I have a Dell laptop with W200 wireless LAN card, running XP Pro SP2. I created a WPA-secured connection to our router. The router does NOT broadcast its SSID. After going through the WPA keys/etc setup, the connection worked just fine. I've been using it for a few weeks. I noticed there were some other WAPs in range, and out of curiosity I tried connecting to one of them. I selected my connection and Disconnected it, then Connected to the other WAP. XP connected to that WAP but I decided I should leave it alone, so I disconnected it. Only now my router's connection doesn't show up in Available Networks. If I view the properties of the connection (view network connections, right- click -> Properties, Wireless Networks tab), the SSID is in the "Preferred Networks" list. But there's a little red X on it, and XP won't connect to it. It says "<<SSID>> (Manual)" -- I don't remember if it said that before. The properties of the SSID (WPA keys, connect automatically when in range, etc) all look OK, just like before. Rebooting didn't help. What happened to it? All I did was disconnect it and try to reconnect. How can I connect to it again? Do I have to re-create the connection!? Thanks, Gary
Gary: Did what you did, and got the same problem. Went back to the router and had it broadcast the SSID, and reconnected. Give ti a try before you go crazy.
Manually disconnecting the automatic connection pops up a message that informs you automatic re-connection will be disabled if you continue. Deleting and recreating the connection is one way to re-enable autoconnect, I don't know if there are other workarounds.
Huh. That was easy enough. Seems to be fine now, and the connection restores after a reboot even when I turn off SSID broadcast again. Thanks for the tip! But I still have to wonder what happened, and why the problem showed up in the first place. Am I going to have to muck with my router's SSID setting every time I take my laptop on the road and connect to a local hotspot? Gary
Gary: I shut off the SSID originally for security reasons, but due to problems with the network, troubleshooting etc., hooking up a laptop, then disconnecting it, I finally left the darn SSID on, otherwise I wind up mucking around with it like you. Instead, I had the option of using a MAC filter, which allows only listed PC's to connect. Plus I used AOL's "Port Magic" at one point to see who else is logging on to my network recording the MAC address of the intruder. I recall it might even send the intruder a message, not sure how it works now as I shut it off. Some guy in the neighborhood did try as I found out. Lets see if any experts would chime in on this, as I was curious if there's a better answer to this. At least we got our networks going. :
In Windows XP, there are 2 different settings to indicate a preferred network's status -- one of them is configurable from the properties page, and is intended to be long-term, while the other setting (disconnected status in the "view available networks" UI) is intended to be short-term. While this works well for visible (broadcasting) networks, users can run into problems with hidden networks since once you disconnect the network from the Available Networks list, it will not show up again unless the AP is set to broadcast its Ssid. As you mentioned, one of the workarounds is to broadcast the Ssid until you can see it again, and then reconnect to the network. Another workaround is to delete and recreate the network. Thanks, --= MSA
Hm. I don't remember seeing any message like that. Hrmph. That is a pain. I really prefer not to broadcast the SSID. Although I guess it's not likely to be a problem when I take the laptop on the road. I won't have to disconnect the network then; it will just go out of range. And hopefully it will automatically reconnect once it gets back into range. I'll just have to be careful not to manually disconnect it, or remember to turn on the SSID to reconnect it if I do. Thanks all! Gary
