Did you recently discover that your neighbor has been freeloading on your wi-fi signals? Do you want to hide your network from intruders? If you want to increase your wi-fi security, you can easily hide the wireless network from your intruders. But is it worth doing? In this article at MUO, Ben Stegner explains everything about hiding your Wi-Fi network, including why this might not be the right move from a security and usability standpoint.
Wi-Fi Security: Should You Hide Your Network?
“Routers constantly broadcast something called a beacon frame, which is a transmission that contains information about the network. It includes the SSID and is meant to announce that this network exists,” says Stegner. This means the service set identifier (SSID) will let people know which networks are available and at what strength they are from your existing location. However, stopping the SSID broadcast does not prevent transmission of your network data since the router needs it to deliver traffic between devices. Hackers with simple network sniffing too can identify your SSID within seconds, even when you are not broadcasting it.
How Do You Boost Your Network Security?
If disabling your SSID does not impact your wi-fi security, what does? How can you keep your wireless network protected and away from undesired intruders?
- Use a strong network key.
- Change the username and password on your wi-fi router.
- Use wi-fi-protected access WPA2 encryption.
If you still want to hide your network name despite knowing that network SSID does not aid your security efforts, here are some ways to hide your wi-fi network:
- Log into your router’s admin panel by entering the IP address.
- If you fail to connect to your wireless connection, connect a wired LAN connection to your router for the browser login to work.
- In the ‘Navigation Bar,’ search for the section titled ‘Wireless.’ If there are sub-menus, look for options such as, ‘Wireless Settings,’ ‘Wireless Options,’ or ‘Basic Settings.’
- This menu allows you to tweak your SSID, channel options, and wi-fi security.
- Look for an option – ‘Enable SSID broadcast,’ ‘Hide SSID,’ or ‘Enable Hidden Wireless.’
- Check the box on ‘Hide SSID’ to hide your router.
To read the original article, click on https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/hide-wifi-network-prevent-detected/.
