One of our SSID's is hidden. I do not want clients to 'Auto Join' this network. I only want it to be available to them. I have setup a simple configuration profile and pushed it to a few test clients. I have set the following:
- SSID
- Hidden Network: enabled
- Auto Join: disabled
- Security Type: WPA/WPA2
- Password: [set appropriately]
The problem: some Mac OS clients see this "hidden" SSID in the Wireless menu (thanks to the configuration profile), while others do not.
I able to reproduce this issue consistently. When the configuration profile is installed, the SSID is added to the bottom of the list of 'Preferred Network'. If the SSID is not one of the first 15 preferred wireless networks, it does not appear in the Wireless menu. If I move the SSID up the list, so that it is within the first 15 preferred networks (index positions 0 through 14), the becomes available in the Wireless menu, almost immediately.
If I then move the SSID down the list so that it is at least the 16th preferred network in the list (index position >= 15), the SSID will eventually disappear from the Wireless menu. The process of disappearing from the list can take some time (several minutes, sometimes).
Is this expected behavior? Has anyone else seen this? Unless someone has a better idea, I plan to workaround the issue with a policy that uses /usr/sbin/networksetup to set the index of this SSID in the preferred network list.
MacBookPro9,1 (15-inch, Mid 2012)
OS X 10.9.4
