Wifi password change, iPads, AppleTV's.

[mike86]

Hi All,

 

We are planning on changing our wifi code over the summer due to the kids getting their hands on it & was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for making these changes on our staff/student iPads & apple tvs in the classrooms.

 

Is it easy enough to email out a configuration profile for the iPads to connect to a new SSID with the new password before disabling the old one? Can you see any problems with this? We do have an OSX Server could we make use of this?

 

I think the apple tvs will be a case of walking round each class or configure with mini usb so can be controlled by ARD, but if anyone knows a better solution that would be great.

 

Thanks

 

M

[mac_shinobi]

@seawolf / @antonnioRocco / Maybe @Arthur

[seawolf]

Hi All,

 

We are planning on changing our wifi code over the summer due to the kids getting their hands on it & was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for making these changes on our staff/student iPads & apple tvs in the classrooms.

 

Is it easy enough to email out a configuration profile for the iPads to connect to a new SSID with the new password before disabling the old one? Can you see any problems with this? We do have an OSX Server could we make use of this?

 

I think the apple tvs will be a case of walking round each class or configure with mini usb so can be controlled by ARD, but if anyone knows a better solution that would be great.

 

Thanks

 

M

 

You didn't say whether you were using an MDM system or not.

 

If you are, then you could make the change to the iPads by either creating a new configuration profile with the new WiFi settings including the password for the new SSID. Then once this has applied to the target systems (most MDM systems show whether the command has completed), then and only then actually change the password on the WiFi system for the original SSID, or disable it so devices can't connect to it anymore.

 

You can do the same thing and actually keep using the same SSID, but you have to be sure to change the WiFi password AFTER you have applied the new config profile with the updated WiFi password. The iPads will temporarily lose their network connection, but should pick it back up straight away after the change. At worst, you might have to manually select the WiFi SSID and they should automatically connect with no password prompt.

 

The Apple TVs are a harder nut to crack, but if you are using Configurator, you can now configure the Apple TVs using Configurator. Otherwise, you'll be walking around and using either the Remote app to change the password or the remote to do it (slowest option).

 

Of course, if you aren't using MDM then you will either need to use Configurator (and manual handling) for the iPads too or you've got a lot of work manually punching in the WiFi details.

[rad]

We had to change our password pretty quickly after the Wifi code spread. The DHCP server here had 99.9% of its IP addresses used up, so I'd be checking that to, just to be sure.

[mike86]

Thanks

 

We aren't using an MDM at the moment, so looks like I will have to create a new profile & email it out or put it in a location that the staff can access from their iPads, makes the class iPads a little more difficult. Think it may be a good idea to enrol the iPads to Device/Profile manager on the OSX server?

 

Can the apple tvs be configured remotely now or does the initial setup have to be done with the micro usb cable?

[seawolf]

Thanks

 

We aren't using an MDM at the moment, so looks like I will have to create a new profile & email it out or put it in a location that the staff can access from their iPads, makes the class iPads a little more difficult. Think it may be a good idea to enrol the iPads to Device/Profile manager on the OSX server?

 

You might want to use this opportunity to set up MDM. You could initially use Configurator to do the initial enrol of the iPads with an trust and enrolment profile imported from Profile Manager.

 

Can the apple tvs be configured remotely now or does the initial setup have to be done with the micro usb cable?

 

You have to us Configurator and the mini-USB - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5437