Network SSID wrongly displayed

Oblivion

Using Windows 7.

I bought a replacement wifi router today, set it up and decided to use exactly the same SSID as before ... let's call it SMITH.

Everything is up and running fine but my laptop, whilst showing the name SMITH correctly in the list of available networks, when I connect to SMITH and hover my mouse over the signal strength icon in the task bar it shows up as SMITH 2. If I click on this icon, the box opens showing all the available networks and at the top it says 'Currently connected to SMITH 2' even though my network is correctly shown as SMITH in the list below.

I can only presume that Windows has stored the settings for SMITH from the original router somewhere and sees this as the second set of settings for the same Network Name.

I've tried hunting through the menus to try and find anything that will allow me to get rid of the '2' from the displayed name but had no luck.

Anyone else experienced this and found a way to correct it please?

closed

if it's correct on the router, it will be buried in the registry, try jones instead.

Oblivion

closed wrote: »

if it's correct on the router, it will be buried in the registry, try jones instead.

Hmmm. I've just opened Regedit and searched the entire registry for any entries for SMITH 2 and nothing. All very puzzling. :think:

closed

try smith http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html

and use regscanner

Nilrem

IIRC the fact it shows it as SMITH 2 in the windows wireless thing doesn't mean anything, it's just showing that there is another network with the same SSID that windows knows about (I suspect Windows actually goes by a combination of the SSID AND the MAC address for remembering the network*).

Basically the fact it numbers it, is just it's way of letting you know it's not the same SMITH as before.



*As whilst an SSID name can be reused, the MAC is unique to a particular device, thus if windows finds an SSID name it recognises it probably checks the MAC matches as well, otherwise adds a number to make it obvious..

spannerzone

Just tried it on my Win7 PC - I also recently changed the router and used the same SSID and password and it's added a 2 to the end. The PC shows as 'blahblah 2' instead of blahblah as it did in previous router.

It's Windows just showing that it's a second wireless network it's used with the same name.

In the registry it seems to store all saved/used wifi settings:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles
mine has a bout 5 different entries for the wifi it's used.

I suppose you could make a backup then delete the entries and see what happpens.

Adjust the registry with extreme caution!

Oblivion

closed wrote: »

try smith http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html

and use regscanner

DOH! I used the wrong spelling of my SSID (it's not Smith BTW ) when using Regedit. Just gone back through Regedit and taken the '2' of all the Smith entries and it's all displaying fine now.

Now I can go to bed with a smile on my face.

spannerzone

hehehe forget what I said above then... while editing my reply you've gone and done it.

fenlander_uk

There's no need to mess with the registry. Just go to Control Panel - Network and Sharing Centre - Manage Wireless Networks and delete the old network. Windows can't reuse the same name while the old network is still there.