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Bristolian

Bristolian

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Hi folks,

I recently moved house and had Virgin Media come along and re-install all my equipment. In the process they installed a new modem/router with a different SSID.

I have connected all of our WiFi devices (laptops, tablets, phones, etc.) okay and they are all on the list of connected devices showing in the modem/router. The only PC that is connected via Ethernet is my desktop machine and whilst it is connected to a network it doesn't show the same SSID "name" as all the others. Also I didn't have to tell the PC which network to use or give it a password (which is different from the old one at our previous home).

Despite this, I can see and access all the other devices (incl. NAS) from the desktop PC so my question is; does it matter that the name showing on the network and sharing centre screen is different?

The PC is running Windows 10 x64 as are both of the laptops on the network and all are fully up to date with patches, etc..
 
If you have set up a home network and everything is working OK then don't worry.
On the old routers you gave the network a name " Fred or Whatever" the new ones simply use the VM number off the router and either 2G or 5G.
My phone shows VM********* 5G, my wifes PC shows VM ( same no) 2G and my tablet shows VM same no as my phone
And my main PC is connected via Ethernet cable
 
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I wouldn't worry about it, SSID is a wireless networking term used to differentiate one wireless network from another and is irrelevant to a wired networking device attached via Ethernet.
 
It sounds to me that at your previous house, the desktop PC was connected via wireless and Ethernet, which is possible but unnecessary. As Broc said, don't worry about it. :)
 
broc said:
I wouldn't worry about it, SSID is a wireless networking term used to differentiate one wireless network from another and is irrelevant to a wired networking device attached via Ethernet.
Click to expand...

^^^ This. Wired ethernet doesn't use SSID.

A
 
Wired network cables at home require no further security authentication because you have a phsyical connection to the router.

Without protection for the wireless side, anyone can connect to your network (if within range obviously).

Dougie.
 
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Cheers for the responses folks and the reassurance that I don't need to worry about it :)

All I have to do now is call VM and get them to make it faster - should be 200Mbps but struggling to get half of that at the moment :(
 
The no password etc. is a Win 10 thingy!

I just built a Win10 pc and it connected, hard wired, without any need for user name or password, in two houses!
 
It's usually worth changing the SSID to something other than the factory supplied one.
Same with the password.

Using the default SSID is a signal to war drivers that you are probably using the default password and they will have some knowledge thus of how long the password is and what types of characters are in it. This makes it slightly easier for a hacker to brute force their way into your network.

Use a good strong password (mix of upper/lower case characters, numbers and punctuation) and include non-dictionary words. At least 14 characters in length.
 
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