Disabling SSID broadcast; can't connect

platypus

platypus

platypus

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2003
Posts
40,451
Location
FR+UK
I tend to have a few problems with wireless for some unknown reason.

Anyway, the latest one is this: when disabling the SSID broadcast on my netgear router, my dell laptop cannot connect to the network, even though it connects without problem when the SSID is broadcasting.

Obviously, I'd prefer to have it hidden for security reasons (I know anyone with a bit of knowledge can use a scanner and still find it but still). Any ideas?
 
Sorry mate, not sure then to be honest =/ Only issue I was aware of was the XP issue.

What encryption type is it? WEP, WPA, WPA2? etc. etc.?

- Pea0n
 
Try this -->

Turn off SSID hiding briefly, connect, go to the Network and Sharing Centre, Click Manage Wireless Networks, right click your network, and tick Connect even if network is not broadcasting. Then go enable hidden SSID.

- Pea0n
 
Cheers for the help Pea0n, but that didn't have any luck. And now I can't get another laptop onto the network even though its connected. I don't seem to get on with wireless :p.

K got that bit working, it seems allowing Windows to handle the connection is a bad idea. Still no luck with the SSID malarky though!
 
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I have exactly the same problem with my netgear dg834gt so I just gave up and left it on but then turned on the access control list.
 
As long as you're using strong encryption with a decent passphrase, it doesn't really matter in terms of security (and MAC address filtering has an even worse hassle/security ratio).
So someone knows there's a network there but they can't connect to it or see what it's doing, who cares?
 
Aye I suppose youre right. But half of me thinks making at least slightly harder to find the network is a good thing.
 
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