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My elderly inlaws need "The Video Phone" to work. I'd like to drop ship a pre-configured iPad that just connects to Wifi / logs into iCloud so we can see each other.

In fact, the existing onsite iPad has been fine for two years until it was mysteriously auto-logged out of iCloud...

My goals are to:

  • Configure a Wifi SSID / password in advance.
  • Spoof or fake and store the MacAddress of a given SSID to pre-join their network.

What setup is realistic for this case?

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  • Get it delivered to you, install and configure it then post it to them .
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Aug 11, 2020 at 9:35
  • If the old iPad has iCloud Keychain on, then it's just a matter of restoring the new iPad from an iCloud backup.
    – lhf
    Commented Aug 11, 2020 at 10:48
  • Thank you for the suggestions. Amazingly, iOS does not seem to store the SSID MAC Addr so this might just work...
    – NJL
    Commented Aug 13, 2020 at 4:15
  • A "BSSID" is a MAC address. An "SSID" is the WiFi network's name. If you had a WiFi network with multiple access points, but wanted a device to only ever use one specific access point (e.g. force a WiFi security camera to only use the access point with the strongest signal) then you could use the BSSID. An SSID never locks to just one MAC address.
    – Tim Campbell
    Commented Aug 16, 2020 at 14:58
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    The SSID is all that’s checked when enrolling and this is how you can have a wide campus with dozens of hotspots, each the same SSID and multiple MAC address.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Aug 16, 2020 at 15:23

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To answer my own question - the answer is no, the SSID/MAC address of the base station is not paired up. Thank you all for the advise, the plan worked. Shipper at 100% power and received at 20%, auto-connected to WiFi for us to call and do the rest!

You can, however use mobile device management to automate add a large menu of options on both iOS, macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS.

Wifi SSID is one that’s very common, but instead of your relatives needing to know how to enter WiFi, they need to be shown how to install a profile or remove one if things change.

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