You are in the right place if you’re wondering how to hide the WiFi network name. After realizing that someone managed to connect to your wireless network, you decided to make their invisible SSID. Since you pay for internet access, you don’t want others to connect without your consent and limit your bandwidth.
Furthermore, you would like to avoid that some hacker or “geek” close to you can enter the modem router without your knowledge. So, you asked the web for help to resolve the matter. And here you are, fortunately.
I will explain how to hide the WiFi network name in this guide. I’ll tell you how to avoid showing others your wireless network’s SSID. Furthermore, I will show you an alternative procedure that you could adopt to protect yourself more effectively.
How to hide WiFi network name
Before I explain how to hide the WiFi network name, I want to remind you that doing this is not enough to be safe. By making the SSID invisible, you will prevent ordinary users from accessing yours Wi-Fi hotspot.
However, someone could still “sniff” your packets, known as beacon frames. Your router will not stop sending beacon frames to nearby devices. Therefore, an expert user or a hacker could sniff packets and still intercept your wireless network. Also, since you hide it, they may be more willing to do so, thinking there is an important network “down there.”
It doesn’t do much good to hide the WiFi network name. However, if you intend to do it anyway, I’ll tell you how to do it right away.
First of all, you have to enter the modem router. In short, it is Web GUI. You can do this by finding the gateway address of the connection, which usually is 192.168.0.1
or 192.168.1.1
typing it in the browser and pressing Sending.
When you see the login screen, enter your username And password. After that, he clicks the item Wireless, Wifi or WLAN. In that section, the first thing you need to do is change the WiFi network’s name. An unwanted user could already be connected.
Therefore, the SSID may already be stored on your computer, iPhone, or Android smartphone. You will then have to change it to disconnect it automatically.
As soon as you have set the new SSID, find and disable the option SSID broadcast in the same section. By deactivating it, you can hide the WiFi network name. Click Save and restart the router. Then, check that your wireless network is no longer shown when scanning for available wireless networks nearby.
How to protect yourself without hiding your WiFi network name
After telling you how to hide your WiFi network name, I also want to tell you how to protect yourself more effectively. As you already know, having an open WiFi network, i.e. without a password, induces others to access it.
Therefore, first you should set up a secure and complex password for the Wi-Fi network using WPA2-AES. To find a great passkey, you can use a online password generator. Read the guide on creating secure passwords online for more information on this.
After setting a “stronger” security key, you could connect a router to the modem by “cascading” it. This would allow you to have an advanced firewall, which allows you to filter the MAC addresses of devices that connect to your wireless network. The router will reject unregistered devices.
You could also prevent anyone connected to Wi-Fi from entering the router. You can always do it via firewall blocking all incoming ports, then setting a drop total in except for the doors TCP 53, UDP 53, And UDP, 67 which must remain open.
Finally, you could turn off the WPS and theUPnP. Otherwise, someone could exploit the vulnerabilities of these services and bypass the firewall rules, thus accessing your network undisturbed.
Rather than hide the WiFi network name, it would be much better to adopt similar practices, especially in the corporate environment. Mainly because to connect to hidden SSIDs you need to do it manually, this may be fine for you, but not for other people who connect to the same wireless network. Not to mention the fact that they will constantly ask you what happened to Wi-Fi. And you, every time, will have to explain it to him.