WP 8.1 Hidden Wifi Settings MISSING?

[Poirots Progeny]

Problem:

I'm on the 8.1 preview and attempting to connect to a hidden ssid (standard N, wpa 2).

Ordinarily, I'd go to settings -> WiFi -> advanced and add all the details there.

On 8.1 I go settings -> WiFi -> MANAGE and hit the + symbol and all I see is a radio box to enter the ssid.

I enter the correct ssid and its unable to connect, nor is there any way to enter the passphrase.

Am I being extremely dense and missing something obvious?

Multiple devices, including a 1020 still on wp8 connect just fine - laptops, other mobiles, iPad etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks in advance!

 

[herbertsnow]

Why do you have the wifi hidden? It causes more trouble than it's worth for devices trying to connect. Plus anyone with a wifi scanner will see the wifi network ssid anyway. Hiding the ssid is worthless. Just turn on the ssid.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[Poirots Progeny]

Hi - appreciate the response!

The studio is set up with a hidden ssid - never had any issue with any device connecting to our dreytek routers. It's this one device.

Under wp8 this device (lumia 1520, unbranded, sim free, UK device) connected fine.

In fact, it still had my home hidden ssid in the known networks list - connects to the home network fine! Just tried it.

I just connected a brand new blackberry q10 to the hidden WiFi - again, just fine.

My only problem is that there doesn't seem to be a way to enter the details in this wp8.1 build.

I simply want to know where the settings are.

Has anyone added a fresh hidden network to wp8.1 - surely someone must have!

And I've added this device to an open network so the WiFi is operating.

Odd.

Can anyone help out give their experience?

As always thanks for the assistance!

 

[taymur]

would like to see real answers to this, rather than giving instructions on what is hidden in the first place. :S

 

[Poirots Progeny]

Can anyone help?

Pretty please?

 

[altafmahmood]

I tried with my netgear router it worked fine. Firstly I entered the ssid then it prompted me for the password.
See if you have a difference of letter case in the ssid name. I mean my ssid was ALTAF when I entered Altaf it did not work

 

[herbertsnow]

Hi - appreciate the response!

The studio is set up with a hidden ssid - never had any issue with any device connecting to our dreytek routers. It's this one device.

Under wp8 this device (lumia 1520, unbranded, sim free, UK device) connected fine.

In fact, it still had my home hidden ssid in the known networks list - connects to the home network fine! Just tried it.

I just connected a brand new blackberry q10 to the hidden WiFi - again, just fine.

My only problem is that there doesn't seem to be a way to enter the details in this wp8.1 build.

I simply want to know where the settings are.

Has anyone added a fresh hidden network to wp8.1 - surely someone must have!

And I've added this device to an open network so the WiFi is operating.

Odd.

Can anyone help out give their experience?

As always thanks for the assistance!

There's no such thing as a hidden Wifi network.

Wi-fi users are often advised to disable or hide the SSID (Service Set Identifier, or simply, the network name) of their routers as a security measure. This tip appears in numerous web pages, books, and magazines. It even shows up on the websites of wireless product manufacturers.

The idea behind disabling SSID is to make your wireless router “invisible” to hackers and other malicious users. Unfortunately, merely disabling SSID is not effective as a security measure, and any active wi-fi router can be revealed quite easily. Free tools like Netstumbler (The award-winning wireless networking tool and the best source for your daily Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G and VoIP news. | NetStumbler) will display all active wi-fi routers, regardless of whether their SSID is hidden. Worse, disabling SSID can actually degrade network performance.



The “hide SSID” myth was actually been debunked for years. No less than Robert Moskowitz, senior technical director at ICSA Labs warned against it as far back as Dec 2003, in a paper titled “Debunking the Myth of SSID Hiding” (PDF warning).

“Efforts to hide the SSID are at best half-measures which lead to a false sense of security and to a degradation of wireless network performance.” Moskowitz wrote.

Microsoft also advices against disabling SSIDs, as evidenced by these two pages from its TechNet website — “Non-broadcast Wireless Networks with Microsoft Windows,” and “Non-Broadcast Wireless SSIDs: Why hidden wireless networks are a bad idea.” So, you should merely change your router’s SSID, and not disable it.

For more robust security wi-fi measures, use WPA encryption, set a strong password, and turn on MAC address filtering.

Wi-fi Mythbuster: Do NOT hide your SSID - TECH.BLORGE.com

 

[UzEE]

There's no such thing as a hidden Wifi network.


Wi-fi Mythbuster: Do NOT hide your SSID - TECH.BLORGE.com

Hiding the Wi-Fi network isn't always about security. Its also about keeping people from piggybacking on your network. If someone doesn't see my SSID, they just assume my Wi-Fi is down and don't ask for the pass phrase. I hate having "guests" over who just remember to "update" their apps or OS when they're at your place.

 

[alvinsfb]

Hiding the Wi-Fi network isn't always about security. Its also about keeping people from piggybacking on your network. If someone doesn't see my SSID, they just assume my Wi-Fi is down and don't ask for the pass phrase. I hate having "guests" over who just remember to "update" their apps or OS when they're at your place.

Off topic ? but I really agree with this

Posted via the WPC App for Android!

 

[Poirots Progeny]

Thanks for the responses and thanks for trying it out altafmahmood!!!!

