Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Check out the hottest Windows Mobile devices at our Expansys store!


Digital Home Thoughts

Loading feed...

Laptop Thoughts

Loading feed...

Android Thoughts

Loading feed...




Go Back   Thoughts Media Forums > WINDOWS PHONE THOUGHTS > Windows Phone Articles & Resources

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 08-06-2010, 12:00 AM
Jason Dunn
Executive Editor
Jason Dunn's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
Default Windows Phone 7 Tech Preview Can't Connect to Hidden Networks...Do We Care?

http://www.wmexperts.com/windows-ph...rts+(WMExperts)

"Evidently, Windows Phone 7 cannot see ergo connect to hidden wireless networks, the kind where you don't broadcast your SSID. Although not a lot of people go this extra step for security, we're sure a few of you do and in this case, it appears you are out of luck."

There are things that Windows Phone 7 will be lacking at launch that will matter to many people, matter to some people, or matter to virtually no one. The lack of copy and paste? That will impact a lot of people. Not being able to connect to a hidden WiFi network? I'm leaning toward the "no one" category, but you tell me: would this present a problem for you? Is your WiFi network hidden via an SSID no-broadcast setting? I've never set up my WiFi that way because security through obscurity is rarely an effective barrier - if someone's sniffing for WiFi networks, they'll be using tools that will ID your "hidden" network - so what's the point?

__________________
Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
 
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 08-06-2010, 12:10 AM
Lee Yuan Sheng
Contributing Editor
Lee Yuan Sheng's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,503

There's been more than one article that has shown why hiding your SSID is a bad idea. I'm inclined to agree this shouldn't be a big issue.
__________________
Baka. Soku. Zan. - The justice behind the dysORDer.
 
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 08-06-2010, 05:42 AM
mike6024
Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 111

This is the exact way it started with the ZuneHD. You could only connect to networks that broadcasted their SSIDs. Lots of people threw fits about it and eventually Microsoft released an update that allowed you to connect to hidden networks. From what I saw before, it was the people that needed to connect to networks they couldn't control, like college networks, who were really hit by this.
 
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 08-07-2010, 12:11 AM
MadSci
Ponderer
MadSci's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 62
Default WM7 is looking more and more like a half or even quarter-baked OS

This is just getting worse and worse. It seems we learn almost daily of another feature that has been standard in WM for years that has been left out of WM7. Another Giant Leap Backward for Mankind seems to be their motto.

Now this makes no sense if you care about your customer base, but then we current WM Users, and all our WM Software, have been abandoned by MSoft already haven't we. So it would seem that MSoft is determined to reel in a new Customer Base that won't 'miss' things that they have had for ages now.

Great plan! Besides, who uses blind networks anyway? Hmmm - how about - my company, and my home! I guess that just doesn't matter as long as I can connect at Starbucks!

Honestly. When my HD2 is no longer cutting it, MSoft had better come out with WM7.5 or I'll be off to Android. You can bet Google hasn't made a screwup like this - they like to be able to steal your data at WiFi speeds !
 
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 08-07-2010, 12:30 AM
epdm2be
Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 48
Send a message via ICQ to epdm2be Send a message via MSN to epdm2be

Quote:
Originally Posted by MadSci View Post
This is just getting worse and worse. It seems we learn almost daily of another feature that has been standard in WM for years that has been left out of WM7. Another Giant Leap Backward for Mankind seems to be their motto.

Now this makes no sense if you care about your customer base, but then we current WM Users, and all our WM Software, have been abandoned by MSoft already haven't we. So it would seem that MSoft is determined to reel in a new Customer Base that won't 'miss' things that they have had for ages now.

Great plan! Besides, who uses blind networks anyway? Hmmm - how about - my company, and my home! I guess that just doesn't matter as long as I can connect at Starbucks!

Honestly. When my HD2 is no longer cutting it, MSoft had better come out with WM7.5 or I'll be off to Android. You can bet Google hasn't made a screwup like this - they like to be able to steal your data at WiFi speeds !
I totally agree with you.

Who cares. Well I do. Because my own home network is a hidden one too.

I hate it when sites like these suggest that the lack of these features (which were present in their former range of phones and are being used actively) are insignificant.

The lack of features that we take for granted is indeed a step backward NOT forward.
Again, ppl should stop concentrate on visual gimmicks! In fact matters are getting worse when hardware manufactorers also start to ditch features that used to work properly (Incall-recording for instance).
 
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 08-07-2010, 06:50 PM
Sven Johannsen
Editorial Contributor
Sven Johannsen's Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411

After reading the comments on the article, it is as I suspected. You CAN connect, you just need to enter the SSID. If it is your network, and you don't broadcast, and you can't remember what it is or can't spell it...well, you are an idiot. If it is someone else's network, and you don't know whose it is, or they won't tell you what the SSID is...then stay off it.
__________________
Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.

Last edited by Sven Johannsen; 08-07-2010 at 06:58 PM..
 
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 11-10-2010, 08:33 PM
priesmeyer
Ponderer
priesmeyer's Avatar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 67

Well, this is a problem. Our corporate security policy requires that the SSID of our internal networks be hidden.

So there are no workarounds at this point other than to get the suits to change their policy.

We need Microsoft to add the ability to setup a manual connection. That should be easy for them. I get that maybe they left it out because 80-90% of the people wouldn't run into this problem. But everyone at my company will/might/potentially could.
 
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:22 PM.