11.2 Hidden SSID

bsilvereagle · December 24, 2010, 8:04pm

I am using a Vaio F11 and have openSuse 11.2 installed with KDE. The F11 has an Atheros Wi-Fi card.
I have been connecting to wireless networks with

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwlist wlan0 scan
ifconfig wlan0 essid "SSID" ap MAC-ADDRESS
dhcpcd wlan0
kill (previous dhcpcd)
dhcpcd wlan0

And my method has worked fine.
However, my parents decided to hide the SSID, I cannot convince them to leave it open. The above steps work (iwlist just lists a blank SSID) but when I use dhcpcd I recieve the error "warn, wlan0: using IPV4ALL address " followed by an IP address. I can not get online or ping the router or google.

Any ideas on how to get my laptop to connect?

jdmcdaniel3 · December 24, 2010, 9:01pm

Perhaps you should read the following information about hiding the SSID as it does not make your wireless any safer.

SSID hiding: There is no such thing as “SSID hiding”. You’re only hiding SSID beaconing on the Access Point. There are 4 other mechanisms that also broadcast the SSID over the 2.4 or 5 GHz spectrum. The 4 mechanisms are; probe requests, probe responses, association requests, and re-association requests. Essentially, youre talking about hiding 1 of 5 SSID broadcast mechanisms. Nothing is hidden and all youve achieved is cause problems for Wi-Fi roaming when a client jumps from AP to AP. Hidden SSIDs also makes wireless LANs less user friendly. You dont need to take my word for it. Just ask Robert Moskowitz who is the Senior Technical Director of ICSA Labs in his white paper Debunking the myth of SSID hiding.
As I see it, if you gave your SSID your last name, then using an SSID might be worse, but why not not make up a strange name like 2tooWaeEwa or some other such nonsense you can remember. I don’t think hiding your SSID is the answer. Good luck with Wireless connection.

Thank You,

bsilvereagle · December 24, 2010, 10:05pm

However, my parents decided to hide the SSID, I cannot convince them to leave it open.

I am well aware that SSID hiding is a misnomer. That is beside the point. But thanks for the quick reply.

glistwan · December 25, 2010, 9:28am

I would recommend switching to NetworkManager. You can do that here Yast -> network devices -> network settings -> check control with NetworkManager. Configure Your profile accordingly and it most likely won’t connect at first. You have to issue this command in the terminal :

iwlist wlan0 scanning essid eduroam

You will have to replace eduroam with your hidden SSID name. After that You should be able to connect and it will just work from now on.

Best regards,
Greg

bsilvereagle · December 27, 2010, 3:26pm

After I did that I restarted and I had a NetworkManager icon in the tray, and Enable Wireless is checked. However, no networks were listed just a box with “Wlan Create Connection” so I ran iwlist as root then tried to create a connection several times, entering the ESSID alone, then ESSID and BSSID, then just the BSSID and NetworkManager would not connect. If I clicked connect, the window would disappear and nothing would happen.
I couldn’t ping the router with any of the combinations.

jdmcdaniel3 · December 27, 2010, 11:21pm

For anyone using KDE, KNetworkManager, KWallet and do not mind deleting it all and starting over (including ALL passwords in KWallet) I have a script file you can use. This procedure has worked for me more than once and is for people that have known working wlan hardware. Since I have not worked with blank SSID’s before, I can’t say it will help and you can save this as the very last thing to try. Again, consider you will lose all passwords entered into KWallet and you must continue to use KWallate to get KNetworkManager to work properly.

Here is the Link of the script file.

knetfix - Version 1.00 -KDE KNetworkManager Fix for Wireless Connection Problems

Thank You,

glistwan · December 28, 2010, 8:03am

You have to create a profile in NetworkManager in order to connect as the SSID is hidden. The only information You need to enter is the SSID, type of encryption and password. You can also use this command as root:

tail -f /var/log/networkmanager

in order to see what’s actually happening while You’re trying to connect.

