- [Instructor] In a typical wireless network
the wireless access point broadcasts an SSID,
and that stands for service set identifier.
But the real name that everybody uses for that
is wireless network name.
That's what the SSID is.
And it's broadcast in the clear,
meaning that anybody can read those SSID packets
that are sent over the airwaves.
Normally, mobile devices will connect
to the wireless access point by way of SSID,
whether they're smartphone or tablets or laptops.
When they search for wireless networks,
by default they will see any SS IDs that are being broadcast
by wireless access points, and then attempt to connect
as long as they have the correct protocols
and know the passphrase or password to get in.
But what if the SSID is not being broadcast
by the wireless access point?
That would be known as an SSID not found issue
and with a typical operating system
like Windows or Android, or say iPadOS
those systems will not see those wireless networks
if the SSID is not being broadcast.
So we need to troubleshoot.
Let's take a look at a typical wireless access point here.
I'm looking at the wireless settings
for the five gigahertz network.
The wireless network name here also known as the SSID
is called Unknown_Network_5.
And we can see here that it is enabled,
the SSID broadcast is working, it's check marked here.
So if a client wanted to search for wireless networks
that client would find Unknown_Network_5
but let's take a look at wireless 2.4.
This is a wireless network
on the 2.4 gigahertz frequency range.
The wireless network name is Unknown_Network_2.4,
but in this case, the SSID is not being broadcast.
It's not check marked, so it's not enabled.
So a typical client will not be able to see
this wireless network when searching.
So we have a couple options here.
If we want the clients to connect,
one, we could just check mark this
and enable the SSID broadcast, or two,
we could have those clients connect manually to the SSID
as long as they know the name.
Let's show how to do that on a Windows system now.
I'll bring up a Windows 10 system,
and we'll click on our network icon down here
in the notification area.
And when we do we'll see any wireless networks
that are possibly available to us.
And if we scroll down here all the way to the bottom
we'll see Hidden Network.
Now you could have more than one hidden network.
In this case, there's only one hidden network.
So I'm gonna attempt to connect to it.
That hidden network most likely is the one that I have
with the 2.4 gigahertz frequency range
with the SSID disabled.
So I'm gonna click on that now, click Connect
and then it says, enter the name
or the SSID for the network, right?
Well, if we look back here
we'll see that's Unknown_Network_2.4.
So that's the name I'm going to enter in here
and make sure it's typed correctly and then click Next.
And then you would need to make sure
your system has the right protocols running.
In this case, it's WPA2 and AES, which my system does.
And then you also have to know the security key,
the password.
So we'll type that in now and Next.
And here it's talking about host discovery.
I'm going to say no to this
so that no other hosts can see my system.
And now it says Unknown_Network_2.4.
It is connected, but there's no internet for that currently,
if we go to properties here
we'll see it is called Unknown_Network_2.4.
We have a public profile
which means that our PC is hidden.
We chose that during the connection.
It's Wi-Fi 4, 802.11
because it's on that 2.4 gigahertz network band.
It shows our link speed, 72 megabits per second
and the IP address that we were given.
So that's how you would manually connect
to a wireless network that is not broadcasting its SSID.
But in most cases, the best solution
is to simply have the wireless access point
broadcast the SSID.
And the reason for that
is because even if you have this turned off
wireless access points still broadcast a lot of packets
about themselves in the clear,
meaning that anyone can read those packets.
So while it can be an okay-security precaution,
it usually just makes it more difficult
for users to connect.
So usually we would just want to turn it on.
So I'm gonna do a couple things here.
First of all, I'm gonna disconnect from this network.
Click on my Wi-Fi networks here again.
And you can see here now that internet is actually connected
before it said internet was not,
it took a moment to get the DNS and everything else,
but I'm gonna disconnect from that now, okay.
So that is gone.
And if you ever want to remove any connectivity
and any knowledge of that network
you would do a forget on that network.
So we could go to manage known networks within Wi-Fi.
And if you don't know exactly how to get there
we could right click here on our network icon,
go to Open Network & Internet Settings,
go to Wi-Fi and then go to Manage known networks.
But usually if you're working with a Wi-Fi network
in Windows 10 or 11
it will automatically bring you to the Wi-Fi screen.
So I'm gonna click on Manage known networks
and we see the unknown network 2.4
that I connected to previously.
I'll click on that and I'll say, Forget.
We'll forget that all together, close that Wi-Fi.
And now let's jump over to the wireless router again.
And now I want to enable that SSID broadcast.
So we'll click on that now.
We'll click Save.
And for most devices you'll have to reboot that router,
SOHO router, wireless access point, whatever it might be.
So we'll click here to reboot,
click on Reboot and we'll speed through this as it restarts.
Okay, that's complete.
And I wanna log back in just to check
and make sure that that wireless network indeed is enabled
and that the SSID is broadcasting.
It is, it is check marked.
So let's go back over to the Windows 10 system.
We'll click on our network icon here
and here it is Unknown_Network_2.4.
And now we could connect to that, however we like,
and whenever we like.
So when dealing with an SSID not found issue
it means that the wireless access point
is not broadcasting the SSID name,
the wireless network name in the clear,
and that means devices cannot connect.
So you have those two options.
You can either re-enable SSID broadcasting
or connect from those devices manually
as long as you know the exact name of the wireless network.