Wireless network name. SSID of Wi-Fi network on the router

Access point - very useful thing, but do not confuse it with a router. There are some differences between them, although they perform very similar functions.

Access point - what is it

An access point (APN) is a device through which other devices gain access to the Internet. Let's say you have wired Internet, and you need to connect several devices to it - a computer, telephone and TV. APN will come to the rescue: by connecting an Internet cable to it, you will distribute the Internet to all devices via a W-Fi network.

Differences between APN and router

A standard router does the same job - it takes the Internet from one source and distributes it to many devices. But, firstly, this was not always the case: initially, routers divided the Internet from one cable into several wires, each of which could be connected to one device. This possibility remains in modern routers: on the rear panel there is one input for a WAN cable that supplies the Internet, and several inputs for wires that will lead the Internet to some device. But after some time, routers learned to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi, so the difference between them and APN decreased, but still remained.

The router has an input for WAN and LAN cable

Secondly, the router can do more than APN. The access point only receives information and sends it out, the router is the same, but can also:

• route (redistribute) traffic between several network levels. That's why it is sometimes called a router;
• issue an individual number to each connected device (assign an IP), which helps manage the amount of traffic allocated to a particular device. For example, thanks to this, you can limit the maximum speed of one device so that another gets higher priority;
• guarantees greater security, as it has a built-in firewall;
• may have even more settings, the availability of which depends on the router model.

There are also differences in the usage process, listed in table format.

Table: router differences from APN

What to choose - APN or router

Based on all the differences described above, we can conclude: it is better, because it is easier, to use a router. APN is convenient in offices and organizations; it is recommended to use a router in home and private premises, as it is easy to both configure and reconfigure in the future, it is safer, has more settings and provides the ability to distribute the Internet via cable, which ensures the fastest and most stable distribution Internet.

The last factor is very important: APN distributes the Internet only via Wi-Fi, and many desktop computers cannot receive a Wi-Fi signal. Of course, you can purchase additional equipment for your computer, but if your goal is comfort at home, use a router.

But APNs are sometimes used for another purpose: increasing the range of the router. Let's say you have a router that distributes the Internet to several rooms, but its signal does not reach the farthest one, and there is no way to rearrange it. In this case, the router synchronizes with the APN, which increases the signal strength. Many companies produce both routers and access points, so their compatibility is ensured.

What to look for when purchasing an APN

If you still decide to purchase an APN, then pay attention to the following characteristics:

• maximum number of connected devices - shows how many devices the APN can simultaneously service. Of course, if APN is installed at home, where 2-4 devices will connect to it, then this parameter is not important, but for organizations in which the number of devices exceeds a hundred, this is important;
• what is used to control it, is there any special software from the manufacturer;
• maximum and minimum speed data transmission;
• encryption method, WPA or WPA2 is recommended, a more outdated method is WEP;
• frequency range - also affects connection speed, compatibility, range, and the ability of the signal to bypass physical barriers.

Select a device based on price/quality ratio. Ask your salesperson to tell you which APN is best for your needs.

APN setup

In most cases, the access point is configured automatically as soon as it gains access to the Internet. But in the future you can reconfigure it by following these steps:

1. Some companies provide special program, which allows you to manage APN. But in most cases, a local website is provided, launched through a browser. You can find out which method is used in your case in the instructions. We will consider the second option - to enter the site, usually, but not always, the address 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 is used. To log in you will need a username and password, this is used by default. Login information can also be found in the instructions or on the manufacturer’s website.

   Enter your password and login to log in

2. The interface of points from different manufacturers differs, but the general logic remains the same: find the “Network setup” or “Quick setup” section and go to it.

   Go to the “Quick setup” section

3. In it you can select a network, a name for it, set a password for the connection, select an encryption method and signal strength. There are also more detailed settings here (standard, frequency, VMM), which should not be touched if you do not know what they affect.

