What SSIDs are hidden if we do not install the optional WinXP WPA2 update KB893357

What SSIDs are hidden if we do not install the optional WinXP WPA2 update?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357

Specifically, what does this sentence actually mean?
"... after you install the update, Windows XP will display previously
hidden Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) in the Choose A Wireless Network
dialog box."

I thought the whole point of "hidden" SSIDs was to hide them from people
who don't previously know them (isn't it?).

Can someone shed light on what exactly is un-hidden with this Windows WPA2
update?

On Jan 4, 9:50*am, Donna <donna....@yahoo.com> wrote:
> What SSIDs are hidden if we do not install the optional WinXP WPA2 update?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357
>
> Specifically, what does this sentence actually mean?
> "... after you install the update, Windows XP will display previously
> hidden Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) in the Choose A Wireless Network
> dialog box."

It means that you now will also be able to connect to "hidden" SSID's
with Windows' software and not only with software made by reasonable
ppl.

> I thought the whole point of "hidden" SSIDs was to hide them from people
> who don't previously know them (isn't it?).

I did never understand the point of "hidden" SSID. You cannot hide a
SSID from the air in any reasonable meaning of "hide". Either a
wireless access point is up running broadcasting it's SSID or it's not
up and running. No client software can hide what is going on in the
air. That some software obey such a stupid idea (hidden SSID) by not
showing the a SSID to a client user does not make the SSID off the
air.

> Can someone shed light on what exactly is un-hidden with this Windows WPA2
> update?

To the best of my knowledge, I did.

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 02:20:36 -0800 (PST), Chrisjoy wrote:

> It means that you now will also be able to connect to "hidden" SSID's
> with Windows' software and not only with software made by reasonable
> ppl.

Are you sure? That's not what LR said it was. The reason I wonder if the
above explanation is correct is because, in Windows XP SP2, I can certainly
connect to "hidden SSIDs" with or without the Microsoft KB917021 Wireless
Zero Configuration WPA2-PSK Personal patch.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021

I do agree with you that hidden isn't really hidden from a "sniffer" (I
don't know how to do it, but, you guys, like Jeff L. certainly do).

Donna

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 18:25:20 -0800, Donna wrote:

> Any idea how to access the new WinXP SP3 WPA2-PSK option in WZC?

Here's what I did to set up WZC in WinXP Home SP3 (which won't let me add
WPA2-PSK)!!!

1. Start -> Settings -> Network Connections -> Wireless Network Connection
2. My SSID "foobar" is hidden so I press "Set up a wireless network"

Welcome to the Wireless Network Setup Wizard -> Next ->
Network name (SSID): foobar

3. At this point, nothing I do gets me WPA2-Personal or WPA2-PSK!
The only options are
a. Automatically assign a network key
b. Manually assign a network key
c. Use WPA encryption instead of WEP

I want WPA2!

In frustration, I choose "Manually assign a network key" and enter the
Network key for my wpa2-psk router but up pops the "Wireless Network Setup
Wizard" error ...
The WEP key can be one of the following lengths
- Exactly 5 or 13 characters long
- Exactly 10 or 26 characters long

But I don't want WEP! I want WPA2!

That's why I was trying to download the KB!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021

I'm in a catch 22.

A. I can't install WPA2 from the KB because it says it's already there in
Windows XP Service Pack 3.
B. Yet, I can't find any option to select WPA2 in the Wireless Network
Setup Wizard.

How do YOU set up WPA2 on a WinXP Home SP3 PC?

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 19:13:36 -0800, Donna <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'm in a catch 22.
>
>A. I can't install WPA2 from the KB because it says it's already there in
>Windows XP Service Pack 3.
>B. Yet, I can't find any option to select WPA2 in the Wireless Network
>Setup Wizard.
>
>How do YOU set up WPA2 on a WinXP Home SP3 PC?

Maybe this will help:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-abad30bd8175/

Someone else had a similar issue and resolved it by reinstalling the
wireless card.

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:22:04 -0600, Aver Conn wrote:

> Maybe this will help:
> http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-abad30bd8175/
> Someone else had a similar issue and resolved it by reinstalling the
> wireless card.

