WiFi behavior question.

February 7, 2008 1:53 PM

We have a wireless LAN with rogue detection. The rougue detection picks up some laptops as rogue access points. It looks like the laptops are looking for the last access point connection they had. We see standard SSIDs like "linksys" and "Free Public WiFi". Why would the laptops be broadcasting the SSID of the previous access point it was connected to?
posted by nivekraz to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: Its a windows XP bug/feature. They talk about it some here.
posted by Captain_Science at 1:58 PM on February 7, 2008

These are Ad-hoc access points. Disregard them.
posted by arnold at 2:01 PM on February 7, 2008

David Pogue says (after finding the article Capt._Science linked to): "Turns out it’s neither a conspiracy nor a hoax: just a really, really stupid feature of Windows."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:51 PM on February 7, 2008

Best answer: Steve and Leo covered this in Episode 82 of the Security Now! podcast. Pogue and Kirth are right: it's a dumb feature of Windows, as it's constantly looking for access points it's been to before.
posted by eafarris at 4:15 PM on February 7, 2008 [1 favorite]