How to connect hidden wifi

How to find and connect to Hidden WiFi Networks on Windows 11/10

We are all surrounded by many Wi-Fi networks and their signals in the air. But are these networks secure? Wi-Fi security has always been a challenge for network administrators. Also, wireless networks usually broadcast the stream of data and hence are considered lesser secure. On the other hand, wired networks are much more secure and require physical intrusion by the hacker. In this article, we will discuss a so-called Wi-Fi security feature ‘Hidden SSID’. This feature was sometimes a topic of the marketing campaign by companies but let’s find out what it is.

What is a Hidden SSID

Whenever you connect to a Wi-Fi network, you must have noticed that there is a name associated with it. An SSID is the name associated with the wireless network and is an identifier for it. All the clients that connect to that network know that network by its SSID.

How to join a Hidden Wi-Fi on Windows 11/10

Wireless Networks constantly broadcast their SSID so that other clients can scan them and connect to these networks. But some networks do not want everyone to see their presence. So, a network not broadcasting its name publicly is having a hidden SSID. These networks also do not show up normally when you scan for Wi-Fi networks.

You might be thinking, this is one good security feature. But let me tell you, it is not. There are a lot of tools available that can scan these hidden networks easily. And by hiding your network you might attract unwanted attention from hackers. Hidden Networks do not add anything to security layer of a Wi-Fi network. Consider changing the password and security type for more security.

How to connect to a hidden WiFi network?

• SSID (hidden SSID)
• Security Type
• Security Key
• EAP Method (if using WPA2-Enterprise AES security type)

1. Open ‘Settings’
2. Go to ‘Network and Internet’.
3. Select ‘Wi-Fi’ from the left menu.
4. Click on ‘Manage Known Networks’
5. Now click on ‘Add a new network’
6. Enter the SSID, choose the security type and enter your password.
7. Select ‘Connect Automatically’ if you want to connect to this network whenever available.

There is one more option that says, ‘Connect even if this network is not broadcasting’. Enabling this option can really put your privacy to risk. Windows will always scan for this network even if you are in a different place. Any hackers or intruders can intercept this search and really know which network you are trying to connect to.

How to find Hidden WiFi Networks

As I mentioned, there are a lot of tools that are meant to scan hidden Wi-Fi networks. These tools can help you while connecting to these networks or inspecting the security of your Wi-Fi network. We have already covered some of these tools in detail, please follow the links to know more about these tools.

NetSurveyor

It is a free Wi-Fi network discovery tool that scans your surroundings for available Wi-Fi signals. It will then process this information and present you the report consisting of various diagnostic values and charts. NetSurveyor supports most of the Wi-Fi adapters and even comes with a Demo mode if your device does not have a supported Wi-Fi adapter.

NetStumbler

NetStumbler is a similar tool but it is relatively old, perfect for older systems. It supports network discovery and all other major features that you will need while auditing the area for wireless networks. There is a possibility that NetStumbler might not recognize your Wi-Fi adapter as the tool has not been updated lately.

Kismet

Kismet is an open-source network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. It is a rather complex tool and a user might need to compile it before using it. The documentation provides instructions for compiling the tool on both Windows and Linux systems.

How to make your wireless network hidden

1. Open a web browser and navigate to the router’s configuration page. Usually, it is something like ‘http://192.168.0.1’. Read the instruction manual that came along with your router for more details.
2. Enter the default credentials from the guide.
3. Now go to Wireless Settings and set ‘SSID Broadcast’ to ‘Disabled’.

This should stop your router from broadcasting the network SSID.

Are Hidden WiFi networks secure?

Is it worth it? Hiding the SSID won’t really add any extra security features to your wireless network. Because Wi-Fi networks are the broadcast type, hiding SSID won’t make any difference. Conversely, it makes it a little difficult to connect to the network as there is one additional step. Also, if your computer is constantly scanning the area for a hidden network, you are risking your privacy with that network.

So that was all you want to know about hidden SSIDs and Wi-Fi networks. You can grab one of the tools mentioned and start hunting Wi-Fi networks around you. Or you can go ahead and hide your Wi-Fi network to test the security features offered by your router. The science behind these networks and how they work is interesting. Curious readers can read more by searching the internet for 802.11.

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How to connect to a hidden Wi-Fi network on Windows and Android

Today the most common way to connect to the Internet is by using a Wi-Fi connection. One of the points that we pay more attention to is the coverage that this wireless network offers us. Here the chosen channel, the quality of the router and the architectural barriers that have to be overcome will have a lot to do with it. The other aspect that we look at is security, and here both the chosen encryption and the length and complexity of the chosen password influence both. In this tutorial, we are going to explain what we can do to connect to a hidden Wi-Fi network and whether or not it improves the security of the wireless network.

The first thing we are going to see is what a hidden Wi-Fi network is and what benefits and drawbacks it can have. In addition, we will see how we can create a hidden Wi-Fi network in our router. We will also see how to connect to a hidden wireless network in both Windows 10 and Android. Finally, we will see if they could be detected using some special software.

