Network
How to Password Protect Your AirPort's Wireless Network
Matt Cone January 14, 2013
If you own an AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, or Time Capsule, you should consider protecting your wireless network with a password to prevent other individuals from accessing it. Enabling password protection is easy and can provide peace of mind. You probably don’t want others stealing your bandwidth or, in a worst-case scenario, using your network to do something illegal. Here’s how to password protect your AirPort’s wireless network: Open the AirPort Utility application.
How to Enable SNMP on an AirPort Base Station
Matt Cone December 31, 2012
The AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and Time Capsule are excellent wireless base stations, but it can be difficult to know exactly what they’re doing. For instance, you might be interested in knowing how many devices are connected to your base station, or how much bandwidth has been used by all of the connected devices over a certain period of time. To monitor statistics like these, you’ll need to enable something called SNMP, which stands for simple network management protocol.
How to Find the Best DNS Servers
Matt Cone June 12, 2012
We’ve previously discussed how to change the DNS servers on your Mac, iPad, and AirPort Extreme. But how do you know which DNS servers to use? There are dozens of free DNS providers, and all of them claim to offer the best service. Don’t worry. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to find the best DNS servers, no matter where you’re located or which device you’re using. Why Can’t Anyone Tell Me Which DNS Servers to Use?
Import Your AirPort Extreme Configuration
Matt Cone June 4, 2012
So you own an AirPort Extreme and the unthinkable happened: You had to reset the base station to the default settings. All of your network settings have been lost. Now what? If you thought to export your AirPort Extreme configuration before you reset the base station, you can import that configuration file and instantly restore all of your network settings. (If you didn’t export the configuration before the reset, you’ll have to start over and set up the AirPort Extreme again.
Export Your AirPort Extreme Configuration
Matt Cone June 4, 2012
Setting up an AirPort Extreme is a painstaking process that can take hours or even days. But your work isn’t finished when you get the AirPort Extreme working the way you want it. The last step is exporting your AirPort Extreme’s configuration file to save all of those configuration settings and back them up. If you ever need to reset your AirPort Extreme to the default settings, or if it ever resets accidentally, you can restore your configuration settings by importing the configuration file with the AirPort Utility application.
Change an AirPort Extreme's DNS Servers
Matt Cone May 17, 2012
If you own an AirPort Extreme and use it as a router, you can specify default DNS servers for all of the devices connected to your wireless network. This is a great way to enforce enterprise network policies using OpenDNS, which allows you to implement security and filtering controls. And if you’re a home user, you can protect your children by configuring DNS servers for the entire house and enable parental controls with OpenDNS.
How to Use Your Mac as a Wireless Router
Matt Cone February 29, 2012
Did you know that you can turn your Mac into a wireless router for your home or office? This is a great option if you have cable or DSL service, but have yet to purchase a wireless router! These instructions will show you how to connect several computers or devices - such as an iPhone or iPad - to the Internet via your Mac’s wireless network. The best part is that you can save big money on expensive devices like the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express by setting up your Mac to do the same thing!
How to Connect a Hard Drive to the AirPort Extreme
Matt Cone December 28, 2011
You can use an AirPort Extreme Base Station to create a wireless network for the computers and devices in your home or office. But did you know that you can also connect a USB hard drive to an AirPort Extreme? Doing so effectively creates a network drive that can be accessed by all of the users connected to the wireless network. It’s a great way to share documents, photos, music, and movies with the other people on your network.
How to Hide Your AirPort Extreme Network
Matt Cone December 26, 2011
Own an AirPort Extreme Base Station? Congratulations! You have one of the most secure network devices in the industry. The AirPort Extreme’s WPA2 Personal and WPA2 Enterprise encryption options are the best available. But there’s another powerful security feature that you’ll want to enable on AirPort Extreme: The ability to “hide” the wireless network so that users can’t see it in wireless menu. (In technical terms, this is known as disabling or hiding the AirPort Extreme SSID.
How to Connect to Hidden Wireless Networks
Matt Cone December 26, 2011
Need to connect your Mac to a wireless network? You know the drill. Click on the wireless menu bar icon, select an available network, and your Mac automatically connects. But what about connecting to wireless networks that are hidden? The hidden wireless networks won’t appear in the list, so you’ll need to use a different method to connect to one of those networks. Here’s how to connect your Mac to a hidden wireless network: