Fixing wireless "hidden network" problem on Windows 7

Anonymous

I've read a post by a previous user who seemed to be having a similar problem as me, but the response he received didn't help solve the problem and I suspect this to be a genuine bug in Windows 7, but that remains to be seen.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/0d9e680f-8025-4863-9242-f990c64ea8bd <- a link to the aforementioned thread.

Connecting to my wireless network (which has been online for years and served dozens of machines no problem), yesterday I attempted to connect running Windows 7 and received the following error message in my troubleshooting dialog: "Windows can't connect to the hidden network."

More specifically: "This network is marked as a "hidden" network and is either not in range of this computer or the wireless settings saved on this computer do not match the settings of the network."

My network is not hidden, SSID broadcasting is on, I am using a valid key and the network has full strength from my wireless connection utility. Does anyone know how to fix this problem or why it seems to be only happening on Windows 7, and only reporting that the problem is that the network is hidden?

Thanks

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Anonymous

Do you use WEP encryption?

Maybe I will answer to your question using google results. When you get to the last page of results for

"This network is marked as a hidden" (you will find 3 pages - 24 results)
"This network is marked as a hidden" wep (2 pages - 14 results)

Do you see some correlation? Majority of results include information about WEP. Some of topics were never answered. Those one were the solution was found include suggestion about changing WEP encryption.

Try to set another security type in your router's settings and use it in your network setting under Windows 7. I'm using security type: WPA2, and encryption type: AES and everything works fine.

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44 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-07-20T10:25:21+00:00

I T I S!
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Anonymous

2010-05-06T04:20:14+00:00

These same sympt occurred on my laptop immediately after Windows Update ran. The machine had been connected to my home wireless N network only moments earlier when it downloaded the updates! Then suddenly "Cannot connect to hidden network". I rolled back the driver on my Dell Broadcom 1505 WLAN bgn card to the previous version (before automatic update) and instantly connected again without issue.

This appears to be a DRIVER issue for me. The Microsoft driver 4.176.75.21 works fine. The Broadcom driver 5.30.21.0 will not allow the card to connect.
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Anonymous

2010-02-12T08:44:31+00:00

hehe Brand new comp with WIRELESS N ????? MAn I can post here forever hehe
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Anonymous

2010-02-12T08:43:24+00:00

as I mentioned it happend with Vista as well but only the vista/7 comps that have WIRELESS N Capability ,the Wireless B/G works fine but any comp i get that has wireless N as well as b/g They just have problems. I have also found if you change your router Model as mentioned in my post above one of my clients ended up Trading me their 100 dollar router <that works great on all my Vista not wireless and xp machines> for my 30 dollar one .,as for hardwireing Yes all works great no matter what router I use But people buy laptops to be mobile , I somewhat agree with mariav but I have just installed a wireless B/G card in my box windows 7 Desktop comp and still same old CAnt connect to Hidden Network Miggys Place put same wireless card in vista comp I connect to my wep connection as it always has been HMMM More testing ill get back to yas ,
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