Fixing wireless "hidden network" problem on Windows 7

Anonymous
2009-12-02T05:09:46+00:00

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

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2009-12-09T11:29:14+00:00

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

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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  1. Anonymous
    2012-01-21T22:49:17+00:00

    THANK YOU wahtrends for posting this!!! It worked for me too.

    I have been troubleshooting this freaking problem with Vista not connecting to a "hidden" wireless network for DAYS.  Allowing the MAC address worked for me - finally!!! 

    (Note to others - I also had to enter in my host computer MAC addresses, as it lost the connection when doing this.)

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-01-07T18:46:56+00:00

    No Probs ThreeDeadFlies.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-01-03T06:00:19+00:00

    Dude! That was it exactly!!! Nice answer! I wouldn't have thought of it -- I might have stumbled onto it in trying different things but you saved me a ton of time! Thanks again!

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-01-03T00:45:26+00:00

    The hidden network error is because the router was configured to connect only a certain number of computers.  So if it was configured to only connect 5 pc's and you are the sixth then although you would see the access point to connect to it will not be able to connect the sixth pc and therefore you will get the error.

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