All Linksys wifi routers comes with default settings broadcasting your Wifi SSID to everyone else in the world. And by default the connection is open allowing your neighbors to have a share in your part of the bandwidth.
Though you can protect your connection by WEP or WPA authentication on your routers but with so many devices these days and friends visiting often you can stop broadcasting the connection and keep the Network SSID a secret to yourself in just 3 easy steps :
1. Log into your Linksys Router
On your Internet Browser open http://192.168.1.1 and enter username and password both as ‘admin’ (without quotes) and log in. (This username and password are default for Linksys Routers)
2. Disable the Wireless broadcasting and set the secret Network SSID
Look for the option to disable Wireless SSID Broadcast. In my WRT54G I have the following screen.
Check the Disable option for Wireless SSID Broadcast and give a secret name to your Wireless Network like I’ve given MyNetwork for my connection. Reset the security by pressing the button below.
3. Connect to your Network SSID in Windows
Now you need to connect to your Hidden Network under the name MyNetwork. Open Control Panel and select Network Connections options and right click on your Wireless Network connection and open its properties.
Select Wireless Networks Tab and press the Add button
A new window will open up asking you to associate your Network SSID and Wireless Key. Enter MyNetwork as your SSID (or whatever you’ve set earlier) and in Data Encryption select Disabled option and press OK button as show below –
Now whenever you enter your home with your laptop with this settings it’ll automatically connect to your Network without broadcasting the Network SSID to others. Your neighbors won’t even get a hint that there’s Wifi Network nearby.
Note: If you have Linux, Mac or some other operating system then you have to follow the first step and then corresponding to your OS select appropriate option to enter Network SSID and disable encryption option. Same thing applies for your iPhonel, PSP and other handheld devices.
I followed everything you said. Now I can’t get online from my laptop. It doesn’t even show my linksys or the secret name I chose on my available networks. As soon as I followed your directions, I was kicked offline from my laptop and now I can’t get online at all. What can I do to fix this problem?
@Rico: It’ll definitely not show you your Network connection as that is what we want. You need to connect manually (as explained above) by entering your SSID in your Network connections.
Do let me know if you are still not able to connect.
We can’t figure out how to do this with an ipod.