I've gone so far as copying and pasting the ssid, just to be sure!

And I have now got a lumia 625, alongside the 1520, both on wp8.1 - they both can't be added!!!

I've tried with other devices and they're fine...

Could something be missing from the 8.1 build preventing it from working with specific routers? I only have dreytek here but hopefully someone is bring down an Asus router later on...

The devices with 8.0 continue to work as always!

And what UzEE said is one of the reasons why the tech guys hide it!

I appreciate the response but please stay on topic - I'm sure we're all quite aware of what someone with snooping tech can and cannot do.

Please answer the problem posed

 

[azcruz]

Problem:

I'm on the 8.1 preview and attempting to connect to a hidden ssid (standard N, wpa 2).

Ordinarily, I'd go to settings -> WiFi -> advanced and add all the details there.

On 8.1 I go settings -> WiFi -> MANAGE and hit the + symbol and all I see is a radio box to enter the ssid.

I enter the correct ssid and its unable to connect, nor is there any way to enter the passphrase.

Am I being extremely dense and missing something obvious?

Multiple devices, including a 1020 still on wp8 connect just fine - laptops, other mobiles, iPad etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks in advance!

We use 2 Cyberoam appliance with hidden and normal SSID. My HTC 8S was able to connect to all hidden SSID, and asks me for the password.

 

[anon(8657436)]

Hiding the Wi-Fi network isn't always about security. Its also about keeping people from piggybacking on your network. If someone doesn't see my SSID, they just assume my Wi-Fi is down and don't ask for the pass phrase. I hate having "guests" over who just remember to "update" their apps or OS when they're at your place.

Being a college student, I also hate when people just come on over or call me asking the password.

 

[anon(8657436)]

I think it's some kind of incompatibility with the router. My friend's Cisco router works fine. I enter the ssid and it prompts for a password. But that consumes a hell lot of battery.

 

[Poirots Progeny]

Ok - perhaps there is some incompatibility between wp8.1 and this dreytek router - odd that it works so well with 8.0.

But then if you guys have used wp8.1 with Netgear, Cisco and cyberoam gear and the hidden ssid works - it had to be the dreytek or the device... I'll test it with the Asus rt ac66u, when it arrives.

It's just so odd that it won't connect! Thanks for all your insights guys!!!!

 

[primortal]

Hiding the Wi-Fi network isn't always about security. Its also about keeping people from piggybacking on your network. If someone doesn't see my SSID, they just assume my Wi-Fi is down and don't ask for the pass phrase. I hate having "guests" over who just remember to "update" their apps or OS when they're at your place.

You can always say, that's not my wifi :wink:

 

[DanglingPointer]

You can always say, that's not my wifi :wink:

But that would be a lie. How about a simple truth:

"Sorry, but I can't share it with you. Go bring your own internet."

Some people do appreciate the truth and telling the truth is the easiest thing to do (the hard part comes afterwards :wink.

 

[Poirots Progeny]

Lol yup the hard part comes afterward - especially when I have two younger brothers that want to play on steam, or the chaps across the way that come over because they want to log into Facebook.

The chaps I can tell to go take a hike - the brothers... They go to my mother and I'm stuck with frosty silence if I go for dinner! Parents just don't understand

 

[tk-093]

If you're going to lie to them and say your WiFi is down, just unhide the dang SSID and lie and say it's not your WiFi. You've already committed to a lie, just help yourself out while you're at it.

 

[Poirots Progeny]

True, but I prefer to operate on the wonderful axiom "out of sight, out of mind".

 

[Citizen X]

Off topic...

One of my absolutely worst cell phone experiences was going to the "Genius Bar" to talk to some Apple employees about wifi. The problem was a friend of mine for reasons I cannot understand insists on buying Apple products. And when the garbage does not "just work" the Microsoft guy (ie me) gets the phone call. After the Microsoft guy spent hours messing with settings on the phone and settings on three different routers from three different manufactures I declared the phone a dud and suggested taking it to the Apple Store. Well when we got to the Apple store we got blank looks from the "geniuses." They claimed to have never heard of the problem. So I pulled up thousands of posts from the apple website complaining about lack of wifi connectivity when using WPA2. The "genius'" solution? Just don't use WPA2. I guess what this moron didn't realize is sometimes people take their phones with them when they leave their house and like to use it in various places where common things like WPA2 and hidden networks are in use. I guess he assumed my friend could go to businesses and other people's homes and demand they immediately change their network setup because Apple's craptacular hardware couldn't work with it.

On topic...

I had a situation where my wifi wasn't working on my 1520. I wanted to test the 80 MHz ac connectivity. So I constrained which bands were being used on my router and I put my phone in airplane mode and turned on just wifi. Well after numerous pointless lectures about the evils of hidden networks I declared this forum a waste of time and researched my own answer. After a few hours I finally figured out that that particular kind of ac connectivity requires two antennas. By trying to be careful and scientific in testing my phone I actually created a problem. When the phone needs two antennas for wifi it turns out it uses the cellular antenna. By disabling the cellular antenna I made the 80 MHz ac connectivity inaccessible.

Make sure the SSID is 100% correct including capitalization. You said you are using N so I don't think it's an issue but maybe try turning on the cellular antenna if it is off. Let us know if and when you figure out the issue. I know I was dumbstruck when I figured out the two antenna thing.