no connection to invisible wireless accesspoint when visible accesspointsare present

Hi there,

We have a number of notebooks (win xp, SP 2, maybe 3) at work. These
Notebooks should connect to an accesspoint with SSID main. The SSID is
hidden, there is no encryption or authentication. Maybe this is called
obscurity without security.

The Accesspoint main is marked as preferred in winxp. Usually there was
no problem to connect to main in the past. But now, there a several
other accesspoints near by with non hidden SSIDS. This accesspoints need
authentication which i dont have. And of course, i want to connect to
main. Nevertheless, winxp does connect to one of the other accesspoints
but the connection fails. I get the message "no connectivity". Some
times, after 10 to 15 minutes, i get suddenly connected to main, but i
can not control this process.

The problem is, i dont find any possibility to tell winxp, to connect to
main, since this SSID is hidden. The list of available accesspoints only
has visible SSIDs that i can not connect to and i dont want connect to.
Another problem is, i dont have admin-rights on the notebooks.


Is there any solution to this?

Thank you for any hints
Wolfgang

 

Hi
The solution is to turn On the broadcast of the SSID in the Wireless source.
""Maybe this is called obscurity without security"". It is actually No
security, and No obscurity.
Any user with minimal knowledge can find your SSID in less than a minute.
WPA is the minimal level of acceptable security, WPA2 even better.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)

 

Yes of course. I knew this solution before. But it seems, the SSID
broadcast _will not_ be turned on. This is not my decision.

Any other idea? I ask this, because i am usually working with OSX and
there is no problem to connect to the hidden SSID with OSX. But i dont
get it to work with winxp.

Wolfgang

 

I am using another PC through the same router fine.