quick wifi question

[roadster99]

hey all. gotta quick wifi question for any of you that may know the answer...

friends are setting up a wireless router @ work. we all pitch in some cash to pay for the monthly fee. they want to keep it secure. if the router is broadcasting publicly, my eris sees it and will connect. as soon as it gets encrypted, or password protected, i drop signal and my phone doesn't "see" it. i've entered my mac address into the router in hopes that it will broadcast to me. can't see it. it won't even show as a "locked" or "secure" wifi connection. i've set up the wireless preferences according to network ssid and correct password. no success. is there something screwy with the eris wifi system? anyone else run into this problem? why is it that i can use wifi if it's an open, broadcasting signal, but can't use or see it when it's a password protected and privately broadcasting signal? doesn't make sense to me. is there an app for this?

thanks for the help!

 

[erisuser1]

There are a number of things that could potentially be going wrong - search for "wifi" in this very forum, and you will find a number of different problems and solution.

You might also get more help if you mention what brand and model of router you are using, and what type of encryption you are attempting.

As it turns out, turning off beacons, or using MAC-address filtering actually provides no additional security against a skilled attacker. You are making your life more difficult for no real benefit. If you use WPA2 encryption (or WPA with AES), you are plenty secure against both skilled hackers and script-kiddies. (Just don't use WEP).

As far as other things to try, others have experienced problems with routers that are operating in N+G+B mode - try switching to N only, or G only, or ...

Bottom line is that most problems which crop up are highly specific to the brand of router and model - sometimes even specific firmware releases; you might need to experiment with the router to determine where the problem lies.

eu1

 

[Lenco]

You can simply try:
1 - NOT broadcast the SSID
2 - Use mac filtering

 

[roadster99]

You can simply try:
1 - NOT broadcast the SSID
2 - Use mac filtering

originally that's what we intended to do. the purpose isn't to prevent hackers, etc. it's just that we need certain online applications to perform everyday work procedures. some here have violated company policy and abused the company wifi. so it was taken away. we need to just 'hide' it by doing exacly what you said to do. but it didn't work, so we tried a few different things to attempt to allow my phone to 'see' the network. so far nothing has worked besides broadcasting public, which is not what we want to do since certain 'people' may see the network and get upset.

...guess there's no cure for this huh? eris doesn't like to play w/hidden ssid...ah well...thanks for the time!

 

[erisuser1]

..guess there's no cure for this huh? eris doesn't like to play w/hidden ssid...ah well...thanks for the time!

Ok, gotcha... those "certain people" might be the IT department... lol

I wouldn't be too quick to come to the above conclusion if you changed two things at once, although you wouldn't be the first to mention problems with no-beacon WiFi routers. Search for SSID in the forums, and I think you will see mixed reports.

Good luck!

 

[erisuser1]

Say roadster99,

I was travelling when I responded to your OP; after I got home I tested my router by configuring it to be hidden (no SSID beacons). The result? It worked correctly in some, but not all configurations with the Eris.

So, I suppose that's a demonstration of "YMMV" (Your Mileage May Vary) - you might get it working, or you might not; but there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer as to whether it works or not. (I got it to work with some, but not all legitimate configurations of my router, for example). It seems to be highly dependent on what router it is, and what firmware is in the WiFi router.

Anyhow, I put the details in pkopalek's post about hidden/non-broadcasting SSID routers

eu1