| Actiontec I Broadcasting Duplicate Network This is driving me crazy! About two weeks ago I upgraded to the Actiontec I router. Tonight I noticed that the Actiontec is broadcasting two identical networks. I was checking my connection using Inssider 3 and it showed two networks with my MAC address in the 2.4ghz range. One had my SSID the other showed no SSID. All other parameters were the same.
I looked at the available network connections in windows and it showed my ssid and an "other network" with the same signal strength. I don't transmit my SSID so I logged into my router and enabled SSID broadcasting. Windows then showed two networks with my SSID. I can see the duplicate networks with my Inspiron laptop and my HP netbook. Rebooting the router had no affect.
From what I have read the Actiontec I is not a dual Band router and even if it was the there would only be one network in the 2.4 ghz band. Does anyone know what would cause this? |
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 More FiberPremium,MVM
join:2005-09-26
West Chester, PA
kudos:25 | What happens if you change your SSID?
Do you still see two networks?
Can you login to both networks?
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There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand binary and those who don't.
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| reply to Finbar127
Changing my SSID had no effect but enabling SSID broadcast did. The first time I enabled SSID broadcast I saw the two networks with the same name. I guess I didn’t wait long enough because I just tried it again and the duplicate network disappeared after a minute or two. A check of InSSIDer 3 shows only 1 network. The funny thing is that if I disable the SSID broadcast the duplicate reappears.
I wonder if it has something to do with my Windows 7 laptops "remembering" my old router. However that would not explain InSSIDer 3 showing two networks with the same MAC address. |
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| reply to More Fiber
Also, yes I'm able to log into both networks but I have to logout of one before connecting to the other. |
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| reply to Finbar127
FWIW-I used to Hide my SSID and used MAC addressing filtering in the past..All it did was give me administration headaches and most of my devices were flaky when connected to it.
I went to an "Ethical Hacking" class a few years ago and seeing how easy it was to walk right past the hidden SSID and MAC filtering ruined my parade.
Now-a-days I just rotate stupidly long and cryptic passphrases..While it can be broken, it would take a long time to crack it..long enough to make the would be hacker move on to the next SSID . If I recall, a long random WEP2 passphrase can take thousands & thousands of hours to crack..dont quote me though as Im sure things have changed and processor power has gotten better).
Believe me, giving up my hidden SSID took a while to get used to, but after seeing how useless it actually was, I haven't looked back..
However, if you have a good reason to hide it, then by all means..please do.
Typing in long cryptic passphrases into devices is a pain though..especially on devices without keyboards. However, you may not need to rotate your phrase too often, as the chances if someone cracking a 64 character random letter and number phrase is slim to none.
There was a LONG debate on this very topic on this site a while ago..I'll try to dig it up and edit in the link. |
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| Thanks. I agree hiding the SSID is pointless since anyone who has the proper tools to hack into a network will also have the proper tools to discover the SSID. I use WPA2 AES and I'm confident my network is secure. Hiding the SSID is just a habit I have. I'm just wondering what would cause my wifi cards to detect 2 networks when the SSID is hidden. |
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| I've been looking for a decent answer as to why hiding SSID's causes issues such as yours. Funny enough, I can't find one. Seems most sites just say "dont hide your SSID".
I'd like to think it's due to the way your OS and wireless card are detecting the signal and it gets confused when it does not get the full SSID info packet.
When hiding SSID's I've seen duplicate networks, Dropped clients, invalid signal strength measures and clients that just dont want to connect at all.
The topic now has my full curiosity..I too would like to know why hiding SSID's causes issues..I'll have a chat with one of my company's net engineers. I'll see what his take on it is. |
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