Protected WLAN

[Jerry Feldman]

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.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846


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