How to hide Hotspot SSID and make it Private on Windows 11

If you are like me and must stay online more often than not, the WiFi hotspot is your best friend. However, nobody likes to announce their hotspot’s name when using it, as it’s mostly just our name. Therefore, in this post, we will learn how to hide the hotspot SSID and make it Private on Windows 11/10.

Hide Hotspot SSID and make it Private on Windows 11

Since Windows 11/10 does not provide a way to hide the hotspot SSID and make it private, we will need to do it through our phones, where we enable the hotspot. To do so, follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Hide the hotspot SSID using your phone
2. Hide the WiFi SSID (Optional)
3. Connect to the hidden network on Windows 11

Let us talk about them in detail.

1] Hide the hotspot SSID using your phone

First, we need to see how to hide the hotspot’s SSID on your phone. This will just create a hidden network that one can connect to by entering the correct SSID. To do so, follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Connections.
3. Scroll down a bit and look for Mobile Hotspot & Tethering.
4. Tap on the Mobile Hotspot and then on the hotspot name.
5. Click on the down arrow associated with Advanced.
6. Now, turn on the toggle for the Hidden network.

The steps mentioned earlier are exclusive to devices with OneUI (Samsung); however, they will be similar for other Android brands as well. Do keep in mind that iPhones have no provision to hide the SSID.

2] Hide the WiFi SSID (Optional)

If you have Wi-Fi, you can hide your SSID using the Wi-Fi portal. To do so, you need to first go to the Wi-Fi login page. Then, just enter the local IP address in the search bar of your browser and hit Enter. You will see a Hide SSID checkbox. Tick it, and then save the settings.

3] Connect to the hidden network on Windows 11

Finally, we are going to connect to the hidden network. To do so, first, you need to fetch the SSID, which is nothing but the network name. You can go to the hotspot settings and jot down the network name. Once you have that, click on the WiFi icon placed at the bottom right corner of the screen, click on Hidden Network, enter the network name in “Enter the name (SSID) for the network”, and click on Next.

Hopefully, now you can connect to create a hidden network and connect to it.

Read: How to hide or block neighbor’s WiFi Networks on Windows PC

How do I hide the SSID on Windows 11?

If you want to hide or block a SSID from appearing on your WiFi network, open the Command Prompt as an administrator and run the following command.

netsh wlan show networks

Now, note the name and infrastructure of the WiFi you want to hide. Once you have done this, run the following command.

netsh wlan add filter permission = block ssid = <SSIDNAME> networktype = infrastructure

Make sure to replace the <SSIDNMAE> variable with the actual name of the WiFi.

How do I create a hidden WiFi hotspot?

To create a hidden WiFi hotspot using your phone, you need to go to the hotspot settings on your phone, then to the Advanced option, and allow the hidden network. We recommend you check out the aforementioned steps to do the same. However, if you want to hide the WiFi from your router, go to the router’s settings, and enable the hidden network.