# Airport problem? Macbook problem? Who knows? I need HELP!



## Uduckhead (Aug 22, 2006)

I recently purchased a Macbook Pro and I was messing around with filesharing to get some stuff off my old iMac onto my new macbook. My brother transferred files from the iMac to his G5 before so I was trying to go about it the same way. I hit command+k and typed in my iMacs IP, then left the room for a few minutes. When I came back, it said the connection had failed for some reason so I just quit everything and forgot about it. Later tonight I tried to go online however and it appeared as though it weren't connected. In the tool bar the airport logo was grayed out and had a black, vertical arrow through it. I clicked on it, and instead of listing my regular network as the one it was connected to it listed the name of the macbook itself, with a check next to it. I opened network diagnostics to select my regular network and NO NETWORKS WERE LISTED. I opened Internet Connect and the network pull-down menu was grayed out, displaying the name of my computer. Any and all help is GREATLY appreciated.


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## symphonix (Aug 22, 2006)

Uduckhead said:


> In the tool bar the airport logo was grayed out and had a black, vertical arrow through it. I clicked on it, and instead of listing my regular network as the one it was connected to it listed the name of the macbook itself, with a check next to it.



This symbol means that your Macbook has been set to be a "Computer to Computer Network". Most likely your brother did this when he was transferring files across, as it is a very simple way to setup an instant, direct connection. This is accessed through the "Create Network..." option in the Airport menu.

Once you turn off this option, you'll be able to see other nodes as per normal.


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## macworks (Aug 22, 2006)

Not that this solves your networking issue, but if you boot one computer up while holding down the T key, you'll get firewire disk mode. Then simply connect the two computers together with firewire cable. Using the computer that's booted up normally, you'll see the hard drive of the one booted in FireWire disk mode. You can transfer files much more quickly that way.


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## Uduckhead (Aug 22, 2006)

symphonix said:


> This is accessed through the "Create Network..." option in the Airport menu.



Where exactly is this option...? I looked at the airport menu in internet connect as well as network options and I can't find it anywhere...


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## ZeClab (Aug 22, 2006)

The option is in system preferences ---> network ---> airport ---> options ----> then theres a little ticky box with create computer to computer networks just untick it and you should be alright
Hope this helps


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## Uduckhead (Aug 22, 2006)

Bad news guys...it's already unchecked. Back to square one?


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## dazzasimmo (Aug 28, 2006)

don't know if this helps or not... I use a macbook and since moving from a powerbook to a macbook, i've noticed my airport card takes ages to locate access points (apple or other). I move from site to site during the day and jump from airport to airport. I've learnt to be patient but it's a big pain! I use a widget from macwireless.com and i've noticed that when i bring this up, it seems to connect better to wireless networks. Maybe download it and see if it does anything for you?


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## Gnomo (Aug 28, 2006)

symphonix said:


> This symbol means that your Macbook has been set to be a "Computer to Computer Network".



Not exactly.  The symbol for computer to computer network is a little computer (square) inside of a gray airport field.  The gray airport bars with a vertical black arrow indicates that the computer is in software base station mode (i.e. the computer has been setup to share its internet connection from a modem, ethernet, firewire, etc to computers using airport).

You can turn this off from the Internet tab inside the sharing pane of system preferences.


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