How to disable service set identifier (SSID) broadcasting on your wireless router

Posted on August 31, 2007 at 4:07 pm

Make sure to read other posts from the Wireless Tips series!

How to connect two computers or laptops wirelessly
How to wirelessly access USB devices using a network USB hub
How to disable service set identifier (SSID) broadcasting on your wireless router
How to troubleshoot your Windows XP wireless network connection problems
Wireless Tips - Does your wireless router keep disconnecting or dropping the connection?

Usually when you buy a wireless router and plug it in, there is absolutely no security protection whatsoever. Most of them work right out of the box, but have no administrator or only the default password set, do not encrypt data, do not use a network key, and broadcast the SSID publicly. If you’ve found this article, you’re probably trying to figure out how to make your wireless network more secure.

One great way that I’m going to talk about in this guide is disabling the SSID broadcast for your wireless router. The SSID is actually the name of the wireless network, which by default is usually the name of the networking company, such as Netgear, LinkSys, or D-Link. By turning off the broadcast, the name of the network will not show up on the Windows or Mac list of available networks. This method of security by no means will prevent a hacker from getting into your network, but it’s still better than doing nothing at all.

Actually, this is really only useful for those people who live in apartments, condos, dorms, etc where other people live very close by and can pick up your signal and use your bandwidth to browse the net. A good hacker has many tools that can detect wireless networks even if the SSID broadcast is disabled!

Unfortunately, each brand of router has the disable SSID under different menus! I’ll go ahead and try to give directions for each of the major brands since that’ll take care of 99% of the wireless users. In order to do this, you’ll have to logon to your router to configure it. You can get the IP address of the router by going to Start, choosing Run, typing cmd, clicking OK and then typing in ipconfig at the command prompt.

The router IP address is your Default Gateway, in my case, 10.0.1.10. Go ahead and open IE and type that number with dots into the address bar. You can find the login information with the instructions that came with the router or on the back or bottom of the router.

D-Link Routers

For D-link routers you’re going to click on Wireless and then click on the Home tab. You’ll see the first option is called Wireless Raido, select the Off radio button.

LinkSys Routers

It seems to be pretty much the same for LinkSys routers, usually click on Wireless and then select Basic Wireless Settings and select the Disable radio button.

Netgear Routers

For Netgear, you need to login and click on Wireless under the Setup heading in the left menu. At the bottom you’ll see a checkbox named “SSID Broadcast Enable”. Uncheck it to disable broadcasting.

If you have another brand of wireless router, try to click through some of the menus and you’ll find it pretty easily usually.

Have any questions? Post a comment! Thanks!

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One Response to “How to disable service set identifier (SSID) broadcasting on your wireless router”

Your Stars Under A Project » Blog Archive » How To Create An Automated Income Producer (Faq tips) Says:

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September 1st, 2007 at 5:19 am