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How To Discover Hidden Wireless Network

Posted By Raymond In Category: Computer

Nov
4
2007

Discovery Disabled SSID BroadcastMost of the newer models of wireless router has the ability to disable SSID broadcast. At first I thought that all wireless router has this feature but I was wrong. ProLink Hurricane 9000W is one of the wireless router that I’ve configured before and it don’t have the ability to disable SSID broadcast. There are pros and cons in disabling SSID broadcast. Turning off the broadcast of the SSID can only hide your wireless network from casual users, but not determined hackers. Sometimes turning off SSID broadcast can also cause issues in connecting to the wireless router.

Do you want to know how easy it is to discover hidden wireless network? Anyone can do it as long as they have a wireless connection and the software.


NetStumbler (also known as Network Stumbler) is probably the most popular Windows tool to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g.
Detect Hidden Wireless Network
The program is commonly used for:

* Wardriving
* Verifying network configurations
* Finding locations with poor coverage in a WLAN
* Detecting causes of wireless interference
* Detecting unauthorized (“rogue”) access points
* Aiming directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links

To use scan for hidden wireless network, just install NetStumbler on a computer or laptop that supports Wi-Fi. As soon as you start NetStumbler, it will automatically start scanning for wireless network. I am using the latest Belkin router that supports 802.11n. I set the router to only use 802.11n wireless mode, NetStumber is also able to detect my wireless router even though it did not mention that it support WLANs using 802.11n wireless mode in the official website.

As you can see, it is so easy to discover hidden wireless network using Network Stumbler. Here are a few better steps that you can implement to secure your wireless network better.

1. Change default password. This is definitely most important. At least 50% of the routers I configured is still using the default password.
2. Change default SSID name. If you bought a D-Link router, you wouldn’t want people to know that you’re using a D-Link router. This is to prevent hackers from searching for Dlink router exploits on security websites and use the exploit on your wireless router.
3. Use WPA if possible, if not, use at least WEP. WPA is a stronger encryption than WEP. WEP can be cracked in 20 minutes. There is even a video tutorial teaching you how to do that. Problem with WPA is, older device can’t support it.
4. Control transmission range. If you have a powerful wireless router, it’s not necessary to configure your router to transmit with full power. You’re only giving more people the chance to break in your wireless network.
5. Use MAC address filters. If you only have a few computers, then it’s better to use MAC address filters. MAC address spoofing is possible but people from outside wouldn’t know what is your MAC address in the first place.

[ Download Network Stumbler ]

P/S: I personally avoid using wireless whenever I can unless I don’t have a choice. It is slower than cable network, sometimes unstable and also there is always a security risk.


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    • MR7

      Raymond, do you have any issue with WPA security? Once in a costumer, I’ve configured the router to use WPA and the speed was extremely slow and unstable; to print something in a network printer was impossible. With WEP the problem was gone. Any idea?

    • http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

      MR7, the only problem I had with WPA is older devices can’t detect the wireless router. Never experience slow and unstable with WPA before. Did you check for firmware update? Also, if it’s a new router, did you perform a factory reset?

    • Antony

      Hi Raymond,
      If I recall from somewhere, there’s an article mentioning that NetStumbler couldn’t really detect hidden / unbroadcased wireless network. Another software (Kismet) is the only software that really detects hidden wireless but it doesn’t work with intel pro wireless or any laptop with centrino.

      I honestly once tried playing around with Netstumbler, looking for any possibilities to detect hidden wireless but no avail…
      If you managed to make Netstumbler to find hidden wireless (any software that can do that), pleeeeassseee lemme know coz I desperately needs free wireless internet :)

    • http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

      Hi Antony, I’m not sure about that. My laptop has Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG network adapter and I am able to use NetStumbler to scan hidden wireless networks. What you said might be correct because there hasn’t been any updates for NetStumbler since April 21, 2004. As for Kismet, it is in constant update. I am going to check out Kismet later… Thanks for your comment :)

    • Ralph

      Raymond, this is awesome. thanks man!

    • Mahmoud Mustafa

      Thanks Rymond

    • ammaro

      Thx Rymond for da useful info can you plz provide me link of video Tuto of cracking WEP

    • http://alfred.co.in Alfred

      thanks and at the right time too, just got myself a dlink router.
      gonna try the mac address setup

    • denial

      Some time ago I did some testing with NetStumbler and I clearly remember that it couldn’t detect hidden SSID, while Kismet was able to find it. Here’s some interesting read from NetStumbler forums: LINK

    • http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

      @ammaro, please do a search on this blog on the WEP cracking video.

