Going wireless in a wired motel

by Miraz on April 20, 2008

I’m in a motel in Hamilton, where there’s a wired Internet connection. Luckily I brought an ethernet cable with me. I plugged in and was instantly online. All credit to them for that.

However, wired connections seem so archaic, and I also brought an Airport Express with me to see if I could go wireless. This Express has been doing good service letting me print at home, and until recently, supplying AirTunes in the Lounge. Now AppleTV receives music direct, so the Express is redundant for music.

I plugged in the Express and it was all no go. I restarted things, plugged and unplugged. All kinds of things just didn’t work. Finally I did a factory reset, as Apple describe: How to perform a factory default reset

Important: This erases all settings and saved profiles. The settings erased include Access Control and RADIUS settings.

Follow these steps:

  1. Unplug the AirPort Express from the power outlet.
  2. Press and hold the reset button.
  3. Plug AirPort Express back into an AC outlet (still holding the button).
  4. Continue holding the button until you see the light flash green four times, which should happen after a few seconds.
  5. Release the button.

After the device had finished restarting itself, suddenly my MacBook Pro could see it. I set it up to provide a wireless connection, and here I am.

Hooray for the Airport Express, and for the pin in my SwissCard.

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* Get away wireless , in Mac Tips
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Colin Jackson 04.21.08 at 08:12 07

I keep an old Airport Express and a short length of flylead in my travel bag. The Airport needs to have settings that let it pick up its own IP settings from the upstream ethernet, and whatever security I deem necessary to talk to my Mac. On my Mac I have a special location set up with the same security parameters.

When I turn up somewhere where and there’s an Ethernet socket but no wireless, I plug the Airport in and select the location on the Mac. Works every time.

2 Miraz 04.21.08 at 08:24 14

Thanks Colin. I don’t get to travel much so this was a new area for me.

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