wpa and no broadcast ssid

On debian sarge and with a wifi PCI card atheros.

I have an AP that doesn't send the ssid broadcast.

when I use
# wpa_supplicant -iath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -ddK -Dmadwifi

I see these lines:
8<----------
...
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
....
Scan results: 1
Selecting BSS from priority group 0
0: 00:22:50:a2:2d:c9 ssid='' wpa_ie_len=24 rsn_ie_len=0 caps=0x11
skip - SSID mismatch
8<----------

and obviously there isn't the sid then there is a mismatch.

How can I avoid the AP Scan with the madwifi driver ?

Why not just enable ssid broadcast on the AP. There is no reason not to
broadcast the ssid.

RicercatoreSbadato wrote:
> On debian sarge and with a wifi PCI card atheros.
>
> I have an AP that doesn't send the ssid broadcast.
>
> when I use
> # wpa_supplicant -iath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -ddK -Dmadwifi
>
> I see these lines:
> 8<----------
> ..
> Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
> ...
> Scan results: 1
> Selecting BSS from priority group 0
> 0: 00:22:50:a2:2d:c9 ssid='' wpa_ie_len=24 rsn_ie_len=0 caps=0x11
> skip - SSID mismatch
> 8<----------
>
> and obviously there isn't the sid then there is a mismatch.
>
> How can I avoid the AP Scan with the madwifi driver ?
>
>

reason: hide the ap

RicercatoreSbadato wrote:
> reason: hide the ap
>
>
You can't really hide the AP. You can make it more difficult for normal
connections. SSID hiding provides no security advantage.

RicercatoreSbadato <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> reason: hide the ap
>
Lookup "active scanning"; you can't really hide the AP.

Can U send me a link about the 'active scanning' ?
You say that a user could discover my wifi-network if I don't broadcast
the ssid ?

"RicercatoreSbadato" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:
> Can U send me a link about the 'active scanning' ?
> You say that a user could discover my wifi-network if I don't broadcast
> the ssid ?

http://www.kismetwireless.net/

Look up "kismet". Install it. Turn off your normal wifi
initialization (eg. "ifdown ath0" in linux). Then run kismet. Notice
all the SSID="<no ssid>" BSSID=11:22:33:44:55 entries. The SSID won't
be known until some client transmits it. Once a client packet
contains both the previously unknow SSID and already known BSSID, the
gig will be up. Anyone that was paying attention will know your SSID.
What have you bought yourself? A few extra minutes for all the pain
of your laptop sending probe packets for your AP continuously instead
of just passively scanning? Personally, I don't want my laptop
transmitting more than necessary and running down the batteries which
are already much too small.

In general you'd do well to ignore advice from any web page that still
gives instructions for setting up wep. At best its back from the days
when wep was still treated as a somewhat worthwhile method of securing
one's wifi. It really should be treated more like a rot-13 these
days. It keeps you from inadvertently seeing something you really
didn't want to see.

-wolfgang
--
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/