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Disable SSID Broadcast?

S

satriani5902

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
395
hi i have a dlink Di-624 and am using a link sys wusb54g to connect to it. my question is if i disable ssid broadcast how can i get windows to connect to it? thx for any help!
 
Always always always disable SSID! I'll just make sure that's emphasized.

Anyway, all you do is double-click your wireless connection icon in the status bar, which brings up the list of available wireless networks. Go into the config there ("Advanced", I think) and manually enter the SSID of the network in question.
 
Yeah, disabling it just makes you do one more step to connect.


Security over ease of use.
 
disabling accomplishes nothing except making the wireless network more unstable.
the ssid is in air packets rather its on or off, so PLEASE for the sake of a reliable network, leave it on and stick to 64 bit wep as a baseline of security. 128 if you're paranoid, WPA if you're a nutjob :)
 
I agree with omega-x. Disableing SSID causes more trouble and doesn't help secure your network. Any WiFi sniffing program can still see the SSID even if it's disabled.

To connect to a wireless network that isn't broadcasting it's SSID, you have to manually enter the SSID and other connection info. If there is another wireless network in range that is broadcasting it's SSID, Windows will try to connect to it first even if your network is the primary network in the list. I discovered this when another network appeared in my neighborhood. Even though they were using WEP, and I'm using WPA it would not connect to my network automatically whenever it saw that other network. After enabling SSID broadcast it then would connect to my network automatically and ignore the other.

Also, and I'm not 100% sure on this, but with SP2 it seems Windows can see networks that aren't broadcasting SSID. I also have a DI-624, and when I disabled SSID, WinXP SP2 will still see it.

BTW there's a new firmware for the DI-624 released Aug-13-2004.
 
yes i got that firmware and it blows even more random wireless disconnections than usual.
so i reverted back to 2.42 until dlink makes their firmware open source like that of the linksys.
 
Disabling SSID broadcast is just stupid. Most good sniffers will find them anyway - Kismet for example. 64 bit WEP is good baseline security. Your network just isn't interesting enough for anybody to sit in front of your house and crack. Sorry to burst your self importance bubble. :)

If you know you have a linux kid next door, run WPA or just VPN tunnel all your traffic.
 
satriani5902 said:
yes i got that firmware and it blows even more random wireless disconnections than usual.
so i reverted back to 2.42 until dlink makes their firmware open source like that of the linksys.
Click to expand...

I like the new firmware, it's been working fine for me. The only problem I've had with the new firmware is they changed the way DHCP static IP's work without telling you.

I always assigned the two machines connected to the switch statc IP's, and let the wireless ones get dynamic IPs.

With the old firmware if you assinged a static IP through DHCP, it had to be within the DHCP IP range. After installing it, if you assign a static IP that's in the DHCP range specified on the DHCP setup page, it will still assign that IP to a dynamic client. So now you can specify IP's outside of the DHCP range for static clients.

They put out a new driver for the DWL-G520 card the same day, and it totally screwed that card up. When I enable Static Turbo on the AP, the card no longer sees the network.
 
kleptophobiac said:
Disabling SSID broadcast is just stupid. Most good sniffers will find them anyway - Kismet for example. 64 bit WEP is good baseline security. Your network just isn't interesting enough for anybody to sit in front of your house and crack. Sorry to burst your self importance bubble. :)

If you know you have a linux kid next door, run WPA or just VPN tunnel all your traffic.
Click to expand...


i disagree with you guys here. If your data is important why not stop the beginner-med level person from just connecting at will. the harder you make it for them to faster they move onto that broadcasted SSID of "linksys". Atleast keep avergae joe from trying to connect to your WAP.
 
oakfan52 said:
i disagree with you guys here. If your data is important why not stop the beginner-med level person from just connecting at will. the harder you make it for them to faster they move onto that broadcasted SSID of "linksys". Atleast keep avergae joe from trying to connect to your WAP.
Click to expand...

I agree... every wireless install I do has SSID turned *OFF* with no problems whatsoever.
 
Disabling is great when there arent other networks around you.. and though its true that a good sniffer will find the ssid, people on average wouldnt try to hack what they cant easily find.

I had to enable the broadcast because my neighbor's wifi was coming through stronger than my own :mad: (nothing a wifi reflector couldnt fix right).
 
I couldnt come up with an amusing title :rolleyes:.

When I play online with computer #2 which is on WIFI, I often get Connection Problems Detected in battlefield 1942.. a similar message in CNC Zero Hour... and a plug like icon when playing online in Halo.

