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I’m seeing a lot of this disturbing little error message: “The wireless network appears to have been compromised and will be disabled for about a minute.”
A poke around the Internet doesn’t show much other than other people complaining about the same problem. Some find the only way to solve the problem is to disable WPA. I’m not so sure that’s a smart idea. I hope there’s a fix for this in 10.5.2.
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{ 24 comments }
do you have the same problems with wpa2?
Django compromises wireless networks! Everyone panic! :)
I had the same issue – a move to WPA2 made it go away.
I had the same thing. The last thing I installed before it started was Azureus (torrent client). It’s java based.
I use WPA-TKIP for encryption and have 10.5.2 (just bought my Macbook Pro earlier this month (April).
Ideas on other ways to fix/disable the prompt?
Ghost
It seemed to go away after I upgraded to 10.5.2.
Nope, i got 10.5.2 as well – and just got it again :-@
yep I get this daily on new macbook pro, 10.5.2, and it drives me nuts.. I think it’s down to the flakey signal from my router.. I know the signal hasn’t been compromised, like hacked, as I’m in the middle of nowhere, rural sticksville, and the cows aint using wifi
I had this problem constantly with WPA. Changing to WPA2 took away the problem, but my other computer wasn’t able to deal with WPA2.
10.5.3. has now been released and installed it a couple of hours ago. At least so far the problem has disappeared even with WPA. Fingers crossed..
Yes, WPA2 is the way to go.
I have cracked this – if you have tried to access the wireless using wrong wireless autentication protocol say WEP personal instead WEP2 personal – and entered password – for both – THEN in flaky reception conditions mac tries first the wrong authentication method and messes somehow the right one – BUT you can fix this by going switcing airport off then go keychainaccess and delete the credentials – and then connect to wlan again – that should do it.
Randomly ran across your post during a search for the problem online. It looks like the solution isn’t so much WPA2 as it is choosing the AES encryption method instead of TKIP. Some routers allow you to choose – TKIP seems to cause problems during periods of heavy use. (I was having the problem while using a Linksys WRT54Gv8 with DD-WRT installed. It would show up most often while using Skype. Switching from TKIP to AES solved the problem immediately.)
Good luck!
I am not sure whether the level of security encryption is the reason the wireless started bugging, but if it work better with WAP2 then so be it because it enhances the security.
Switching to WPA2 usually helps
I usually hear only good things about Mac so I’m happy now that I have a PC since i don’t get this message. I do want Mac thou :)
wep keys are easy to break
“I usually hear only good things about Mac so I’m happy now that I have a PC since i don’t get this message. I do want Mac thou :)”
PC dont care if someone breaks in your wireless network
I have the same, persistent problem with this bogus message rendering my wireless connectivity useless. Mac OS X 10.5.5, latest model MacBook (November 2008), WPA encryption.
This message is not bogus but has nothung to do with the network beeing compromised but rather a problem with the wireless router you are using and OS X. It occurrs with dlink and linksys routers but more so with Linksys. Neithe Apple or the roter companies have addressed this issue althoug its been around along time. There have messages on various forums dating back overa year to Tiger 10.4.4 and now Leopard. I recenly upgraded from 10.5.5 to 10.5.6 and started having this error message appear every three or four minuted. Very annoying. Already using WAP2 on my Lynksys router. Disablling VP4 or VPS didn’t work nor did changing from AES to TKIP as suggested previously. Swithching off the Airport and going to keychainacess and making sure the box for the network I was using and using the repair function then rebooting and turning Airport back on again did clear up the problem immediately. If you can’t solve the problem using one of the methods mentioned, just park the message out of site while you work and your internet will work just fine.
I was having the problem while using a Linksys WRT54Gv8 with DD-WRT installed. It would show up most often while using Skype. Switching from TKIP to AES solved the problem immediately
I had this problem in spades whenever more than one computer was on the wireless network (Motorola SBG900/Comcast). The problem went away by switching to AES, thanks all!
This issue first appeared when I was using a slingbox (streaming video)
switching to AES resolved it for me. Linksys HR200 + MacBook 10.5.6
Thanks
Hi All, I’m having the same problem on an Orange wireless router. Unfortunately, I’m a complete novice at changing settings – can anyone tell me how I change to AES? Any & all helpful suggestions would be much appreciated.
Is it remotely possible that someone IS actually trying to hack in? (I’m in Manhattan and can see more than 50 networks from my apartment!) The way your hacker neighbor will try to get in, is by issuing a command that confuses the wireless router and forces all connections to drop. They then try to come back up and during this process, the hacker listens to the exhange of info from the Access point to the computers. They then run decryption on these hashes and eventually get your WAP2 key. It is just a matter of time.
Mac is smsrt and know this, so it won’t let you reconnect during the period when the hacker is listening to the reconnect.
To all those who have this problem, use a wireless scanning tool such as iStumbler and look for any ad-hoc networks. by just walking around your building and looking at signal levels, you ill find who your nasty neighbor is and hopefully get back to him!!!
Remember that if you get this error every 4 minutes, it could very well be a robot set to to try every 4 minutes until they hack in, not necessarily a crapy netgear router!!!
In my case, the problem went away after I tweaked the settings of my airport software and upgraded the system software.
I use neither a dlink nor a linksys router. This problem has been widely reported in mac sites and indeed appears to have been a bug in the wireless software.
Hi, a wee update, I changed my router, and since I’ve gone to O2 I got a new router which has better encryption ie. AES (WEP2). No problems ever since. I now love my new Macbook Pro!
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