NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Mac community

Hello everyone. Long time lurker...thanks for the great site.

I'm an international student studying at Massey in Palmerston North. I want to bring an iPod Touch back with me to New Zealand, but only if Massey's wireless service will work on it. I'm a little worried that Massey's wireless won't work because it uses a proxy, and I have no idea if proxies work on the Touch (I haven't been able to find anything definitive on the subject).

Here's info about Massey's wireless:

wireless.massey.ac.nz/

Does anyone know if the iPod Touch will work on it? I'm sort of crunched for time because I head back to NZ next week and need to know whether to buy the Touch before then or not.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

It sure does. I just checked it now and you have the option to specify a proxy server and also any additional parameters such as authentication types etc.

I work at Massey PN and they must work as I had a staff member ask me why they kept losing the wireless signal on the iPod Touch on the network. So they must work, but I didn't have time to figure out what his issue was.

Phil

Phil, re an iPod Touch losing signals: I've seen some comments on newsgroup postings that the iPhone and iPod Touch have much weaker 802.11 reception than Mac laptops.

The problem might just be weaker signals for the iPod Touch, so they lose the connection more readily than a laptop. If you know where the base stations are located it should be easy enough to test this.

Thank you for the replies, everyone. I appreciate it!

should work fine, as long as the battery can hold out.
You can even buy them in New Zealand now!

Well, I'm back at Massey and I can't figure out how to connect my iPod touch to the Massey network. It's driving me crazy. The iPod can see the network fine, but I can't properly login. I have set the iPod proxy settings to "Automatic" and "Manual" using authentication, but nothing appears to work. The network assigns the iPod an IP address using DHCP, so at least something is getting through. When I try to use Safari, all I get is "Cannot connect to server...blah blah blah." Ugh!

Any advice?

Check the settings at the bottom PDF on this page for students.....
http://wireless.massey.ac.nz/connect.htm

Have you gone and seen ITS at all? I know of staff that use an iPod Touch fine, so it should work. I know you're a student...but smile at ITS nicely and let them play with your iPod a bit

Phil

Phil, I stopped by ITS today and was told that the wireless network was under the jurisdiction of the library. They didn't care to help me at all. So I went to the IT Help Desk at the library, and while they tried to be helpful, we still couldn't get it to work. The problem appears to be with authentication.

How are staff members connecting their iPod Touches to the network? I realize that they are probably connecting to one of the two available staff networks, but I've been told that all the networks have the same encryption and login protocols.

cutman wrote:
Phil, I stopped by ITS today and was told that the wireless network was under the jurisdiction of the library.
What? Which campus are you on and are they talking about the wireless network around campus or the cafenet service?

They didn't care to help me at all. So I went to the IT Help Desk at the library, and while they tried to be helpful, we still couldn't get it to work. The problem appears to be with authentication.

How are staff members connecting their iPod Touches to the network? I realize that they are probably connecting to one of the two available staff networks, but I've been told that all the networks have the same encryption and login protocols.

They do as far as I'm aware. Do you mind if I post your message to the Mac mailing list on campus? All Mac users (including IT staff will see it) and perhaps I can get some help for you? I might be able to find someone with an iPod Touch that would be willing to help.

Phil
PS...I'm assuming that you are as you say you are...a paid up student Obviously the network isn't going to let you on if your not