0

I live in a large apartment building in the U.S. with Comcast service. Pretty much anywhere in the building I can find and connect to a network with SSID "xfinitywifi", which basically means piggybacking off of someone's connection who uses a Comcast router (which requires that I am also an Xfinity subscriber). It does not use their bandwidth though and gets its own dedicated bandwidth. These networks are ubiquitous in areas served by Comcast.

Usually it works seamlessly and is convenient for non-sensitive tasks, but recently in a particular part of the building I can sometimes connect to the network but not reach the internet. The particular problematic instance of xfinitywifi seems to randomly go down for hours at a time, but because it is just someone else's router I have no access to it. There are other known good instances of "xfinitywifi" which reach the same place but one of my Windows devices always tends to prefer the bad one.

I know the BSSID of the bad access point. I would like to block this particular access point, but I cannot find any way in Windows 10 to block a network by BSSID or prioritize some over others. Blocking by SSID can be accomplished via netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="xfinitywifi" but that is no help because the good networks I am trying to connect to also have SSID "xfinitywifi". How can I block this particular access point and force Windows 10 to pick another one when I try to connect to "xfinitywifi"?

Joe D
  • 3

1 Answers1

0

You need to ask your Landlord what SSID / BSSID you should use.

(A) To Hide or Block SSIDs you see and do not want use the following NETS WLAN commands.

The information is all below. Information on BSSID is also there.

This should stop Windows 10 from displaying other networks.

(B) Another thing you can do is delete all connections, restart and just connect to your connection. Do not connect to any others.

(C) If (as you later said) you want to go anywhere in building and not see some SSID / BSSID access points, you need to equip yourself with a good sniffer, knowledge of what you are seeing, and good knowledge of NETSH WLAN commands, especially the use of mode=bssid .

You should be able to block at BSSID with:

netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="12345" networktype=infrastructure ,

which includes BSSIDs specified as MAC address or other.

Use netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid to see bssid included within a SSID.

(D) Finally, delete ALL wireless networks and restart your computer. Connect ONLY to your network.

Now, if you move about the building, either do not connect or connect to a known good point.

Do not connect to any point and this may stop the need to block networks.

Also look at:

How to prevent computer connecting to weak BSSIDs

See BSSID

Packets bound for devices within the WLAN need to go to the correct destination. The SSID keeps the packets within the correct WLAN, even when overlapping WLANs are present. However, there are usually multiple access points within each WLAN, and there has to be a way to identify those access points and their associated clients. This identifier is called a basic service set identifier (BSSID) and is included in all wireless packets.

You will need to find a way to see / identify this in a wirelss sniffer.

Your landlord may have given you a connection sheet to follow and that will help you.

============================

Block a WiFi Network

Windows doesn’t provide any options in the Settings app or Control Panel, but you can easily block a WiFi network using the Command Prompt. To block a WiFi network, all you need is the network name or SSID. You can get a WiFi network name by looking at the network connections pop-up. (Click on the network icon in the taskbar.) When you block a WiFi network, it will no longer appear in the network connections pop-up, and you won’t be able to connect to it.

To start, search for “Command Prompt” in the Start menu, right-click on it and select the option “Run as Administrator.”

In the command prompt window, execute the below command to block the WiFi network. Replace “WiFi Network Name” with the actual SSID or network name.

netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="WiFi Network Name" networktype=infrastructure

As soon as you execute the command, said WiFi network will be added to the blacklist filter, and you will be no longer be able to see or connect to it.

In the future, if you want to allow the WiFi network, all you have to do is to delete the entry from the blacklist. To do that, execute the below command while replacing “WiFi Network Name” with the actual blocked network name.

netsh wlan delete filter permission=block ssid="WiFi Network Name" networktype=infrastructure

If you don’t remember the actual name, then use the below command. It will list the names of all the allowed and blocked WiFi networks.

netsh wlan show filters

To see all the networks your Windows 10 or 11 machine sees:

netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid