Find out whats broadcasting hidden SSID

Question

I live far away on the country side and the last 2 days i see a WiFi with a hidden SSID and i can't figure out were it comes from.

I don't have any neighbor living close enough either.

Any suggestions on how to find the physical unit?

Solution

Use a wifi-enabled phone. Get an app that shows you wifi signal strength. Get a scale map of your property.

Choose some specific points of your property, maybe choose 3 equidistant points from the center (forming a triangle), and plot out the signal strength measured at each point. You can then choose three more points closer to the center that are on the same radii as the original 3 points. Take more measurements.

At this point you will probably be able to guess if the signal emitter is between your property center and the property perimeter. RF signal strength falls off with distance.

Comments

[Admin]

You can't really see a wifi with a hidden SSID, otherwise it wouldn't be hidden. Make sure it is not your own sender that somehow has trouble. Disable your router or accesspoint or whatever you use for wifi and see if that network goes or not.

[Admin]

@LPChip: one can "see a hidden ssid" in the sense that to see an SSID, there must be something transmitting. I assume the OP means he is using software that shows something transmitting on e.g. channel 6, but has no advertised SSID.

[Admin]

I see that something is transmitting without a name. And it is still transmitting with my router shutdown.

[Admin]

@lpchip APs with hidden SSIDs still transmit just as many beacons and probe responses and every other kind of packet as any other AP. They just don't fill in the SSID field of any beacons and some probe responses. But they still always put their BSSID (wireless MAC address) in every packet. Also, the SSID is sent in the clear when a client associates.

[Admin]

WiFi Analyzer apps can show (HiddenSSID) on the same band as your access point... because it is your access point. It seems to be a connectivity monitor feature or your internet service provider supplying a hotspot service. IMHO not a duplicate question

[Johnny Broberg]

Tried Wifi Analyzer on my phone and will see what i come up to.

[Yorik]

it is probably going to wind up being a cell phone tower or a phone company or power company device.