Connecting to Hidden Wireless Networks using KDE’s Networkmanager

It is not without some surprise and.. disappointment.. that I discovered that KDE’s networkmanager frontend appears to be still having trouble with hidden wireless networks. It used to be so when we used KNetworkManager, and now that we’ve moved on to the shiny new plasmoid, the problem… stayed. Oh well, the common advice that hidden SSID’s are not useful and that one should be setting up WPA encryption for true security is likely sound, but for folks like me who happen live under already-configured hidden networks, we’ll need to use a workaround for now.

To allow the networkmanagement plasmoid to detect and connect to a hidden wireless network called, say, “hiddennetwork”, open a terminal and type the following command:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning essid hiddennetwork

Note that you need to replace wlan0 with your wireless interface. This is usually either wlan0 or eth1. You can use the iwconfig command to find out what your wireless interface is called. Of course, also replace “hiddennetwork” with your desired hidden network.

If all goes well, your hidden network should now appear in the networkmanagement plasmoid, and you should now be able to connect to it like any other network.