[jbbrower]

Sorry, this is one of the worst responses I have ever seen! If more people cared about security and privacy, both would not be threatened so often.

Originally Posted by WilliamG

I'm not a security consultant, and I see no proof of what you're saying. MUCH worse to hide an SSID? How so? Because devices can have more trouble on occasion connecting to them? Not a problem for me. Because anyone can find them? Not a problem for me, either.

It has nothing to do with devices having trouble connecting. It has to do with security. You see, when you hide you SSID and configure a device to connect to it, that device has to broadcast its interest in connecting to that SSID EVERYWHERE IT GOES! Yes, hiding the SSID removes it from the list of APs close to your hours, but you are going around town advertising this SSID. Doing penetration testing for a corporate client, it was trivial to farm SSIDs, use wigle.net, and meet them at their homes. Hackers use this technique all the time to crack the easier home network, compromise the laptop, then have the nice executive smuggle the poned system behind the corporate firewall for the hacker. There could also be stalking implications of all this too. (cute girl, advertising home SSID, wigle.net, google map to girl's home for?!?!?!?

wigle.net does not find my SSID/GPS location, and yes - I registered there.

You are very lucky to live in an area where there is no war driving, no google streetview, and no people using any one of the many services that use cellphones/gps/wifi for "GPS" tracking that report back to the service.

So from reading various sites on the matter, the problem is that the network is easily found when you hide an SSD. I AGREE with this, but truly, what difference does it make? I just like that my wireless network isn't there for the casual user to mistakenly click on. Call it a psychological thing, but I see no DOWNSIDE to hiding an SSID. I have no network performance degradation, for example.
Is there an upside to SSID hiding? No, of course not, except that people in the house next door don't have to keep seeing my SSID all the time.

If you read carefully, yes there is an upside if you care about privacy and security. And if you use WPA2, you can advertise your SSID all you want and no one will be able to connect to it (accidental or maliciously)

Actually, I wish everyone would hide their damn SSIDs. I'm so sick of a huge list of SSIDs on my wireless list when I'm out and about.

That would be nice, but wifi has a very limited range and limited number of frequencies available, so the list can never get too bad.