Any way to assign a personal name to an external Wi-fi SSID?

[morse_the_horse]

I never thought about this but I wonder if it can be done in Debian (preferrably (or even in another OS).

Given that there is an SSID out there that I connect to at other places, they are assigned names by their owners but I have no control over that. However, when I connect with them intermittently (say once a month), I forget which is which if they are not easily discernible. So, there is a network out there named ATTg5qrz9M and another named ATT4fGT6s, those names have no meaning as compared to one named "Museum" and I'm not sure whether I want to continue to save either of them. What would be nice if I can assign a name to each of them so that if the SSID is ATTg5qrz9M, my computer would show it as "ATTg5qrz9M (Bob's House)" by displaying the SSID plus the personal name I give it. Thus if I see that name in the list and I know I'll never visit Bob again, I can delete it but if it was ATTg5qrz9M (Museum), I would know that is one I want to keep so I don't have to ask the owner again what is the password he gave me before.

[shep]

The SSID is the encryptation "salt" for the pre-shared key.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography)

[morse_the_horse]

The SSID is the encryptation "salt" for the pre-shared key.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography)

I'm not sure that has anything to do with my question. What I am looking for is to know if there is a way to also assign a name along with the SSID. It doesn't have to have anything to do with the SSID being used as an encryption key.

It seems that it is possible to have, in Windows 10, a way to assign a name. By default according to what I read, the default network name for a wireless network is the SSID but it is configurable with a registry editing or policy (on Pro). I have not yet tried it because my only Win10 system is on VirtualBox on another computer but I will. Something like that would work for me on Buster. It's not as good as having the display of the local name even when not connected to that SSID but with the data in the same file.

I know there are the SSIDs in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. I'm wondering if there is a way to have a "comment line" or some-such thing in that file that would be a way to provide a name that would show up with the SSID.

[LE_746F6D617A7A69]

I know there are the SSIDs in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. I'm wondering if there is a way to have a "comment line" or some-such thing in that file that would be a way to provide a name that would show up with the SSID.

This is very simple:
1. Best method: use the NetworkManager plugin (usually placed in the notification area, depends on DE) -> Edit_Connections -> change the "Connection name" field.
2. Edit the files in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections:

Code: Select all

[connection]
id=MyFavoriteConnection1  <------------------------- This is the connection name :)
uuid=e7125185-abcd-1234-abcd-d68f6716640f
type=ethernet
permissions=
timestamp=xxxxxxxxx

[ethernet]
mac-address-blacklist=

[ipv4]
dns-search=
method=auto

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=eui64
dns-search=
ip6-privacy=2
method=auto

After editing the file You have to restart the network-manager service or reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

Note: there is a slight difference between those 2 methods: NetworkManager connection editor changes also the connection file name, but this doesn't matter. Of course You can also "manually" change the file name if You whish.

[morse_the_horse]

I know there are the SSIDs in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. I'm wondering if there is a way to have a "comment line" or some-such thing in that file that would be a way to provide a name that would show up with the SSID.

This is very simple:
1. Best method: use the NetworkManager plugin (usually placed in the notification area, depends on DE) -> Edit_Connections -> change the "Connection name" field.
2. Edit the files in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections:

Code: Select all

[connection]
id=MyFavoriteConnection1  <------------------------- This is the connection name :)

After editing the file You have to restart the network-manager service or reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

Note: there is a slight difference between those 2 methods: NetworkManager connection editor changes also the connection file name, but this doesn't matter. Of course You can also "manually" change the file name if You wish.

Killer solution! Fantastic. Works great. What I did was to add the word that told me what it was to the end of the id line so it has both SSID and my name for it. That's what shows up when I select "Network Connections" on the wi-fi icon. EXACTLY what I wanted. Thanks. 5*

[shep]

I'm not sure that has anything to do with my question.

I was cautioning that if you changed the SSID you would break the encryption.