Testing Stealth Mode for Wifi Network on Mac

Note: A solution for my vunerable wifi network connected to Disklavier piano without password protection.

Sometimes it is necessary to have an insecure wifi network to connect to other devices in your home. This leaves your network for your computers vunerable for others to use as a free wifi hotspot in your neighborhood. I have been testing the 'stealth mode' option available on my Mac as a means to run my wifi network, but make it 'invisible' to others nearby.

It seems to be working. My wifi network is NOT showing up as an option on my iPhone or iPad. However, I am able to connect to this so called invisible or stealth network as I know the exact name that I have assigned to that network. I merely go into the system preferences on my iPhone or iPad and select wifi network and 'Other' and type in the exact name of the network to connect.

Here are the steps to setting up or creating a closed network:

To set up your wifi network on your Mac to 'invisible' or stealth mode it is necessary to run the application called 'Airport Utility'.

Select the network from the left hand column that you wish to put into stealth mode or to make invisible to others. Select 'Manual Setup'.


Select the 'Wireless' tab and click on 'Wireless Network Options'



A dialog box will appear, click on 'Create a closed network' and 'Done'


Select 'Update' to save changes.

At this point I also rebooted my Mac to make sure that all the changes took effect, not sure if that was necessary. When I checked my iPhone and iPad the network was NOT visible. I selected Other and typed in the exact name and was able to connect without a problem.

Next notify the members of your family that you have made some changes to the network, so that they don't panic when they are unable to connect via wifi using their iphones, ipads and computers in your home. Tweet