Hi Aver,
Yep! That's EXACTLY the same problem!
WinXP SP3 negates the need to add WPA2 to WinXP
Here's what was on that Microsoft forum in case someone runs into this in
the future out here on the usenet.
Thanks!
Donna

----------
net-tek - Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 7:52:53 PM

I had to reformat and reinstall my laptop today. After researching, I
discovered that WPA2 was implemented with Windows XP SP3, so I didn't worry
about applying the WPA2 patch to my XP SP2 installation. I installed the
OS, then installed SP3 before installing the wireless driver for my laptop.
After installing the driver and trying to add a new wireless network, there
were no options for anything but WPA. I have reinstalled SP3 to no avail.

I have also found that after installing the WPA2 patch on a Windows XP SP2
laptop and then installing SP3 the WPA2 options are all gone. This is
really dismaying since I often would rather use the Windows sytem drivers
for my wireless connections than the vendor software which usually takes up
more system resources.

Bottom line: I can't get WPA2 installed or working on a laptop with XP SP3
installed. Can someone tell me what to do about this?
----------
rdhw - Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 2:17:36 AM

That's very strange, as WPA2 is included in SP3. I can think of the
following possibilities:

1. Please check to see whether your wireless card needs a driver update
from the wireless manufacturer.

2. There are things that can go wrong during the SP3 updater process that
lead to subsequent wireless connection problems. The most frequently seen
problem of this nature is if a Norton product is on the PC while the SP3
updater was running. This leads to a conflict producing many unnecessary
registry keys. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953979 for a fix
procedure.

3. Check to see whether the wireless card is under the control of Windows,
or under the control of an application that was supplied with the card's
software. You might have to turn off any such application to enable
Windows to gain full control of the card.
----------
net-tek - Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 8:01:07 AM

Thanks for your response. I can address each of your thoughts easily.

1. I updated the wireless card driver and all other hardware drivers before
running SP3.

2. No antivirus software was installed at the time I installed SP3. After
installing the OS I installed all the hardware drivers and then updated the
OS by installing SP3 and then running Windows Update.

3. Windows is and was in control of the wireless card the whole time.

Hope this provides you with enough information. Thank you again.
----------
net-tek - Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 8:29:48 AM

Ok, I uninstalled the wireless card and reinstalled it in Device Manager
and all the WPA2 encryption modes are now visible. I was able to establish
a connection to my wireless network using WPA2-PSK. Thanks for looking and
hope this helps someone else.
----------

I found the bug in the Windows XP SP3 WZC setup.

The workaround was to un-hide the SSID temporarily using the click and
select GUI to choose the settings (WPA2 PSK AES). Then to re-hide the SSID
broadcasting by the wireless router.

Apparently the WinXP SP3 WZC setup uses a slightly different GUI when you
have to specify the SSID versus when you simply click on a found SSID.

That was the simple solution (I'm pretty sure this is a reproducible bug so
I'll just state that out here and someone in the future can verify when
they set up their home wireless network and report back the results).

TEST:
a. Hide the broadcast of your SSID
b. Install Windows XP SP3
c. Try, just try, in WZC, to choose WPA2-PSK AES (I dare you to try)

SOLUTION:
a. Un-hide the broadcast of your SSID
b. Install Windows XP SP3
c. Select your SSID in the WZC & follow the prompts
d. Hide the broadcast of your SSID when done (if desired)

On Jan 5, 3:19*am, Donna <donna....@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 02:20:36 -0800 (PST), Chrisjoy wrote:
> > It means that you now will also be able to connect to "hidden" SSID's
> > with Windows' software and not only with software made by reasonable
> > ppl.
>
> Are you sure?

No, I'm not sure. It was a hope hidden SSID thing was gotten rid of in
MS too. The main point of my answer still stands though.

> That's not what LR said it was.

I think LR explained it better than me. Go with his answer.

> The reason I wonder if the
> above explanation is correct is because, in Windows XP SP2, I can certainly
> connect to "hidden SSIDs" with or without the Microsoft KB917021 Wireless
> Zero Configuration WPA2-PSK Personal patch.