   We change all the necessary settings of the access point

APN via device

Majority modern devices capable of performing APN functions - distributing mobile or wired Internet via Wi-Fi network to other devices. The speed and range are sometimes lower than in a separate base station, but the capabilities should be sufficient for temporary Internet distribution. Please note that when distributing mobile internet traffic is sometimes limited or paid for in a different, often more expensive, plan.

Android

1. Open your device settings.

   Open Android settings

2. Go to the "More" section.

   Open the “More” section

3. Open the “Access Point” subsection.

   Open the “Access Point” section

4. Select the distribution method: Wi-Fi network, cable or Bluetooth. Activate one of them. Done, the second device connected using the selected method has gained access to the Internet.

   Activate one of the access point modes

iOS

If the Modem Mode tab is missing, follow these steps:

1. While in your device settings, open the Cellular tab.

   Open the “Cellular Communications” section

2. Select the “Cellular Data Network” sub-item.

   Open the “Cellular Data Network” section

3. Fill in the APN, name and password lines. Data for different operators is presented in the table below.

   Register APN, login and password

Table: network settings for popular operators

Laptop

This method is suitable for users of laptops running Windows 7. In other versions of the system, it is also possible to create an APN, but the steps will be slightly different. Share internet with personal computer Without additional equipment it will not be possible, since PCs as standard do not know how to receive and transmit a Wi-Fi network.

1. Click on the network icon in the lower right corner of the screen and go to the network control center.

With increasing numbers mobile devices, wireless networks have become the number one means of gaining access to the Internet. Having created your own, you will probably want to change its ugly, standard name (SSID) to something more attractive that will stand out among all the networks available in the area.

Now we will step by step explain how to change the name of a Wi-Fi access point.

Checking the connection

Turn on the router, if it is not already turned on, and make sure that the Internet is connected to it. In addition, you need to check that your PC is also connected to the router. Moreover, it is advisable to make the connection through a wired connection. If you connect via a wireless network during setup, the connection will be lost when you change the name.

On the connected computer, you need to open a browser. IN address bar Enter the network address of the router and press “Enter”. This address will be different for different device manufacturers. You can find it in the user manual for the router. You can also use the IP from this list, according to your device:

• Qwest, DLink, Netgear, Trendnet, Senao: 192.168.0.1
• Linksys, 3Com, Asus, Dell, US Robotics: 192.168.1.1
• Belkin, Microsoft, and SMC: 192.168.2.1
• Apple: 10.0.1.1

You can also find out the router address through the command line on your computer. As a rule, its address is the address of the network connection gateway. Press the Win+R key combination at the same time and enter cmd and press "Enter". A window will open command line, run the command in it ipconfig. The network connection settings will appear, find the value for the gateway and copy it.

If you are a Macintosh OS user, open the Apple menu and expand system settings. Next, find and open network settings. Now you need to find the section for the router (it will say “Router” there). A window will open in which the local IP of the router will be indicated.

Some devices are equipped with additional drivers, which already contain special utilities for management. Although, to access the router settings, you will still need to enter your username and password.

To gain access to a device, authorization is often required. If the device is new and you have not yet set up your login information on it, then the login and password will be standard. You can find them in the same documentation for the router or look them up on the Internet according to your model. Typically, the login field should be left blank, and the password should be the word “admin”.

Open the settings for wireless connections

After successful authorization, the router parameters will open. Open your wireless network settings. They may have different names, look for any name related to wireless connection.

Looking for SSID parameters

There may also be different names: “SSID”, “Network name”, “Name of wireless access point” and others of a similar type. This field will have a not very attractive, standard name, such as: “Dlink”, “ASUS”, “quest123” and others.

Enter a new name

Now come up with a new name for your network. Here you can be creative and come up with something original that will make your network stand out among the many access points with standard names. Moreover, the name of the network will be displayed to everyone who looks at the list of available Wi-Fi points

Saving the new name

After you enter the new name in the appropriate field, save your changes. To do this, click on the button “Apply”, “Save”, “Ok”, “Save” or another similar name.

After this, make sure that the settings were successfully saved. Take any Wi-Fi capable device (laptop, smartphone, tablet) and search for available networks. Among them should be yours, with an already changed, new name. Connect to it, check the Internet.

Update your connection settings

If you have already connected to a wireless network with the original parameters from your devices, you will have to search for networks and connect to your access point with a new name and authorization data. Check if the connection is successful.

The points:

• If you are trying to connect to the router with its standard IP, but nothing works, try restarting the device. The instructions for the router should contain information on how to do this, or you can look it up on the developer’s official website. This simple action will return the default address for connecting to the device.
• Remember that the name you set on your router will be displayed to everyone within its range. Including strangers.
• Under no circumstances should you include your personal data, passwords, logins, or any of your information in the name of the network. Always set a password to access your network.

Owners of some wireless access points configure them so that they do not broadcast their name (ESSID). This is considered, in their opinion, additional protection (along with the password) of the accessory.

Simply put, a hidden Wi-Fi network is a network that is not visible in the list of available networks. To connect to it, you must enter its name manually.

In fact, this method of protection is untenable, if only because certain moments The wireless network name (ESSID) is still broadcast in the clear.

There is a whole set of recommendations on how to protect your wireless router. But this type of protection (hiding the Wi-Fi name), as well as, is not recommended for use, since it causes certain difficulties for legitimate users and does not provide any protection.

This material shows the failure of protection by hiding the network. The next part will show the simplicity.

How to See Hidden Wi-Fi Networks

Let's start with the fact that hidden networks are not so hidden. They are very easy to see using Airodump-ng. To do this, we transfer our wireless card to:

Ifconfig wlan0 down && iwconfig wlan0 mode monitor && ifconfig wlan0 up

And run Airodump-ng:

Airodump-ng wlan0

Pay attention to the line

This is a “hidden” Wi-Fi network. All data, except ESSID, is available on the same basis as other access points. And we already know something about ESSID: . This means that the name is 3 characters long.

We find out the name of this AP by performing brute force using the mdk3 program. In the meantime, let's move on to another hidden Wi-Fi network and find out its name using Airodump-ng.

Getting Hidden Wi-Fi Network Name Using Airodump-ng

The network name (ESSID) is broadcast in open form and can be intercepted while the client is connecting. You can wait for the client to connect naturally, or you can speed up the process by “knocking out” () from the access point. After this, it will immediately begin to reconnect, the network name will appear in the broadcast in clear form, and we, in turn, will intercept it. The sequence of actions exactly corresponds to that described in the article “”. Therefore, if you are already familiar with it, then it will be quite simple for you.

We look at access points available for attack

Airodump-ng wlan0

Network with hidden name:

20:25:64:16:58:8C -42 1856 0 0 1 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK

Her BSSID is 20:25:64:16:58:8C, her name is 11 characters long, and she runs on channel 1. So I run airodump-ng on channel 1:

Airodump-ng wlan0 --channel 1

If you remember, when capturing a handshake I also specified the key -w followed by a file name prefix. This can be done now - since capturing a handshake does not interfere with identifying the name of a hidden AP. In this case, you will kill two birds with one stone.

You don’t have to do anything - just wait for someone to connect or reconnect naturally. If you are in a hurry, you can speed up the process by using.

To do this, we open a new terminal window and type the command there:

Aireplay-ng -0 3 -a 20:25:64:16:58:8C wlan0

Here -0 means deauthentication, 3 means the number of packets sent, -a 20:25:64:16:58:8C this is the BSSID of the target AP, and wlan0— network interface in monitor mode.

The result is obtained almost instantly:

The line we are interested in is:

20:25:64:16:58:8C -34 100 1270 601 0 1 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK SecondaryAP

Those. the name of the "hidden" network is SecondaryAP.

Pros of using Airodump-ng:

• Significantly faster than using mdk3 (when using )
• If you do not use a deauthentication attack, you remain invisible to wireless network monitoring systems

Disadvantages of using Airodump-ng:

• If there are no clients, then this program powerless to reveal hidden Wi-Fi network
• If you use a deauthentication attack, you unmask yourself.
• If this attack is not used, the time required to reveal the network name increases significantly.

Getting the name of a hidden Wi-Fi network without connected clients (using mdk3)

Pros of using mdk3:

• Works in situations where Airodump-ng is powerless.
• AP clients are not needed to find the name of a hidden Wi-Fi.

Disadvantages of using mdk3:

• Selection may take a while long time, especially for long Wi-Fi access point names.
• You always unmask yourself; your activity looks extremely suspicious to wireless network monitors.

Remember our first hidden AP

20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -40 108 3 0 6 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK

Unfortunately, this AP has no clients, so we can't use the magic of Airodump-ng. Instead we will use mdk3 brute force.

My command looks like:

Mdk3 wlan0 p -t 20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -f /root/essid.txt

Here mdk3- this is the name of the program, wlan0- name of the wireless network interface, p— means basic probing and ESSID brute force mode, -t 20:02:AF:32:D2:61- this is the BSSID of the AP we are interested in, -f /root/essid.txt points to a file that contains a list of names to brute force the ESSID (Wi-Fi network name).

Result of the program:

Root@HackWare:~# mdk3 wlan0 p -t 20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -f /root/essid.txt SSID Wordlist Mode activated! Waiting for beacon frame from target... Sniffer thread started SSID is hidden. SSID Length is: 3. Trying SSID: Packets sent: 1 - Speed: 1 packets/sec Got response from 20:02:AF:32:D2:61, SSID: "web" Last try was: (null) End of SSID list reached.

Those. the name of the network was chosen, it turned out to be web.

Above is a dictionary attack. But the names of wireless networks can be obtained using regular brute force. My command takes the form:

Mdk3 wlan0 p -t 20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -с 6 -b l

Most of the options are already familiar to us, except for two new ones: -from 6 means channel six, -b l means a set of characters, with l means lowercase.

Character sets:

• all printed ( a)
• lower case ( l)
• uppercase ( u)
• numbers ( n)
• lower and upper case ( c)
• lower and upper case plus numbers ( m)

As you can see, the program worked just fine (and quickly!). Result received: Got response from 20:02:AF:32:D2:61, SSID: "web".

Let's summarize. Protecting Wi-Fi by hiding the network name (along with filtering by MAC address - see the article " " about this) are unsuitable security measures. Nobody forbids using them - they do not weaken protection. But they don’t increase it either. At the same time, you have to put up with the inconvenience that they cause to legitimate users. If we are talking about filtering by MAC address, then whenever a new client is added, someone must obtain administrative rights for the router and change its configuration. This may not always be acceptable.

Honestly, I’m too lazy to write another instruction today, so I decided to talk about access points. What is an access point, what are they for, how do they differ from routers, and how to make an access point from a router. Some specific ones step by step instructions You won't find it in this article. Later, in a separate article I will write about how to use Wi-Fi router in AP (Access Point) mode.

Wireless access point: what is it and what is it for?

First of all, an access point is a separate device. A router and an access point are not the same thing. Yes, they are similar in many ways. We can say that an access point is a stripped-down, simpler version of a router. The fact is that a wireless access point is designed to connect devices to an already created network. Its task is simply to organize an Internet connection via Wi-Fi. Also, it can operate in different modes: wireless client, bridge, repeater, access point. It all depends on the specific model.

The access point does not distribute IP, does not connect to an ISP, does not have a built-in firewall, etc. It simply receives the Internet from a router or modem and distributes it via Wi-Fi. Some wireless access points that are on sale can distribute IP, organize a separate network, and even connect to an Internet provider. But, only via the Static IP protocol, or DHCP. Most likely, you can’t do everything without a router or modem. And one more important point, the access point has only one network connector. So, it does not distribute Internet via cable.

For example, if you need to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi from an ADSL modem, or expand an existing Wi-Fi network, then an access point is perfect in this case. This is what they are created for. As I wrote above, many models can work in client mode, or . Many modern routers can also work in all of these modes.

