wireless connections are pretty stable. For the most part, if you’re careful about viruses, spyware, and malware, you shouldn’t run into any issues beyond your router just completely breaking. If that happens… well… I guess you have a buy a new one! Hopefully it doesn’t though. Happy Interneting, Macbook owners!
References
- All information comes directly from the Bright Hub articles linked.