Vista will not connect to wireless hidden SSID
I've installed Vista B2 on a Toshiba A80 laptop and it all seems to work fine except for not wanting to conect to my home wireless network unless I unhide the SSID. Another odd thing is that in the Network Center the signal strangth is shown as excellent but in the Connect to... window, the little help balloon that pops up for the network shows No Signal. It's showing that right now even though I'm typing this via wireless! It does show as being connected though. Alan.
July 14th, 2006 12:27am

Here is how I fixed mine. In the Network Center , go to Set up a connection or network, and pick Manually connect to a wireless network Enter your wireless network info and check the box connect even if the network is not broadcasting I hope this helps
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July 24th, 2006 11:19pm

No this is not a solution, at least not for me, I must always fill in SSID and Encr. Key for every hidden networks again and again and sometimes I cant connect definitelly. On wifis with shown SSID never problems, my Vaio connects automaticaly to known sites with once key written. Sometimes on hidden SSIDs is possible to just click to netowrk in list (uknown so I must be lucky one to choose right one) and just enter SSID only, next step faills but when I close dialog miracle comes my Wifi is Connected... I almost think Vistas WiFi features are cursed (o; BTW on all my known (once filled up) hiden wifis I have enabled switch "connect even network is not broadcat" of course but i helps me NOT
February 19th, 2008 5:38am

Pavel,I have exactly the same problem with my Vista PC (Home Premium SP1). My computer connects to the hidden wireless network on boot, but it loses its connection on resume from standby or hibernation. Once the connection is lost, I must manually connect to the network. Logging off my user account and logging back in does not help.I just wound up creating a .cmd file to connect to the network and put a shortcut to the file on my quick launch toolbar. You can get more fancy with it...Here's what to include:netsh wlan connect ssidwhere ssid is the hidden network name (ssid).Here's a link from MS about hidden SSID. It doesn't mention your issue, but has some good info.http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726942.aspx
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October 17th, 2008 9:22am

This is also not a solution for me.I've read quite a few articles on the internet now of people having the issue of Vista SP1 plain refusing to connect at all to a hidden SSID.After setting up my Media centre PC and plugging a wireless USB dongle in, I've got the drivers and the hardware installed.I then went through the bloated gumph that is the "network and sharing centre" and eventually found where to program in the SSID manually and setup the security. I've done all that and even though the option is set to "connect automatically" I can see that vista has not even attempted ONCE to connect to the network.Yes I have all the options for connecting even if the network is not broadcasting programmed in, to be honest I can't see how this situation could be classed as anything other than part of the OS being plain broken. I have a laptop sat on my bed on the lap of my lovely GF using the internet right now on XP, on which I had to do the EXACT same procedure and guess what, it works just fine!Whatever has gone into SP1 seems to have utterly broken anything to do with hidden wireless SSID networks for me, without unhiding the SSID (which I am not going to do for my own reasons) my media pc is basically going to remain unconnected which is a serious hinderance. I am most unimpressed to say the least.Is there any fix for this behaviour?Paul
April 9th, 2009 6:16pm

Just as a small update, I've tried what Pavel said above about using netsh.I tried "netsh wlan connect name=BeBox SSID=BeBox interface="Wireless Network Connection" and variations on that command.The only responce I get is: "The network specified by profile "BeBox" is not available to connect".Strange, as in the "manage wireless networks" folder it proclaims "1 item" with a 5 bar connection strength signal next to it and like I said, the network IS alive and well and being used to type this very message.Absolutely retared operating system, time to bin it and go Ubuntu I reckon, at least that actually works and I'd have saved 300.
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April 9th, 2009 6:22pm

For more detail on the stupidity of Vista connecting to networks with Hidden SSID you might like to see my post in the thread "Wireless cannot connect to network when not broadcasting SSID" (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistahardware/thread/ef6f59d9-bd3e-41c9-9cf6-5aa3d489996b) Not only can't it connect because it assumes that it will be able to match the SSID of the network with a saved network SSID (not much use if the SSID is NULL because it's hidden) But it can't even find the network to put it in the list 99% of the time, even when it's 100% signal strength.
November 18th, 2011 8:36am

TOSHIBA Satellite A205 Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2 ' In the View available Networks, you should see a network which does not have a name. Connect to that network and enter on the next screen the SSID of your hidden network. You will then connect (or at least, that worked for me). ' This work great, Thanks!
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February 19th, 2012 5:27pm

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