Rubenerd Blog

I think the AirPort card in my trusty-retro iBook G3 must have been stuffed, because I could never make a wireless connection at uni at all, but since getting this MacBook Pro I’m on the internet typing this post as we speak from the library, fasctianting stuff!

The uni’s policy is that while they allow the use of wireless networks on Mac OS X and Linux, they only support Windows 2000/XP. Charming.

Anyway there are a few quirks to get the wireless connection working at uni and their site only really details setting up in Windows, but I figured it out under Mac, so here’s how to do it:

• Open Internet Connect, choose AirPort from the toolbar
• Connect to the UniSA network, no username/password required

This will give you access to the uni network and the local intranet (such as uni email and course homepages) but if you want full internet access, you need to establish a VPN connection:

• Open Internet Connect again, choose VPN from the toolbar
• Choose the PPTP radio button
• For Server Address, type 192.168.12.1
• Type your UniSA username/password in the respective fields
• Click Connect
• Close Internet Connect, open System Prefrences
• Choose Network, then double-click the new VPN (PPTP) connection
• Click Proxies, then check the Web Proxy and Secure Web Proxy
• With each, type “www-proxy.unisa.edu.au” 8080
• Click Apply Now

Whew, done :).

So here’s the dillema: I have two email addresses, my gmail account for general use, and the university email address for… university use!

Both email systems are web-based, which has two downsides: it means I have to login to two seperate websites several times a day, which is a right royal pain in the rear end, so ultimately what I’d like to do is to have my uni email AND the Gmail email (that sounds cool) download into one mail client, either Mozilla Thunderbird or the Apple Mail.app program.

But herein lies the problem: the uni network uses the incredible, open standards, open source software suite called Microsoft Exchange (note the sarcasm), which is impossible to get working with anything other than Microsoft’s own proprietary-protocol compatible programs, such as Craplook or Craplook Express. So that rules out use with Thunderbird and Apple Mail.

Plus, apparently, you can set up Gmail to use POP3 to download your messages into a mail client of your choice, but as of yet neither Thunderbird or Apple Mail have been able to make a successful connection.

Now with the internet back online at home (???) I’m going to try again. Wish me luck, it looks as though I’ll need it!