To connect to a wireless network that isn??™t broadcasting its SSID, go to this
page to hand-enter the SSID and encryption key
360 | Chapter 7: Networking and Internet
you??™re using WPA or WPA2 encryption; with WEP, you??™re only allowed to
type the formal 10- or 26-digit WEP encryption key in the Security Key/
Passphrase field. So, turn on the Display characters option so you can see
what you??™re doing, and then paste (press Ctrl-V) the key from step 13 of
???Set Up a Wireless Router,??? earlier in this chapter.
Below, turn on the Start this connection automatically option, and then
pause while you try to figure out what Microsoft means when it warns you
that ???Your computer??™s privacy might be at risk??? if you turn on the Connect
even if the network is not broadcasting option.
Give up? It turns out that Microsoft??™s stated position??”one not explained
anywhere on this window, but rather only published online at http://
www.microsoft.com/technet/network/wifi/hiddennet.mspx??”is that if you
turn off your router??™s SSID broadcast feature, bad things can happen.
It works like this: when connecting to a normal, broadcasting network,
Windows waits until it sees a network you??™ve already set up before it
attempts to connect. But when you turn off SSID broadcast to hide your
wireless network, Windows continually sends out a signal with the hidden
SSID until it finds your network. And as you may have guessed, someone
wrote a program that ???listens??? for a PC that??™s trying to connect to a hidden
network and records any SSIDs it encounters.
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