NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
No Enable SSID broadcast option in RBR850 firmware
Firmware version V3.1.5.23_1.0.46 doesn't have 'Enable SSID broadcast' available on the Advanced -> Wireless Settings page.... of the Orbi RBR850. I want to disable broadcasting SSID name but I can'...
I submitted a support request on this topic, and got the following reply:
"Going back to your case, Netgear made a business decision to remove "Enable SSID Broadcast" since the feature is not really needed there is really no reason why you would want to disable SSID or SSID broadcast on a WiFi system. Disabling SSID broadcast only hides the network name from other users it does not hide the network itself because you cannot disguise routers' WiFi activity. Furthermore, with SSID disabled it just becomes more complicated for WiFi devices to connect to it so there is really no benefit to disabling the broadcast.
But I can have your suggestion forwarded to the Engineering Team as a feature request, you may also post this suggestion on this link:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-home"
As a CISSP, I'm frankly horrified by this position, and responded as follows:
"Thanks for the quick response. I can only tell you that the decision to remove that option is contrary to industry best practice. At the moment, I'm going to be notifying our customers that the 850 is not recommended for business use. That's unfortunate, because I like the product a lot, and will probably continue to use it at home. My network security company specializes in vulnerability assessment, and one thing we stress is denying attackers information whenever possible. Broadcasting SSID's (especially when combined with poor password choices) is unnecessarily helpful to attackers. You should Google "wardriving" if you aren't familiar. One of our team members demonstrated it for a Washington television audience by driving past Washington National Airport and logging into their admin network - which he would never have seen if they hadn't been broadcasting the SSID! This is the kind of option that needs to be available so that customers can make informed, intelligent decisions about their network security posture. I would appreciate your help in taking this issue to Engineering so someone can correct this mistake."
All I can suggest to others on this thread is that we continue to ping Netgear Engineering on this issue, and spread the word as best we can to get them to wake up.
"At the moment, I'm going to be notifying our customers that the 850 is not recommended for business use."
You are aware that this Orbi AX is a home class router, not a business class router. So if some are using it in a business class environment, the would be using the incorrect class of router. Any kind of home class router should NOT be used in a business environment.
I got a similar response to one of my queries as well. They seem to fail to not recognize an other use of SSID broadcast disabling for some reason...
I would agree, having the ability to disable the SSID should be added for both security reasons and for user IoT addition operations which some users are having problems getting there IoT connected to Orbi AX. It makes it hard when IoT mfrs don't allow there setup software nor the setup mobile device to be connected to the 5Ghz band and can't get the software to setup the device and requires the setup mobile device to be connected to 2.4Ghz when technically 2.4 and 5Ghz are ON the same network. Again, this is a IoT mfr limitation. Orbi AC supports has the ability to disable SSID broadcasts for this reason. I wish the Orbi AX did as well.
Please continue to post about this here as well:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-home
Good Luck.