I have tried to figure out why this occurs and I am simply out of ideas. :confused:

1 bandwith.. I thought playing online with computer #1 and #2 might be killing my dsl or cause the pings to skyrocket but playing on lan still gives that same problem. I assume that 802.11B even at the slowest setting at 1mbit would be able to handle an average game... put that 1mbit in perspective with the overhead stuff and thats about 0.5 mbit left I think thats still do able for games.

2 Packet Loss.. I was told that if I used ping and did ping 192.168.0.4 (whatever that continuious command was) I would be able to see packet loss.. well it would go 4, 5, 4, 5,... randomly 1720, 5, 3, 4,.... in the end it would say 0 packets lost so I dont think im loosing packets either.

3 Reception I used to use it at 73% strength 80% quality I made a wifi reflector thing and now its at 93% 100% and I still have that problem.

4 :mad: drag cat5 over to computer... no issues...

So any ideas? Its a netgear router and most of my network is on lan PC 1, Cardboard box, ps2 etc.. PC #2 is on wifi and my Pocket PC is on wifi. I have 64 or 128bit wep I think 128 because im paranoid and the people around me have wifi also so I fear they will hack for fun or something.
 
In most cases I actually disable SSID and turn on MAC filtering instead of WEP or WPA since they cause a small performance hit. Those two generally will stop a drive by hacker and if they are determined enough to get around it I'm sure they are determined enough to brute force the encryption. I am interested to hear about "disabling the SSID broadcast causes wireless instability" since I have a drop every once in awhile that I have yet to find out why (could be neighboring apartment phones). Anyone have any links with any type of info regarding this?
 
OldPueblo said:
In most cases I actually disable SSID and turn on MAC filtering instead of WEP or WPA since they cause a small performance hit. Those two generally will stop a drive by hacker and if they are determined enough to get around it I'm sure they are determined enough to brute force the encryption. I am interested to hear about "disabling the SSID broadcast causes wireless instability" since I have a drop every once in awhile that I have yet to find out why (could be neighboring apartment phones). Anyone have any links with any type of info regarding this?
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I do. Only I don't have any issues with dropping connection.
 
Disabling the SSID just won't stop anybody. MAC filters won't stop anybody. Windows doesn't handle a cloaked network as well as it could. 64 bit WEP doesn't cause enough of a performance drop to worry about. I did say it is good baseline security. Every network I set up has at least 64 bit wep if it is a home user, or WPA if there is a higher importance customer.

WEP is a far better deterrant for wannabe hackers than disabling the SSID broadcast. Just hiding your door behind some bushes isn't going to prevent someone from walking up and entering. Locking your deadbolt will... the size of the deadbolt is irrelevant. A person with a saw can just as well saw through a thin deadbolt as a thick one. One isn't an attack and can be performed by anyone, while the other requires somebody to have real intent to break your network.

So just WEP 64 your WAP. It doesn't cost much in performance, it doesn't cause connection issues where more than one AP is available, and it is by far more secure than MAC filtering - while being almost as simple to maintain.
 
To go past SSID and MAC filtering I would think you would have to have an intent to enter someones network. Realistically how easy would it be to get past MAC filtering? I agree that WEP should be used for security, but it seems to me the maintenance jump is high enough and the likelyhood low enough to not do it unless you are someone that knows how to properly maintain their network. At my parents home thats all I have turned on for them because for me to have them change their keys regularly would be asking for disaster. If they set it up but don't change the keys, then its like they are doing WEP halfway. I see it as a series of platforms. For someone to get up on the SSID/MAC platform would take some decent effort, to blow through to the above platforms (WEP) isn't much more hassle if they can already go that far. Am I making sense? Once again, I'm not arguing against WEP and saying never do it, I'm saying is SSID/MAC really that easy to hack?
 
OldPueblo said:
To go past SSID and MAC filtering I would think you would have to have an intent to enter someones network. Realistically how easy would it be to get past MAC filtering? ............
[snipped]
I'm not arguing against WEP and saying never do it, I'm saying is SSID/MAC really that easy to hack?
Click to expand...

It's *very* easy to bypass MAC filtering. I have a Windows based sniffer that will not only capture the traffic, but also shows me SSIDs of active networks even though they have broadcasting turned off. Once I have a valid MAC address of a system I can then make a change in Windows, reboot and my computer would have the same MAC as another system on the network.

What's not so easy is now there are two systems with different IPs yet same MAC addresses causing a network conflict. So one would have to wait until the original system was offline before attempting any further connection attempts as to not raise any suspicion.
 
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