If you use more than one type of network connection with your Mac, or if you access more than one Wi-Fi hotspot, then you might find one connection being preferentially used over another, which can sometimes frustrate your ability to get online or transfer data between systems. For example, if you generally use Wi-Fi for connecting your Macs to the internet but you try using an ad-hoc link with Continue reading
Tag Archives: Network
How to wake your Mac over the network
While for the most part you usually wake your Mac by pressing a button on the keyboard or clicking the mouse, you can also do so over the network. This may be useful in instances where you are unable to get to the Mac, such as if you have a Mac Mini set up as a media or network server and have it tucked away in a closet. Continue reading
How to find your Mac’s MAC address
The MAC address for a system is its Media Access Control address, which is a unique string of hexadecimal characters that identifies your system’s physical port on the network. This address is used by routers on your local network to ensure proper assignment of IP addresses, and network information routing. Continue reading
Diagnosing and fixing Wi-Fi signal quality problems in OS X
While Wi-Fi is a reliable connection technology for the most part, there are times when you might experience drop-outs or stalls in performance. Sometimes these are because of the configuration of your Mac or your router, but at other times it can be from poor signal quality.
The quality for any analog signal, be it electrical, optical, or radio, can be determined by comparing the desired signal level to the background noise level in the signal in what’s known as a signal-to-noise ratio. Continue reading