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Sometimes I got over to a friends house and have to keep hounding them every time for the password for their wireless. This gets annoying, so I found a way to set my location via Network Preferences. I can now tell my MacBook Pro where I am and it will automatically connect me to the correct Wireless router!

My MacBook Pro is set to automatic in it’s location settings out of the box. This means the computer is always looking for an airport, firewire, bluetooth, and ethernet connection simultaneously. When I am at home, I like to sync my bluetooth phone, connect to the wireless, and hookup my firewire drive. If the location is automatic, the MacBook will do this fine. Sometimes I am sitting in a coffee house and I only need the airport connection. I figure maybe I can save a little battery power if these connections are not always on when they are not necessary. Think of it like turning off the lights to conserve energy in the home.

OS X allows me to assign a location for my network communications. A location is a set of network preferences.

Location can be found in the Apple Menu. When I first use the Location selection, it will be set to Automatic. Click Network Preferences to make a new location in the Apple Menu.

The Network Preferences Pane opens. The first drop down menu says Location. Here I can make a new location, or even edit existing locations. Select New Location like in the example image above.

A new pane appears, one that may look daunting with a bunch of network settings. Contact the network administrator to figure out how to connect to a network using these settings. But first we must choose the connections we want to use in our new location. In the example, I am sitting in a coffee house called the Daily Grind that has a Wifi Hotspot. All I need is the airport to be working. In the Show menu, Select Network Port Configurations to choose which connections I want to be active. Click Apply Now when I am finished.

Now I can select the new location in the Apple Menu.

I can even edit my locations in the Location drop down menu. Select Edit Locations…

Regarding airport communications, I can actually set the preferred network for the specific location I am in. This is nice when there are many wireless networks. I can just choose my location and it will single out my preferred network. Otherwise, when location is set to Automatic, my computer will ask me which network I want to join. In Network Preferences, Select the Location and Show Airport settings. In the By default, join: menu select Preferred networks and Select the wireless router from the list. Click Apply Now.

This article shows how to set up network locations using OS X 10.4 Tiger. Documentation on Apple’s website covers information for earlier versions of OS X.

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Written by Steve Blue
steveblue@iuseapple.com