Connecting to AP with hidden SSIDs.

[The Methematician]

I saw loads of unsecured APs with hidden SSIDs, so was wondering how do I connect to these APs ???

[Murder Mouse]

Well basically you have to configure the profile name and SSID into your wireless settings manually. Here is a little more detail on the matter for you...

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726942.aspx

[Syphilis]

With a visible SSID, you enter a password and connect.

With a hidden SSID, you enter the name of the SSID, and the password.

How exactly you do that depends on your operating system.

[Dr Gonzo]

Here you go:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/175809-connect-non-broadcasting-network.html

Or:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726942.aspx#ECAA

[The Methematician]

Oh...thanks. What I meant is that I saw loads of unsecured APs with their Mac addr visible, but not their SSIDs. Like are there some tools to fish those SSIDs out,....so that I can connect to them....?

without asking the AP owner that is...

[Dr Gonzo]

Oh...thanks. What I meant is that I saw loads of unsecured APs with their Mac addr visible, but not their SSIDs. Like are there some tools to fish those SSIDs out,....so that I can connect to them....?

without asking the AP owner that is...

My mistake.

I don't know how to do this in Windows, but in Linux/GNU:

Using airodump:
airodump-ng --write out --ivs --abg eth1

Kismet:
There needs to be some packets floating about for this to work, but it's another option. Just press SHIFT + L to lock onto a particular channel, and SHIFT + H to re-enable channel hopping.

AirJack works as well, however I've never used it, so can't offer any advice on it right now:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/airjack/

Windows:
This is supposed to work quite well, however it's not open source:
http://www.airmagnet.com/

If you go for this option, (http://tinyurl.com/c683nm) make sure to run it in a virtual machine, the keygen contains a virus.

This is the least recommended option.

--

[Syphilis]

I use Kismet, it works quickly, and finds SSIDs with no effort.

[The Methematician]

Will try kismet......thankz.