Service Set Identifier (SSID) (noun)


Rick Howard: The word is: S S I D.  


Rick Howard: Spelled: S for service, S for set, and ID for identifier. 


Rick Howard: Definition: the name of a wireless access point.  


Rick Howard: Example sentence: The user connected to wifi after clicking on the network's SSID.  


Rick Howard: Origin and context: SSIDs are the wireless access names that are within range of your phone, laptop, or pad when you're trying to connect to the internet. They are broadcast by the wireless routers located in the coffee shop, the hotel, or in your home. 


Rick Howard: According to Chris Hoffman at How to Geek, an SSID can be up to 30 characters in length. Some special characters like spaces, the underscore, periods, and dashes are also allowed. SSIDs are also case sensitive. 


Rick Howard: Home routers usually come with default SSIDs, such as NetGear or Linksys, but these should be changed by the owner to prevent overlaps with other nearby networks. 


Rick Howard: Nerd reference: On the Professor Messer YouTube channel, e channel that, among other things, teaches the CompTIA security training course, professor Messer talks about the security implications of broadcasting your home SSID. 


Professor Messer: If you've ever noticed when you searched for a wireless access point, you were able to find the name of the access point. It pops it up on the screen. What access point would you like to connect to? Maybe Linksys or default or NetGear or a name that's very specific that someone has programmed into their wireless access point. 


Professor Messer: Well, being able to identify wireless access points so easily and connect to them, also brings up some security concerns. Should we really be broadcasting the fact that we have a wireless access point here? So one of the things you can do is of course, change the SSID, the service set identifier, to something that's not quite so obvious. Make sure it doesn't use a default name like LinkSys, and maybe not even give it a name that's referring back to your organization given something very generic. You can also disable the broadcasting completely. This is a configuration setting from my access point. Here's a checkbox. Enable SSID broadcast or not. I can turn it on or off.  


Rick Howard: You could disable broadcasting your home SSID sure, that would be a smart thing to do. Or you could have some fun with it.  


Rick Howard: You know your neighbors are gonna see your broadcast SSID at some point. So here are my top five favorite neighborhood SSID names.  


Rick Howard: Number one, FBI surveillance van number 37. 


Rick Howard: Number two, use this one mom.  


Rick Howard: Number three, click to permit video surveillance.  


Rick Howard: Number four, enter your ATM pin for the internet.  


Rick Howard: And my all time favorite neighborhood SSID name is Scrotie Mc Booger balls.  


Rick Howard: Word Notes is written by Tim Nodar, Executive Produced by Peter Kilpe, and edited by John Petrik, and me, Rick Howard. The mix, sound design, and original music have all been crafted by the ridiculously talented Elliott Peltzman. Thanks for listening.