iPhone 4 won't stay connected to wifi when it's invisible
September 5, 2010 7:38 PM   Subscribe

iPhone 4 won't stay connected to wifi when it's invisible

The visibility status of our wifi is "invisible". Our iPhone 3 and 3gs have no difficulty staying connected to it. The new iPhone 4 cannot find it when it's invisible (not sure if this was the same with the others) so we changed the visibility status to visible. We can then connect. But as soon as it's set back to invisible, the 4 loses the connection and can't find it to reconnect. The 3 & 3gs stay happily connected. All the settings seem the same. Does anyone know why this is happening? Thanks
posted by nelvana to Technology (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Just set it to visible and be done. If you're using WPA2 encryption (and you should be, no excuses allowed), your data is safe.

SSIDs are broadcast in the clear even when encryption is enabled, so when someone even barely clueful comes along, they don't bother to listen for broadcasts, they just sniff all traffic and extract SSIDs from the live data, rendering useless the not-really-a-security-measure.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 9:28 PM on September 5, 2010


Best answer: Yeah, this is absolutely a case of "Doctor, it hurts when I do this" (hits self demonstratively on head with hammer). I've said it before, often enough that I'm not going to say it again.
posted by flabdablet at 1:49 AM on September 6, 2010


Best answer: Seconding, turning SSID broadcast back on. Anyone with a clue will be able to see your network. I don't think many manufacturers test for invisible networks. Lots of devices have issues when SSID broadcast is off.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:01 AM on September 6, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks everyone. (Sorry ... I didn't know the right terminology to search for or else I would have found the previous questions & answers.) We've got WPA2 encryption with a complex password so I'll just set it visible and be done with it. Appreciate the advice.
posted by nelvana at 12:37 PM on September 6, 2010


Not only should you set it visible, you should make the SSID something meaningful and absolutely straightforward (I'll generally use the house number and street name). Picking the correct network when all those available are called "Linksys" is a pain. And if you've got neighbors who can get a good signal from your WAP, it's nice when they know whose door to knock on to ask for permission.
posted by flabdablet at 6:14 PM on September 6, 2010


Also: by "complex password" I trust you mean "randomly generated password". A friend of mine recently had a Gmail account hijacked, despite having what appeared to be a gibberish password; it was a shame that the gibberish concerned happened to be the model number of his last-but-one motherboard. Password cracker dictionaries contain all kinds of stuff, not just English words, and dictionary attacks run against your WPA key are not rate-limited.
posted by flabdablet at 6:17 PM on September 6, 2010


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