I never said you cannot connect to hidden SSID. The point is that you
can't see it on a list of all near by APs. But if this is what you
meant, I cannot explin it. I just remember I had problem connecting to
WPA and then WPA2, but I don't remember how I solved it. Maybe someone
else can help.

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021
>
> I do agree with you that hidden isn't really hidden from a "sniffer" (I
> don't know how to do it, but, you guys, like Jeff L. certainly do).

You don't need a special sniffer software to do it, neither do you
need to be an expert of any sort. Today client software comes with a
button to show so called hidden APs. This is how I understood the text
you got from MS, but LR seams to have a better explaination.

LR wrote:
> On 05/01/2009 02:16, Donna wrote:
>> On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:12:04 +0000, LR wrote:
>>
>>> The WPS IE element was introduced to solve the
>>> problem of AP's which generated multiple SSID's but only one was
>>> included in the broadcast Beacon and Probe Response frames which
>>> meant wireless clients could not see the other SSID's.
>>
>> Ah, I think I get it. I think... Is this a practical usage summary?
>>
>> If, say at a hotel where there is a wireless access point on every
>> corner of every floor, any one PC in a hotel room can either see all
>> the access points or just the strongest access point?
>>
>> Before this Windows XP patch (KB 917021), I'm assuming only one hotel
>> access point was visible; but after this Windows XP Wireless Zero
>> Configuration (WZC) patch, all the hotel access points are visible.
>>
>> Is that what KB 893357/unhides?
> No. Some AP's can have several SSID's but under pre-WPS IE you could
> only see one of the SSID's from a wireless client. After installing
> kb893357 you would be able to see all of the SSID's a single WPS IE
> enabled AP is producing.
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms818947.aspx>

it's a future thing - for running mutiple SSID's on a single piece of
hardware
that has both an un-secured SSID, and one representing a secure SSID -
----
Provisioning Information Element
The Provisioning information element (Provisioning IE) is a new 802.11
information element. Provisioning IE indicates in the 802.11 beacon from the
Access Point whether a connection to this wireless network requires 802.1x,
and if the network can provide provisioning information to the client.

The main goals of the new Provisioning IE are the following:


a.. Improve the end-user experience and decrease the amount of time needed
to get connected. This can be done by allowing client systems to discover
from the beacon if 802.1x is required to connect to the network, and if the
network can provide provisioning information to the client. This approach
will reduce the number of trials and timeouts the client system would have
to go through when trying to connect and determine what the required network
configuration and security settings are.
b.. Enable easy and cost effective migration from unsecured Public Wi-Fi
hotspots to secured networks using 802.1x and Wireless Provisioning Services
(WPS) on the same network infrastructure. This is done by leveraging
existing capabilities in Access Points to use hidden SSIDs. This new
information element advertises a hidden SSID in the beacon or probe response
message indicating to the client that there is another network in addition
to the visible one that the client can try to connect to.
c.. ---
d..

Donna wrote:
> What SSIDs are hidden if we do not install the optional WinXP WPA2
> update? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357
>
> Specifically, what does this sentence actually mean?
> "... after you install the update, Windows XP will display previously
> hidden Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) in the Choose A Wireless
> Network dialog box."
>
> I thought the whole point of "hidden" SSIDs was to hide them from
> people who don't previously know them (isn't it?).
>
> Can someone shed light on what exactly is un-hidden with this Windows
> WPA2 update?

as this thread has uncovered - you have 2 different topics blended into a
single thread subject

#1 - WPA2 support - which is of course dependant on the network adapter
driver, not just XP
#2 - WPA2 support - for the new AP hardware with mutiple SSIDs - for secured
networks

---
The WPA2/WPS IE Update modifies the following dialog boxes:
a.. When you are connected to a WPA2 capable wireless network, the type of
network is displayed as WPA2 in the Choose A Wireless Network dialog box.
b.. On the Association tab for the properties of a wireless network, the
Network Authentication list has the following additional options:
a.. WPA2 - for WPA2 Enterprise
b.. WPA2-PSK - for WPA2 Personal
Note These options are not present if the wireless network adaptor driver
does not support WPA2.

For more information about WPA2 security features, see the "Wi-Fi Protected
Access 2 (WPA2) Overview" topic at the following Microsoft Web site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb878054.aspx