How to Not Publicly Broadcast SSID ?

Question

How to Not Publicly Broadcast SSID ?

I have a fairly recent AirPort Extreme and the only thing I can't do with it is disable the broadcasting of the SSID. Now, I know this will not stop real hackers to find it (as well as spoofing my MBP Mac address...), but it will prevent a good percentage of wannabee hackers to try and hack my network.

Thanks for all your precious information !

MacBook Pro 15/2.2/2x1GB/120-5400/128VRAM-CAN [MA895C/A], Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Mar 27, 2008 9:17 AM

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Answer 1

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 27, 2008 11:11 AM in response to RaZcaL inSIDe

It will do nothing other than give you a false sense of security. Even if you configure the base station with that option the name is still broadcast between the base station and any connected clients. Anyone can detect the network and have the name in seconds.

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Answer 2

ALpianoman

Level 4

1,120 points

Mar 27, 2008 11:46 AM in response to Duane

Duane's right. Not Broadcasting your SSID is really useless and will just give you a false sense of security. Same thing with MAC Address Filtering. It's just to much work, for very little security.

Best way to keep your wireless network secured is to use WPA or WPA2 for your security and use a random password 10 characters or longer.

If you need help coming up with a password check out this site:

https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

AL

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Answer 3

Mar 27, 2008 11:53 AM in response to ALpianoman

Thanks for the comments. I already knew that SSID broadcasting and MAC address filtering can be spoofed, but I would still like to know how to disable the SSID broadcasting.

By the way, I'm already using WPA2 with a 63 characters (lower, upper, letters, number and symbols) generated using this website : http://maord.com.

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Answer 4

ALpianoman

Level 4

1,120 points

Mar 27, 2008 12:33 PM in response to RaZcaL inSIDe

Well if you insist. 🙂 If you log into your Airport Extreme, go to Wireless tab. Then click on Wireless Options. You'll see an option to Create a Closed Network. That will disable the SSID from being Broadcasted.

Hope that helps,
AL

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Answer 5

ChuckLD

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2008 5:30 PM in response to ALpianoman

I JUST purchased the Airport Extreme this afternoon. I feel like something must certainly be wrong because the entire install just went too easily. The entire install seemed to just take care of itself. How do you go into the configuration you mentioned and see the various tabs to see what settings were actually applied during the install?

Thanks !
Chuck :- )

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Answer 6

ALpianoman

Level 4

1,120 points

Mar 27, 2008 8:09 PM in response to ChuckLD

hi Chuck. If you go into your Utilities Folder that is located in Applications, you'll see a program called Airport Utility.

Use that program to access your Airport Extreme and you can customize it to your liking.

Hope that helps,
AL

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