F12 EEEPC 1000H WLAN with hidden SSID no go

[Bill Davidsen]

Tim wrote:
> Tim (re hidden SSIDs):
>>> It doesn't add *ANY* security.
>>> It *does* add problems.
>>>
>>> It doesn't hide your access point, at all.  It still appears as an
>>> access point that can be used.  Anybody, and everybody, can see that
>>> there's one there.  It just doesn't have a name associated with it.
>>>
>>> And the lack of a name doesn't prevent anyone from using it.
> 
> Bill Davidsen:
>> FUD. How can you hold two diametrically opposed ideas in your brain without your 
>> head exploding?
> 
> You idiot.  You don't understand what you're reading, and the one
> spouting the FUD is you - that hiding an SSID has anything, at all, even
> to the slightest degree, to do with security.  Get a fucking clue.
> 
>> Look at your first two lines and reconcile "adds no security" 
>> with "harder to use."
> 
> The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
> 
> Security is about *preventing* unauthorised use, the SSID has absolutely
> nothing to do with security.  And *no* amount of futzing around with it
> will ever "secure" a network.
> 
The only way to absolutely prevent unauthorized use is to turn off the machine. 
That's why there are security updates regularly, *all* measures are about making 
it harder, forcing the evildoer to find and use the more difficult exploit.

> Being "harder to use" without it is about breaking normal network
> functionality.  Those people that are authorised to use the system, now,
> have a more difficult time connecting to the right access point, or
> avoiding connecting to the wrong one.
> 
> When will idiots get it through their dense heads that making something
> more difficult to use, normally/properly, has absolutely nothing to do
> with making something more secure.  And that publicly repeating
> that /hide the SSID/ crap actually causes harm.  Because of it, we have
> people foolishly breaking their networking, and thinking that they're
> securing it.
> 
> Do not hide the SSID, it is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.

Actually, I gave him a way to do what he asked, it's his machine, not mine. I 
only advise (in lower case, even) because it's not my week to be God. Checking 
the roster, it's not yours, either.

Have a nice holiday.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot