Active 4 years, 4 months ago. Viewed 79k times. Improve this question. Adam Goode 3 3 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. An SSID for a wireless network has a maximum length of 32 characters. It's not safe to use WEP, period. The IEEE has deprecated its use and a google search for "wep crack" turns up a bajillion tools that make breaking into a WEP network trivial. Marcin Marcin 2, 1 1 gold badge 16 16 silver badges 14 14 bronze badges.
The question was about length, and length is irrelevant. The fact that it's not a default, especially in WPA where SSID is used as a salt, it needs to be as random as possible, so in that sense, changing it to something non-default is a good thing. On the one hand, perhaps not broadcasting the SSID in this case would make the network a bit more secure.
On the other hand, it might attract the attention of bad guys in the neighborhood who might think it was worth attacking the network specifically because the owner went to the trouble of hiding it.
The maximum length of an SSID is, technically, 32 bytes, rather than 32 characters. The difference can be seen with Unicode characters that consist of more than one byte a byte is 8 bits. With some fudging, you can create a network name that consists of emojis. See this October Ars Technica article for more: Scare your neighbors with a spooky Halloween network name. This is pushing the envelope though as some devices prevent non-latin characters in the SSID. Our top WiFi names from August This includes "Mum, click here for Internet" and "Lord of the Pings".
The article was such a hit, that part two followed in October Our top WiFi names, part 2. The new list includes my personal favorite "searching Quoting: "President Trump's supporters and opponents have expanded their battlefield even to the choice of their own Wi-Fi names - identifying their networks according to what they think of the president.
From Oct. No, Obi-Wan, I suppose it isn't. Quoting: "Network names have gone from being boring digit chains to another opportunity for personalization, like vanity plates or monogrammed towels.
Not a good idea. Some from a May article at qz. The funniest might be the first one. More parental issues: "Mom this one". Finally, "Wrong", so that when you connect it says "you've connected to the wrong network". A Brooklyn woman set up her Wi-Fi network, named it "oldbayseasoning," and never thought of it again.
Five years later, the company started looking for her. Choosing a Network Name The network name you choose should not give away any personal information. As a starting point for choosing a name, think of race horse names and combine two or three words. Don't Bother Hiding Your router probably has an option to hide the SSID , usually a checkbox for whether or not to "broadcast" the name it may also be called "network cloaking". Copyright - Then having a separate guest network with its own SSID and password is a good idea.
Note that having a large number of SSIDs on the same access point may negatively affect performance. We advise you not to overdo it by creating multiple categories of users.
A hidden SSID means it will not be broadcast, and will not show up when your average Wi-Fi capable device is searching for available networks. For convenience, guest networks should always be visible, or you will likely end up spending an inordinate amount of time on helping your guests connect to the network.
Hiding your main network's SSID is often recommended as a security measure. However, consider that:. If your home Wi-Fi is made up of a router and one or more repeaters or extenders, you are, in reality, dealing with multiple networks.
You should carefully consider whether or not these networks are capable of sharing an SSID. When moving around with a wireless device such as a smartphone, it will usually tend to cling to the first access point it connected to, even when there is another one that is closer and could provide better coverage and performance.
This phenomenon is known as a "sticky client", which you can read more about in Sticky Clients: When Devices Cling to a Bad Connection.
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