Just in from the front..... (sorta, it's dated april) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0406.mspx
Non-broadcasting wireless networks A non-broadcasting wireless network does not advertise its network name, also known as its Service Set Identifier (SSID). A wireless access point of a non-broadcasting wireless network can be configured to either not send Beacon frames or to send Beacon frames with an SSID set to NULL. A non-broadcasting wireless network is also known as a hidden wireless network. In Windows(r) XP, you could not configure a preferred wireless network as a non-broadcasting wireless network. The behavior of Wireless Auto Configuration in Windows XP is to attempt connections to broadcasting wireless networks before non-broadcasting wireless networks. Therefore, a computer running Windows XP could automatically connect to a broadcasting network instead of a non-broadcasting network that is higher in the preferred wireless networks list. In Windows Vista, you can now configure wireless networks as broadcast or non-broadcast. A computer running Windows Vista will attempt to connect to wireless networks in the preferred networks list order, regardless of whether they are broadcast or non-broadcast. Further more Microsoft has added to the methods to connect to networks.... Wireless network configuration methods You can configure connections to wireless networks, known as wireless profiles, for a computer running Windows Vista with the following methods: * Connect to a network dialog box This is the principal method by which individual users will configure connections to wireless networks. * Group Policy Network administrators can use Group Policy settings in an Active Directory(r) directory service environment to centrally configure and deploy wireless network settings and automatically configure domain member computers. * Command line Network administrators can use commands in the new netsh wlan context of the Netsh.exe tool to manually configure wireless networks and their settings. There are Netsh commands to export an existing wireless profile to an XML file and then import the wireless profile settings stored in the XML file on another computer. -----Original Message----- From: Zeller, Tom S [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 8:21 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] SSIDs: broadcast and non-broadcast Yes, Microsoft has documented that XP will prefer a broadcast SSID over a non-broadcast SSID irrespective of their order in the list. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/network/evaluate/hiddennet. mspx However, if you remove the broadcast SSID from the list, there's no conflict. The issue I was experiencing attempting to use 802.1x on a non-broadcast SSID went beyond this problem. ON a wide range of laptops, including Macs, it was simply unreliable making a connection. 20-40% of the time the laptop would connect to the proper SSID and then everything worked great. But roaming to another AP or coming back gave mostly unsuccessful results. I should also mention that there is an optional patch from Microsoft (i.e. not pushed out by them) that improves the visibility of non-broadcast SSIDs once you have defined them on the system. They show up in the "available networks" list. http://support.microsoft.com/?id=893357 I should also point to Microsoft's documentation entitled: "You cannot reconnect to a wireless network that uses a hidden SSID after you manually disconnect from that network on a Windows XP Service Pack 2-based computer" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907405 -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Miller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] SSIDs: broadcast and non-broadcast From observations and discussion with others, it seems that that wireless zero config on windows favors broadcast SSIDs... You may notice that sporadically it will connect to the broadcast one even if you've configured the non-broadcast with higher priority. -Kevin Jim Gogan wrote: > Quick question: has anyone run into any support issues when some SSIDs > are broadcast and some aren't on a campus? > > -- Jim Gogan > ITS Telecommunications > University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill > > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