What is a hidden Wi-Fi network: advantages and disadvantages

Wi-Fi networks have an identifier or network name that is public. This is how it is set in the factory settings of the router, and therefore, everyone could see it. That name that we give to our Wi-Fi network is known as SSID, and it will allow us to identify and distinguish our wireless connection from the rest of the WiFi networks around us.

1. We would have to manually type the name or SSID of our Wi-Fi. This would be the main novelty.
2. We would have to put the security encryption used by that router or access point.
3. We would enter the password as with any Wi-Fi network. Here there would be no changes.

Currently there is no advantage of using a hidden WiFi network, perhaps the only advantage we can have is that it will not appear in the list of WiFi networks of different wireless devices, such as those of our neighbors. However, with specific WiFi network auditing software we can easily see and know which SSID network name has a hidden WiFi network, so we will not have any additional security. In this case, we do not have “security by obscurity” because there are free tools that are able to show us the SSID of a hidden WiFi network.

There are several disadvantages of having a hidden WiFi network, the first thing is that we will have to manually enter both the SSID and the password on all devices. Some devices may not support hidden WiFi networks, such as IP Cloud cameras or smart plugs, so you should ensure their compatibility. Finally, all wireless clients where we have configured this hidden WiFi network will be continuously sending small packets to find out if they can connect to the hidden WiFi network that they have configured, or otherwise, they are out of range. The latter could be a risk to our privacy.

Configure a hidden WiFi network from the router

The first thing we need to access the router configuration is to know the IP of the router or default gateway. We would do this with a command prompt window that you can access from the Windows start menu. There it would be enough to enter the command ” ipconfig / all ” and press enter.

Then we open our usual browser, we put the IP of the router and then we enter the username and password that correspond to us. If we have not changed it, it is usually found on a sticker that comes under the router.

However, from this article and for greater security, we recommend changing the passwords that come by default, both to enter the router and the password for the Wi-Fi network.

As an example, we are going to choose a Movistar HGU router. The section that allows you to have a hidden Wi-Fi network is usually within the Wi-Fi options. Usually it consists of activating a box called ” Hide Wi-Fi name , Hide SSID , Hide SSID ” or some similar name.

In the case of this HGU router, it would be to activate the ” Yes ” box in the ” Hide Wi-Fi name ” section. Then, from that moment on we will have a hidden Wi-Fi network and our way of doing things will also change.

Connect to a hidden WiFi network in Windows 10

We are going to have to do the way to add a wireless network differently. Now, if we proceed to look at the available Wi-Fi networks we will see that our SSID no longer appears. Now we will have to look for a Wi-Fi network icon in which the name of Hidden Network should appear, select it and press the Connect button.

Then we have to put the name of our hidden network and click on the Next button.

Next, we put the security key of our wireless connection and click on Next again .

After entering the correct password, we would already be connected to the hidden Wi-Fi network and we could have an Internet connection. As you have seen, we need to enter both the SSID of the wireless network that is configured as hidden, as well as the password to access the WiFi network.

Hidden WiFi network connection from an Android

Using our smartphone or tablet with Android operating system, we could also connect to a hidden Wi-Fi network. The first thing we should do is go to ” Settings ” and look for the ” Wi-Fi ” section.

Once inside this section, we will see all the available wireless networks. Surely there are many and, therefore, it is very possible that we have to scroll all the way to the bottom. There we will find an option called ” Manually add a network ” or something similar. In the case of the smartphone that I have used it is called «Add network » which is also used a lot.

After pressing «Add network» we see a series of sections that we will have to configure manually.

The first thing we would have to do is put the name of our hidden Wi-Fi network or SSID. Then we would have to select the same security encryption that our router has. The normal thing is that it is WPA / WPA2, although already many routers begin to include WPA3.

Therefore, we enter our SSID, select the corresponding security encryption, and then an option is added to put the password. We add the password and above in “add network” we touch on the “tick” so that it connects. In some mobiles it will enter Access or Connect . At this point, we can successfully connect to the hidden WiFi network from Android smartphones and tablets.

Tools to discover hidden Wi-Fi networks

The most recommended tool to recover the SSID or name of the WiFi network configured as “hidden” is to use the Acrylic WiFi Professional program . This tool is paid, but we can have several days of full use completely free. Thanks to this very easy-to-use tool, we can automatically recover the “HIDDEN” SSIDs, the only requirement we need is to use a WiFi network card in monitor mode to show it to us.

In order to discover the name of the hidden WiFi network, we need to have the program active while a client connects to the hidden WiFi network, in this way, it will be able to capture the 802.11 frames where the SSID network name will be displayed. Another scenario where we can retrieve the hidden SSID is if a device asks if an SSID is available, that is, if we have a device near us or within reach that is asking if a certain network is hidden. In these two scenarios we can recover the WiFi network name without problems.

Other programs that we can use to recover the SSID of a hidden WiFi network is the Aircrack-ng suite for Linux systems, this suite of wireless audits will allow us to check the security of WiFi networks, discover hidden SSIDs and even crack WEP, WPA passwords. and WPA2 of the different WiFi networks. This suite of tools not only allows us to capture all the WiFi network traffic, but we can also carry out active attacks to de-authenticate a wireless client from the WiFi router or access point.

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