Bill Davidsen: > You read different security books than I do, mine say you should make > every single step as hard as possible, even if there's a workaround the > intruder may not know it. You're still missing the point completely: IT DOES NOT, IN *ANY* WAY, MAKE IT HARDER FOR A HACKER TO HACK INTO YOUR WIRELESS LAN WHEN YOU STOP "BROADCASTING" THE SSID. *THEY* DO *NOT* NEED YOU TO BROADCAST IT TO BE ABLE TO HACK IT. IT GIVES YOU ZERO BENEFIT AND EXTRA PROBLEMS. Do you hear me now? How hard is it to understood that message? Hiding it does NOT give you ANY security benefits. Not one, not even a little bit, not even a teensy tiny little bit. You're deluding yourself, start making your tinfoil beanie, now, if you think that sort of rubbish helps. All you do by hiding the SSID is fuck up *normal* networking. Yep, that's right, *normal* networking. You make it harder for you to use your own network. You even make it harder for your conscientious neighbours to not bother your network. Throw away the crap security book that you're reading, and find out how its done properly. When I go looking for a wireless network, I'm given a list of what's available around me. SSIDs can tell me which network to use or avoid. Networks without SSIDs are still findable, they're even listed, they're just not listed with a name. I can still make use of them. If I (or anyone else) wanted to hack one, I might just pick on any and all. But, perhaps, I might deliberately go for the hidden fruit, and think that the one that's really worth hacking into is the one belonging to the clueless owner thinking that they've hidden it. And ignoring hacks, automatic software, ones that connect to different networks depending on changes in various circumstances, depend on the SSID. They use it to work out which to use and avoid, too. Without an SSID they've got nothing to identify it as a network to NOT use. So you'll attract even more attention from roaming users, as their software continually tries to work out what to do with the unidentified network. We went through this only a week or two ago. Stupid networking advice needs squashing. Advising to not broadcast the SSID is one of them. It just wastes everyone's time: Those setting up networks, and those trying to use networks. -- (This computer runs FC7, my others run FC4, FC5 & FC6, in case that's important to the thread.) Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
