Easy Wireless Router “Security” – The SSID

Sometimes all it takes to thwart a thief from stealing your wi-fi connection is having a good SSID that will make him or her nervous. The SSID, that being the Sevice Set Identifier, is the "name" you give your router.

Bear in mind changing the name of your wireless router does not add in any security whatsoever. It is simply a psychological maneuver to throw thieves off.

Naming tactics with SSID

Ordinarily you would name your wireless router something simple such as "HOME" or your last name or something like that. Instead we’re going to try something different.

Here are a few ways that can potentially scare off would-be thieves. Believe it or not this is effective. It won’t keep all thieves out obviously, but hey, this is very easy to do.

Security through SSID "intimidation"

Some example names:

• SECURITY-MONITOR
• WI-FI-TRAP
• RECORDED-ACCESS

If you were a thief that saw SSIDs like this, you’d probably think twice before trying to bust into it. Always make sure the name is in ALL CAPS. And yes, it is meant to stick out on purpose.

Security through vulgarity

This is exactly what you think it is, and there’s a reason why you do it. Most people who use curse words in their SSID usually have a router that performs very poorly that was set up by a kid who doesn’t know any better.

An example of this (censored for obvious reasons) is "F*CKING ROUTER."

Security through tricking

This is where you put something as a name that would (hopefully) convince the thief your router doesn’t work correctly.

Examples names:

• NO-NET-ACCESS
• ANTENNA-PROBLEM
• TESTING-NO-INTERNET
• DOES-NOT-WORK

The tricking method is the best of the bunch. If the thief assumes that even if he breaks in that the connection will be agonizingly slow or simply not work, he won’t bother.

Again I will say that this adds in no real security at all. Changing the SSID is strictly psychological, and if a wi-fi thief realizes this to be true, he’ll still attempt to break in.