The Wi-Fi network name, or also known as SSID (Service Set Identifier), is what we see in the list of available WiFi networks to try to connect to the different wireless networks with our devices, whether they are smartphones, tablets and even laptops. Any device with a WiFi network card in client mode will see the list of WiFi network names or SSIDs that the different WiFi routers and APs have configured. Do you know what is the minimum and maximum length of any SSID? Today in RedesZone we are going to explain it to you.
Minimum and maximum length of the SSID
The SSID is a 32-octet sequence included in all WiFi packets that are transmitted on the wireless network, in order to correctly identify them as part of the WiFi network to which we are connected. According to the 802.11 standard, the frame of the SSID in regards to the name, has between 0 and 32 octetsso the minimum length of the SSID will be 1 and the maximum length of the SSID will be up to 32 alphanumeric characters. The standard does not indicate which characters are compatible, so in principle, it can be any character, but we must take this with caution, we will explain why later.
A very important detail is that no SSID can be set to empty (0 characters), because an SSID with length 0 is reserved for special functions and cannot be configured on our router. The firmware of the manufacturers of WiFi routers or APs prevent the SSID from being empty, at least we have to put a characterHowever, there are models where it is necessary to put a minimum of two characters in the name of the WiFi network. In addition, in the SSID we could put a blank space and it would already be a character, but the manufacturers’ firmware generally prevents doing this, and it is mandatory that they meet certain conditions.
The maximum size of up to 32 characters yes it cannot be increased in any way, in the event that the firmware allows configuring an SSID with more than 32 characters, we will see that when saving the configuration it returns an error, it could also mean that we simply cannot put more characters. In addition, in the event that the firmware does allow it to be done, what it will do later is “truncate” the text string and leave it at the maximum 32 characters indicated by the standard. For example, in Nuclias Conenct from D-Link we can see that it only allows us to add up to 32 characters, we cannot add more than this:
Now that we know what the minimum and maximum length of the WiFi network name is, we are going to show you what characters are allowed when configuring the SSID.
Characters allowed for our SSID
The characters allowed when configuring an SSID in our WiFi router or wireless access point are all. This means that we can put any type of character, such as lowercase letters a-z, uppercase letters AZ, numbers 0-9 and also symbols and we can even put spaces. The 802.11 standard does not limit the set of characters allowed, so we can put any. However, our WiFi router or AP can impose certain rules, and that is not to use strange symbols such as double or single quotes, dollar or euro symbols and many others.
Using strange symbols could make WiFi clients not correctly recognize the name of the wireless network, and automatically return an error when connecting. This error is not because we have entered the password wrong, but it is because of the WiFi network name that we have chosen. In our case, we have had problems using strange symbols such as «, ` or ^ among others, so we do not recommend using strange symbols. The only symbols that we do recommend you use are the normal hyphen (-) and also the underscore (_) since these do not usually have problems.
