On 05/17/2011 02:54 PM, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
Hiding the SSID will stop only a casual bystander getting on to your network by accident. Those who actually want to crack into a wireless network would use some tool like airodump-ng (yum install aircrack-ng) to list any and all wireless networks within reach, hidden or otherwise, and then pick which one to crack.
In other words, hiding SSID can be compared to a person putting an "I am invisible" sticker on their forehead, and hoping that others would read it and ignore him.
Hiding SSID is a matter of convenience, not security. Things like removing the clutter from user's list of available networks, avoiding accidental connections by mobile devices, etc.
I'm glad you raised this. I love the analogy. I stopped hiding my SSIDs a few years ago. By broadcasting the SSID, it cleared some some intermittent connection problems I used to have both with my Smartphones, but also with my laptops.