What is SSID?
Jan 12
Assuming you have a network using a router to connect to other computers and the internet, this tip will help you prevent unauthorized use of your network resources, such as internet connection.
What is SSID?
Stands for Service Set IDentifier, it is a code included in all data transmitted over a wireless network, lets say you have two networks, one is called ‘OFFICE’ the other one is called ‘GAMES’, two routers used for two different purposes, how do you prevent the signals from crossing over? Well the SSID allows you to have networks with a unique identifier so devices can communicate with it each other.
Using SSID
You can customize your SSID to almost anything, as long as you don’t exceed 32 alphanumeric characters you are ok, for example:
SSID: My Private Network
or
SSID: Private do NOT connect
SSID Broadcast: Enabled
When you purchase and install an router it usually has SSID enabled by default, the SSID is transmitted as soon as you turn the router on, if someone nearby is working on his computer he will get a message notifying him that a new network has been found, the user will be able to connect to your network because by default your router is open to all connections as long as they can identify themselves with the same SSID, and since you are being so nice to share it, this makes it easier for anyone with a wireless device to connect up to your network.
SSID Broadcast: Disabled
Routers have an option to disable the SSID broadcast, this means that the SSID will still be in effect but will not reveal itself to other wireless devices, it will be hidden, the problem is that if a device already connected once to your network it already knows your SSID so a good move is to disable the broadcast, then change it to something else.
Are we secure yet?
Not really, even without an SSID, a wireless device can still communicate with your network and find a way in, that is why other security features are available, such as WEP, WPA, Radius, etc.
These protect your network with an encryption, in other words, they scramble the data before it is being transmitted and this works with the use of an encryption key. More on this later…
If you still don’t understand SSID, leave a comment below.