Best regards,
Greg

bsilvereagle · December 29, 2010, 2:24pm

I ran knetfix and it did not work, then restarted and looked at /var/log/NetworkManager:


Dec 29 08:15:01 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): preparing device.
Dec 29 08:15:01 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 2).
Dec 29 08:15:01 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: 2 -> 3 (reason 0)
Dec 29 08:15:01 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): supplicant interface state:  starting -> ready
Dec 29 08:15:08 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <WARN>  connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWireless' / 'mac-address' invalid: 1
Dec 29 08:15:08 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <WARN>  connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWireless' / 'mac-address' invalid: 1
Dec 29 08:15:08 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <WARN>  connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWireless' / 'mac-address' invalid: 1
Dec 29 08:15:08 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <WARN>  connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWireless' / 'mac-address' invalid: 1
Dec 29 08:15:08 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <WARN>  connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWireless' / 'mac-address' invalid: 1
Dec 29 08:15:08 linux-7098 NetworkManager: <WARN>  connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWireless' / 'mac-address' invalid: 1

Since the laptop has been on the router before without a problem, I don’t know why the MAC address is showing up as invalid. Mac address filtering is off.

glistwan · December 29, 2010, 3:52pm

Did You edit mac address of the access point or your wireless interface in the NetworkManager profile ?

Best regards,
Greg

bsilvereagle · December 30, 2010, 2:48am

Not that I am aware of.
Using iwlist and iwconfig, the MAC address of both devices are the same as they were when I could connect before the SSID became hidden.

glistwan · December 30, 2010, 7:12am

Could You give us some more details on how You edited the profile for you hidden SSID ? Maybe it would be possible to show us screenshots of the final configurations of the profile ? Please hide your password if it’s visible there.

Best regards,
Greg

bsilvereagle · December 30, 2010, 4:08pm

http://thumbnails34.imagebam.com/11308/61c057113072565.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/61c057113072565) http://thumbnails25.imagebam.com/11308/187515113072572.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/187515113072572) http://thumbnails26.imagebam.com/11308/4543bf113072577.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/4543bf113072577) http://thumbnails34.imagebam.com/11308/7dc0b9113072585.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/7dc0b9113072585)

bsilvereagle · December 30, 2010, 4:10pm

http://thumbnails26.imagebam.com/11308/83bc19113072590.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/83bc19113072590) http://thumbnails23.imagebam.com/11308/985ff6113072599.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/985ff6113072599)

Sorry for the clunkiness but I could only put 4 in a post.

glistwan · December 30, 2010, 6:41pm

I was thinking more about these :
http://sunum.kt.agh.edu.pl/~glistwa/networkmanager_profile
http://sunum.kt.agh.edu.pl/~glistwa/networkmanager_profile1
http://sunum.kt.agh.edu.pl/~glistwa/networkmanager_profile2
Best regards,
Greg

bsilvereagle · December 31, 2010, 12:49am

http://thumbnails36.imagebam.com/11313/b5d1e5113126188.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/b5d1e5113126188) http://thumbnails37.imagebam.com/11313/a5153c113126192.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/a5153c113126192)

My third screen is equivalent to yours.

glistwan · December 31, 2010, 6:33am

You have to change the security in the second screenshot to what You are using. Most likely WPA/WPA2 Personal and enter the password. You can check that on your router configuration. Enter some name for the profile save the configuration and try to connect again. Also be sure to enable the connect automatically in the first screenshot.

Best regards,
Greg

bsilvereagle · December 31, 2010, 2:38pm

Oh, the network is insecure.

http://thumbnails18.imagebam.com/11319/8d38ba113187492.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/8d38ba113187492)

glistwan · December 31, 2010, 3:10pm

Did You launch this command already ?

iwlist wlan0 scanning essid 3springsfarm

Anyway that’s a very strange setup. I think it’s much less secure than a not hidden SSID with proper encryption.

Best regards,
Greg

bsilvereagle · December 31, 2010, 4:15pm

Yes, I ran the iwlist.
I agree. The setup is mainly so the naive passerby doesn’t hop on.
I think it is strange that openSuse can’t connect to a hidden SSID when I’m giving it the SSID.

So it is looking like I’m out of luck?

glistwan · December 31, 2010, 4:59pm

It works here without problems but I have encryption enabled Try to unhide the SSID for a moment and connect to the network. Than hide it once again and You should connect without problems from now on.

Best regards,
Greg