In access point mode, we connect it to a router or modem via a network cable and access the Internet via a Wi-Fi network. If you want to connect a wireless access point over the air, you can configure it in bridge mode (WDS), or in repeater mode. You need to look at what is best suited specifically in your case.

Router and access point

The router itself also acts as an access point; it allows you to connect to a Wi-Fi network. In addition, almost every router can operate in AP mode. For some manufacturers, for example ASUS, ZyXEL, this mode is simply enabled in the router settings. Later, I will definitely write detailed instructions for setting up this operating mode on routers from different manufacturers.

In access point mode, the distribution of IP addresses (DHСP), firewall, and IP address translation (NAT) must be disabled on the router. It simply disables several features of the router and turns it into an Access Point.

On some routers, there is no AP operating mode as such. There you just need to manually disable the DHCP server and make a few more settings.

conclusions

If you don’t know what device you need, a router or an access point, then it’s better to ask knowledgeable people, or buy a regular router. Buy an access point only if you know for sure that it suits you.

Almost any router can operate in Access Point mode. And the access point itself cannot act as a router. It lacks many of the features that a regular router has.

By the way, an ordinary laptop or computer with a Wi-Fi adapter can also be turned into a wireless access point. I already wrote, . And if you have Windows 7, then look.

That's all. If you still have any questions, you can leave them in the comments. Best wishes!

I decided to write a short note today and tell you what an SSID is. You might have seen this abbreviation somewhere in the settings of your router, on your computer, on your phone, etc. And straight to the point. SSID is the name of the Wi-Fi network. That's it, the article could already end here. I answered the main question.

But still, I think we need to understand in more detail what an SSID is and why it is needed at all. SSID (Service Set Identifier) ​​– wireless network identifier. The name of the Wi-Fi network that is displayed on your computer, phone and other devices. There must be some way that Wi-Fi networks can be distinguished from one another, right? This is exactly what the SSID is used for.

As you can see in the screenshot below, my laptop sees only one Wi-Fi network, and its SSID " asus_site". This is exactly the name I set in the settings of my router.

Each Wi-Fi router has a standard (factory) name for the Wi-Fi network. Which is set in the default settings. As a rule, the factory SSID is indicated on the router itself (where the MAC address, address for entering settings, factory password (PIN), etc.).

We can change the SSID without any problems in the router settings. Moreover, I strongly advise you to do this during the first setup of the router. Changing the Wi-Fi network name and password is mandatory.

SSID requirements: The name of the Wi-Fi network cannot be specified in Cyrillic (Russian, Ukrainian letters). The name must be specified in letters of the Latin alphabet. You can use numbers, hyphens, and underscores. Problems and any other exotic signs are prohibited.

Changing the SSID (network name) in the router settings

Most often, people are interested in how to change the SSID of a Wi-Fi network and hide it. I will write in a separate article about how to hide the SSID in the near future. There are instructions about that. And by changing the name, we already have it on our website detailed instructions: There I showed this process for routers from different manufacturers: TP-Link, Asus, ZyXEL, Tenda, D-Link.

Everything is very simple there. We go into the settings of our router, no matter what model (manufacturer) you have, and look for the “Wi-Fi”, “Wireless”, “Wireless Network” tab, or something like that. There should be a field "SSID", "Wireless Network Name", "Wireless Network Name", etc. I think you will understand in which field you need to enter your name for the wireless network.

Please note: if you have a dual-band router and you have network broadcasting enabled at the 5GHz frequency, then you need to separately change the LED and set a password for it. As a rule, they simply add “_5G” to the end of the name.

This is what it looks like on TP-Link:

We just indicate our name, save the settings, reboot the router, and that’s it. Our network has been renamed.

Judging by the statistics (I myself sometimes look at Wi-Fi networks in different houses), most users leave the standard name. It's probably hard to come up with something of your own. I also don’t have a lot of imagination, you saw the name of my network in the screenshot above :) And sometimes there are networks with very interesting names.

Now you know what the SSID is and how to change it. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments. I will be happy to answer!