Help Andoids Seeing Hidden SSIDs

[whaleh8er]

Hello World!

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I'm a network engineer for a collage and they're telling me that some brand new Android phones and tablets are able to see one of the hidden SSID networks that we use. This leads to students getting confused when they can't connect to it. This only happens with Androids. Not all androids, seems like the newer gen gear. Not happening on Apple or Windows based devices.

I've done numerous packet captures, and reviewed all the settings I can think of on our Wireless LAN Controller. How are these Androids able to see Hidden SSIDs out of the box? Any input would be helpful.

Thanks,
JB

 

[mikedt]

Don't know if they're supposed to be hidden or not, but my Android phones shows some SSIDs that Macs and PCs don't show.

Specifically the "CU..." SSIDs, as shown in my screen-shot. Their passwords are unknown, so I don't think anyone will be trying to connect to them. This is on our school campus, that has a mesh WiFi network.The open "JNWGYXX.." ones are what we usually connect to here, and the SSIDs are the name of the school. So there shouldn't be be any confusion here.