MacOS – How to “blacklist” a wireless network on the Mac

macoswifi

My home wifi network is password protected, as it should be. My neighbor's is not. Because I have password protected my network, my computer continually joins my neighbors instead of mine. I have moved my network to the top of the list of the "preferred" wireless networks, but if my network is down for whatever reason my computer just re-joins the neighbor's network. I don't want to join my neighbor's network, ever. Is there a way to make it so that my computer will never join a particular network, i.e. "blacklist" it?

Best Answer

Remove it from the list of "Preferred Networks" and it will stop auto-connecting.

  • Go to "System Preferences" > "Networks" prefpane.
  • Choose "AirPort" (or "WiFi" on Lion) on the left.
  • Click the "Advanced" button.
  • In the resulting sheet, choose the "AirPort" (or "WiFi") tab. (It should be the leftmost.)
  • Select your neighbor's wifi network in the list and hit the "-" (minus) button.
  • Live with joy at never [auto-]connecting there again!