      @denial, thanks for the comparison link.

    • http://blog.techsnack.net dicky

      Hi,
      This tool really great. Can scan people wireless…… But i am using Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG, sometimes it cant function properly. I even put my wireless router beside my laptop, it still cant found……I am using Linksys WRT54G. Dunno is router problem or not……

    • 4wallz

      I was wondering about a networking question. Is it more secure to make my router’s internal IP address 10.0.0.x rather than 192.168.0.x ?

      I have also been reading about subnets. Is there a more secure subnet than the default 255.255.255.0, or does it not really matter.

      I have seen several articles on reserved IP addresses. This is a list that I have come up with for reserved addresses:
      192.168.x.x
      90.x.x.x
      10.x.x.x
      127.x.x.x for local loopback only

      Is one better than another?

      Thanks.

    • http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

      I don’t think there is any difference in using 10.0.0.x rather than 192.168.0.x.

      That’s because no matter what internal IP you use on your router, anyone can easily find the IP address of the gateway by typing the “ipconfig” command.

    • deepak

      hi raymond i have a problem which i think can get solved by you
      “my machine gets shut down whenever i insert a cd or dvd in it.”is there any problem with my motherboard , ram , SMPS please suggest me. And is there any free motherboard diagnosing tool which can correctly detect where the problem is .Pleassssssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeee help me soon. yours truly fan deepak

    • Luciano

      Hi Raymond, since almost a year I´ve been working at my job with wireless networking. For the best security you should use WPA2 Enterprise. This means AES encryption (I believe the best at the moment, the one used to create Ipsec Vpns) and 802.1X Authentication with a Radius Server. The radius could be Microsoft IAS (usind AD Database), Freeradius, Cisco ACS (very expensive here in Argentina, almost USD 5000) or any radius standard. Also you can add more security with a CA (digital certificates). Although It´s very difficult (and expensive) to make all this things work, be sure it´s more safe than the majority of the cabled networks where you just connect a pc in the RJ45 and the DHCP gives you an IP where you are easily inside the network (obviously when you are inside the building).
      With this framework not only Authenticated users can enter the network, encryption keys expires and changes dynamically (unlike wep and wpa personal mode).

    • http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

      Thanks for the information Luciano. I only have experience up to WPA2-Personal.

    • Pingback: Wireless News » Blog Archive » How To Discover Hidden Wireless Network

    • http://road-entrepreneur.com arham

      Nice articles…
      @raymond..

      could U help me,how to be hidden from router. I’m sniffed …..
      thanks.. a lot

    • montesa

      como se hace para detectar una red inalambrica desde mi windows 98 que no tiene internet?

    • srpaulo

      Consegui acessar uma rede wireless, poremr o dhcp esta desabilitado e não consigo detectar qual o ip da rede, voce sabe como posso conseguir?

    • Bappy

      Can I just state that there is a serious error in the above article? Unless you have redesigned the program, then NetStumber definitely does NOT detect hidden SSIDs. NetStumbler broadcasts an authentication request to which the WAP responds with its SSID. By very definition, if an SSID is cloaked, it will not respond.

      Kismet, Airodump and many other Linux-based tools can sniff passively, but not netstumber.

    • http://saludos luis

      gracias por este foro el cual me ayudo a descubril todas la redes con lock y poder abilitar alas mismas gracias muchas

    • Edson

      queria saber cmo tirar as passes da rede wireless

    • Thyco

      olá amigos..estou precisando de uma rede liberada…onde trabalho e onte estudo consigo encontrar até 5 net…disponiveis em cada ponto..porém..todas elas pedem codigo de segurança !
      como consig pular isso ?

      obrigado

    • Martin

      He corrido el programa y no detecta ssid ajenos, tengo windows vista 64 bit y creo que es por eso, si alguien supiera que aplicacion debo correr para detectar ssid ajenos aviseme

    • zizo

      access is denied and also it says gps disable
      what should i do
      please help

    • Marvin Paul

      Help me out… I tried it but does not support my Wireless Driver… What do i Do?

    • David

      Just as a thought about changing the default SSID name as it may tell what brand router your using thus allowing someone to look up exploits for your router. This will hardly slow someone down. All you would have to do is look up the router’s network homepage. (i.e. 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, etc…) this will obviously ask you to login to the router and usually will tell you what brand router it is.

    • http://dercio.lobo88@gmail.com dercio

      if it work, i wil get and use

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