18 Jan
I usually use two wireless networks, my home and university, to browse Internet.
In my university I have been assigned a specific IP address and connect to the Internet through a proxy server where as at home I simply let my router assign me settings via DHCP. On a Mac, it is really easy to make a profile for a specific network rather than input the settings manually every time (Windows eh..) we are in a different network. We can make as many network profiles as we need to and assign the network settings in them. So whenever you go to the particular location, just select the profile from the network preference pane. It’s that simple!
Let’s see how:
Select the ‘Network’ pane from System Preferences.
In the ‘Locations’ drop down menu, select the option ‘Edit Locations’.
Then Click on the little + symbol and type in the location’s name.
Now click on the ‘Advanced’ button and the settings for Airport pop up. In the TCP/IP section enter your IP address and Subnet Mask.
Enter the Domain Name Server address in the DNS section.
If you network uses proxies to browse Internet, change those settings in the ‘Proxies’ tab.
Click Ok and then Apply. Next time whenever you want to switch network location, just select it from the locations menu in the Network preference pane.

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10 Responses for "How To Create Multiple Wireless Network Profiles On A Mac"
hi my name is ratni,In my campus I have been assigned a specific IP address and connect to the Internet through a proxy server. but in my home I used wifi automatically,but since I have been assigned that ip campus, i cant join my wifi in home,so how to recover my old setting???
thx
Hi Ratni,
First tell me if you use a Mac or Windows PC???
ahhh windows can to the same thing… bu thanks for the walk though.
I’m tired of this ridiculous single-minded Fanboyism associated with Mac users.
I have just spent the last hour googling for an AUTOMATIC solution to this problem. You see contrary to what you Mac idiots might think, Apple DONT always make everything easier.
Guess what? Windows does this AUTOMATICALLY you simply setup each wireless network with separate configs and VOILA whenever Windows detects one of the configs it automatically connects to it.
The only solution for automatic switching on a mac seems to be third-party software. So now I have to remember to switch locations every time I get into Uni … so much for Macs making things easier!
Ridiculous, please at least try and understand your ‘enemy’ before putting it down. OS X is a lovely OS but it is far from perfect as most Mac fanboys would lead you to believe.
Not only can Windows do it, but I believe Windows has mechanisms to allow even easier switching. Remembering to pop into a pref pane every time I want to change settings isn’t a lot easier than just changing them manually anyway, for me.
You don’t need the prefpane to switch; there is a submenu under the Apple icon.
This does not work on my Macbook Pro for one wifi being dhcp and the other being a manually assigned ip.
thanks a lot. its very useful. it was hard to change the proxy setting every time I changed my wifi
Whoa .. thanks a lot for this tip .. I can’t believe I never knew about this. I face this very same problem where I have an assigned IP at office and a normal DHCP at home!
Thanks for this. It is relevant a year later. In this case, my wife has a Macbook Air which she rebooted and it somehow lost the connection info. On our home network, I set it to not broadcast and the password has 20+ characters, so she had to call me to get the info.
As others stated above, all of our Windows machines simply keep the profile automatically and they connect to whatever available connections exist (using your preferred ones where possible). I assumed Mac OS does the same, and I am hoping that once I create this profile, her machine will keep it.
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