How can I hide my Mac's Airport WiFi?

Are you saying that you have an AirPort separate from your MBP? MBPs don’t have AirPorts inside of them :>)

if you are setting up the AirPort, simply set it up, theough the AirPort Utility, as a closed network that needs a password to join.

Under “About this Mac>Network>Airport” the listing shows an Airport Extreme card. Every Driod and iPad in the area light up when I turn it on.

Try this —- If you log into your Airport Extreme, go to Wireless tab. Then click on Wireless Options. You’ll see an option to Create a Closed Network. That will disable the SSID from being Broadcasted.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a Wireless tab. Where should I be looking? I opened the “Airport Utility” and also looked in System Preferences. No luck.

You go into your Utilities Folder that is located in Applications, you’ll see a program called Airport Utility.

Use that program to access your Airport Extreme and you can customize it to your liking.

Caveat : Turning off the SSID won’t make you invisible.

Maybe you won’t show up in a stock install of OS X, iOS, or Windoze, but you may show up in some flavors of Linux (including Android) even without tweaking, and if someone is actively looking then MAC filtering is the only truly effective way to lock people out. Passwords can work, but not always, especially WEP. (Yeah, MAC addresses can be spoofed, but not as easily as sniffing passwords, and anyone who goes that far will likely find a way to screw you no matter what anyways.)

I would not worry about hiding it unless your boss is so technologically inept that he actually believes that “security through obscurity” really works. I would concentrate on making sure that people just can’ tdo anything with it when they find it (and they will).

I have to wonder though…. smartphones and some iPads already have their own internet connection anyways, so what are you actually accomplishing here?

We have a mix of iPads, some that are internet capable and some that are WiFi only. We don’t have WiFi at the office for a variety of reasons and there are those that are hungry for this kind of access. To be honest, there is one executive that they want to keep away from a WiFi connection in particular… politics… Security through obscurity will work for him. I’m just following orders.

Okay, just checking to see what your security needs really are.