Mac OS X: AirPort May Be Called "Ethernet (slot 1)" or "en1"

Symptom

Some parts of Mac OS X refer to an AirPort card generically as "Ethernet (slot 1)" or "en1".

You may see this in:

• The AppleTalk and TCP/IP control panels in the Classic environment
  Note: In Mac OS X 10.2 and later, these two control panels are no longer accessible in Classic.
• The Network Utility
• Many command-line commands related to networking

Solution

If you are not certain which network interface is AirPort, use the Network pane of System Preferences to see the AirPort settings. System Preferences refers to AirPort correctly.

All Macintosh computers that meet the system requirements of Mac OS X include at least one built-in Ethernet port. Some Apple server configurations include a PCI card that has four additional Ethernet ports. When using the affected utilities, having a total of six ports could make it confusing to determine which is AirPort. However, this is not a symptom that indicates a hardware issue or requires any troubleshooting. When viewing an affected utility or control panel, look for other contextual clues such as "wireless" or "11 Megabits per second (Mbps)."

Note: Wireless Internet access requires an Internet service provider (fees may apply) and AirPort (or AirPort-compatible) wireless Ethernet card and base station. Some ISPs are not compatible with AirPort. For more information, see technical document 106590: "AirPort: Requirements for Wireless Internet Access"