netdev - Re: Hidden SSID's

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Message-Id: <1169899689.25670.3.camel@localhost.localdomain>
Date:	Sat, 27 Jan 2007 07:08:09 -0500
From:	Dan Williams <dcbw@...hat.com>
To:	Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@...inger.net>
Cc:	netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Hidden SSID's

On Fri, 2007-01-26 at 21:48 -0600, Larry Finger wrote:
> Is there a convention regarding the information that a wireless MAC layer should provide when
> reporting scan data from an AP with a hidden SSID?
> 
> In ieee80211, the software inserts the string "<hidden>" for such an AP, which seems to give
> wpa_supplicant fits because it rejects the SSID before even looking at the encryption data. Is this
> the normal convention?

No.  It's wrong.  It is not normal convention.  The one and only
_correct_ way of reporting a hidden SSID is to not report the SSID at
all.  The only item that needs to be reported with WEXT is the BSSID,
and the client app assumes that if the SSID is not received for a given
scan result, that the driver doesn't have an SSID for that BSSID.

I really, really don't know why ieee80211 uses <hidden>, but it's a pain
in the ass and should NOT be done for d80211.  I don't know if we can
ever remove it from ieee80211 though for backwards compat reasons.

Dan

> Thanks,
> 
> Larry
> 
> 
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