Reliance Jio Fiber Router are broadcasting hidden SSID even when Wi-Fi is disabled

lucifer said:

Where does it show as mobile hotspot?

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On all my connected devices - Honor & Moto smartphones, Mi Tv, iPad

pachabhut said:

This is under discussion at several places online. some have suggested that these SSID are for Jio mesh system which would auto connect (seemingly magically for the customer) over these channel. They may also be used later for more IoT connected hardware to be launched by Jio.

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Whatever it may be. I should have the ability to disable it if I want to. Especially when I'm not using Wifi.

@Dominic you expect Jio to play fair?

Techtips said:

Something is seriously wrong with the latest firmware. Was 2-3 mins but when I restarted last night took nearly 30 mins for me. Same today morning...

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Was facing same issue since today morning. Called the guy who had installed it and he fixed it remotely in a couple of minutes !!!

@mate That's awesome. Unfortunately I don't have any such engineer in my area (Noida). Moreover they take at least 4 days to respond to a customer care complaint. I guess I'll wait it out then.

We can't find hidden ssid name without any active client connected to it. Till that what's this hidden WiFi is for is mystery

So I arranged a tech visit at my home regarding some routing issues and this hidden SSID thing, the guy who visited took someone on the call who seemed to be a knowledgeable person and he told me that JIO is facing trouble with with some of the newly issued ONTs ever since JIO has launched these new BB plans, they are not sure weather these issues are due to software or hardware and hence they updated the devices with a diagnostic firmware which might be the cause of it, they have another update in the works that apparently plans to solve the aforementioned issues.

I certainly hope so. I can't have a router constantly emitting secret WiFi signals without my permission.

In my case it is even broadcasting hidden SSID as "visible" regardless of the wifi state being enabled or disabled. I have "Broadcast SSID" set to "Disabled" for all the APs (both for the ones enabled and disabled) yet all of the SSIDs are visible in AP Scan across devices. Seems like a firmware side glitch that changes nothing when the SSID Broadcast / Enable / Disabled settings are toggled using the Router WebUI / MyJIO App or Website. Yet again firmware version is "SRCMTF1_JCO4032_R1.28.1" as reported by others. Everyone should make an effort to raise a complaint to get it patched asap.

I am pretty sure it's a backend/firmware issue hence I am hesitant to arrange a tech visit just to waste mine and the technician's time just to check the optical power and find out that it is fine. You are right ever since the new plans I have been facing this hidden SSID/ low download speed (sometimes close to 5mbps)/ high packet loss issue. Really hope they fix it or roll back to previous version.

I'm quite annoyed by the fact that this router is consistently keeping those hidden SSIDs up, because its interfering with the actual wireless access points I'm using. I use these ISP provided shitty routers/modems as dumb devices, and these are connected to load balancer, which distributes the internet to all switches and wireless APs.

@Techtips I think you must have turned on one of the feature like firewall, or accounting on the router. These shitty routers are too underpowered for the features they seemingly offer. If you turn anything on, it can't keep up with the bandwidth. To get maximum bandwidth, you need to turn all firewall options off, IGMP Proxy to off, Content Filtering off, UPnP off, set DMZ IPv4 to your load balancer IP(in case you're using one).

One more thing I seem to can't turn off is "DMS server" I don't want this dumb router to be serving any content on my network, but unable to turn that feature off.

Now consider the fact that all your neighbors suddenly start broadcasting such hidden SSIDs. Without them even realising that they're doing that. You'll end up with so much interference that WiFi communication would be least reliable and you'll be forced to use wired connection with all your devices. Its actually happening here, with 3 of my neighbors broadcasting Jio's hidden SSIDs, and it has reduced the effective range of my wireless APs in half, because of noice/interefence.

Thinking of putting the Jio router in Faraday cage/cages built to block 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bandwidths.

@gagan0123 Exactly the problem. Interference is too much. Even if I somehow wrap my router in a Faraday cage my neighbours having JioFiber won't. I have ~4 neighbours broadcasting jio hidden SSID's. The WiFi speeds are shit all day.

There is one trick you all can use ... lower down the transmit power and change the channel on Jio ONT

Steps:

Open Jio ONT >> Type Basic in search bar at top right corner
You will get two results for “Basic Configuration 2ghz” and “5ghz” which are hidden otherwise ... open them and change the settings to your need.

I changed the channel and turned down the transmit power to lowest possible, it has helped me.

@fibergrid Your solution works for me. Thanks for putting in the efforts and finding it out. I just hope there was a way to actually turn it off, but yes, lowering its power is also helping with the interference. Will be creating a screencast to share with my neighbors now 🙂

fibergrid said:

There is one trick you all can use ... lower down the transmit power and change the channel on Jio ONT

Steps:

Open Jio ONT >> Type Basic in search bar at top right corner
You will get two results for “Basic Configuration 2ghz” and “5ghz” which are hidden otherwise ... open them and change the settings to your need.

I changed the channel and turned down the transmit power to lowest possible, it has helped me.

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That's what I did to temporarily mitigate this nightmare.