# USB Wifi Adapter connectivity mystery



## jhovanec (Dec 19, 2014)

I have a Buffalo WLI-UC-GNM USB wifi adapter on a FreeBSD 10.0 machine. I configured the machine at work and was able to pick up a wireless signal at work without any problem. So I brought the machine home and changed the settings in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to match my home network's ssid and psk. To my surprise I could not connect to my home wifi as it showed no signal or connectivity.

The odd issue is that this is a dual boot machine and when I boot into Windows the USB wifi has decent signal strength and has connectivity. I tripled check my ssid and psk settings on the FreeBSD side, but I still am unable to connect.

Anyone have any guidance for what the issue may be or other steps to take?


----------



## SirDice (Dec 19, 2014)

Which driver does it use? Did you perhaps forget to accept the license?


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 19, 2014)

Does the home router use a "hidden" SSID?


----------



## jhovanec (Dec 19, 2014)

It uses the run driver which I had used and tested at work. I don't recall about accepting a license, but wouldn't that have caused issues while trying to configure at my workplace?

For the second question, yes my home router has a hidden SSID. Is that my culprit?


----------



## SirDice (Dec 19, 2014)

jhovanec said:


> I don't recall about accepting a license, but wouldn't that have caused issues while trying to configure at my workplace?


It could but you may just have set the sysctl(8) without actually saving it. So the next time you boot the license isn't accepted.




> For the second question, yes my home router has a hidden SSID. Is that my culprit?


I'm not sure but it does appear to complicate connecting to it. Hiding the SSID doesn't really improve the security of your wireless, the SSID is transmitted with every frame "in the clear". So it's easy to obtain if there's at least one client associated. You may want to consider not hiding the SSID as it really only makes it more difficult for clients to connect to it.


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 19, 2014)

"Hidden" SSIDs require setting

```
scan_ssid=1
```
in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.

As far as security, it's worse than it seems.  The client might broadcast the entire list of known SSIDs to get a connection.


----------



## jhovanec (Jan 6, 2015)

After reading up on hidden SSIDs I opted to turn it off. Once I did everything worked fine and that solved my connection problems.


----------

