Wifi problems out of the blue (Connecting to hidden SSID?)

[Huecuva]

EDIT: So after looking through an old thread of mine about this, it turns out this all transpired because I guess at some point I had logged into my router and set my secondary WLAN SSID to not be broadcast. I have enabled SSID Broadcast for my secondary WLAN and now the mpd server is able to connect.

My question now is this: Is there some way to connect to a hidden SSID with this? One would think that with the SSID configured directly into /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf that it would just connect to the network regardless whether the SSID was being broadcast or not. This is not the case. I wouldn't mind being able to set my secondary WLAN as hidden, as it doesn't need to be visible and I like the idea of that extra level of security.

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Hey guys.

I have an mpd server running headless with Debian 10 on a FitPC-3 Pro Barebone. If I recall correctly, I had to do quite a bit of dicking around and configuring wpa_supplicant to get it to connect to my wifi in the first place. I may even have had to manually download and install drivers for my wifi card. i don't remember. It's been almost a year now since I set this up. It's been working fine for months without a problem. All of a sudden today I go to listen to one of my streams and the mpd server is not connected to wifi. I have not updated it or anything. None of the configuration should have changed. I have no idea why it would randomly stop working out of the blue. For some reason the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file I'm pretty sure I configured was gone. I've since replaced it, but it hasn't fixed anything.

Code: Select all

# ip a
3: wlp5s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether MYMAC brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 169.254.7.146/16 brd 169.254.255.255 scope link wlp5s0:avahi
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
# cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface

#auto enp2s0
allow-hotplug enp2s0
iface enp2s0 inet dhcp
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlp5s0
allow-hotplug wlp5s0
iface wlp5s0 inet dhcp
	wpa-ssid MYSSID
	wpa-psk MYPSK
# cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
network={
	ssid="MYSSID"
	psk=MYPSK
}
# ifup wlp5s0
ifup: interface wlp5s0 already configured
# iw dev
phy#0
	Interface wlp5s0
		ifindex 3
		wdev 0x1
		addr MYMAC
		type managed
		txpower 20.00 dBm
# rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
$ lspci -knn | grep -A2 Network
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723AE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8723]
	Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723AE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8723]
	Kernel driver in use: rtl8723ae
	Kernel modules: rtl8723ae

ip link set wlp5s0 up Yields no output and does not work. I'm at a loss. I have no idea what is going on.

Does anyone have any ideas? Is there any other information I could post that would help figure this out?

Thanks.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Is there some way to connect to a hidden SSID with this?

Add this line to your wpa_supplicant configuration file (in the stanza for the access point):

Code: Select all

scan_ssid=1

But note that "hiding" your access point offers no additional security whatsoever and is entirely pointless.

[Huecuva]

Thanks, I'll do that.

As for it not offering any extra security: I mean, if the SSID isn't broadcast and people can't see the network, they're less likely to try and connect to it. Is that not more secure? Not much, I know, but it's something.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

if the SSID isn't broadcast and people can't see the network, they're less likely to try and connect to it. Is that not more secure?

No: https://linuxconfig.org/discover-hidden ... ircrack-ng

My router offers a "whitelist"[0] for connections which only allows for named machines (identified by hostname and MAC address) to connect, even if the password is known. If your router has such an option that would offer an extra level of security. And make sure that WPA2 only is selected as the authentication method — plain WPA is fundamentally insecure and should not be allowed.

[0] My sincere apologies for the unfortunately racist terminology.

EDIT: better link.

[Huecuva]

Hmm. Alright. I will look into that. Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by "racist terminology". If you mean "whitelist", I don't find that term or "blacklist" racist at all. They have nothing to do with race and anyone who gets offended by it is a virtue-signalling snowflake. There's no need to apologize.

[sgosnell]

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-connect- ... -10-buster

[Huecuva]

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-connect- ... -10-buster

I think that's the very same walkthrough I was using in the old thread I linked to in my OP which mr. Head_on_a_Stick said was nonsense and not to use.