Macbook Cannot Connect
April 28, 2011
This morning my Macbook Pro could not connect to my wireless network, but all my other wireless devices (i.e. Macbook, PC, iPhone…) could connect fine. I tried several things to fix the issue, such as creating a new Location in the Network pane in the System Preferences area. I even tried to re-naming my network SSID and password (which meant updating all my other wireless devices — such a pain).
But still, no connection! I read about deleting the “SystemConfiguration” folder within the “/Library/Preferences/” folder and re-booting and I tried that — again, no connection. Then I tried removing all password and keychain records regarding my wireless network through the KeyChain Access app in the Utilities folder.
Finally, I read about someone resetting their PRAM and re-booting. After re-booting and attempting to connect to the wireless network, it worked!
So, the steps I did to fix my wireless connection on my Macbook Pro were as follows:
- Go to “Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/” folder and remove it. (Maybe you should back it up first.)
- Open KeyChain app from “Applications > Utilities > Keychain” and remove all instances where your wireless network passwords exist.
- Open System Preferences pane and select Network. Nothing should exist because of your actions in Step 1 above. From Location dropdown, select “Edit Locations…”
- And create a new location called “Automatic” by clicking the + button. Then select “Done”.
- Finally, the PRAM needs to be reset by performing the following actions:
- Shut down the computer
- Find the following keys: Command, Option, P, and R.
- The above keys must be pressed at the same time before the gray screen appears. Do this upon re-starting the computer.
- Now, re-start the computer.
- Immediately, press all the keys (Command, Option, P and R) at the same time.
- Hold these keys until the computer restarts again and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
- Release the keys and let it start up normally.
- After successfully re-booting, try to connect again to your wireless network. It may prompt you again for your password, but should now work.
The above worked for me. You should backup your data before attempting the above. Also, my wireless security is WPA2 Personal. Your setup may work by just using WEP, but that isn’t as secure as WPA.