No longer are the days of Wi-Fi networks with vanilla names like “NETGEAR” or “Home Wireless.” Not only are people becoming more self-expressive and creative with their network titles, BBC is reporting that people are using it as a passive aggressive way to tell off their neighbors, from messages as simple as “Shut up” to “We can hear you having sex.”
It’s a pretty hilarious way to nerd rage, but if you live in a smaller community, it won’t be long until your neighbors uncover your anonymity. But in a city like New York where you can find at least 15 networks in a single location, or a college dorm where kids are constantly sending sneaky messages between their hall-mates, the rise of this trendy expressionism sure beats leaving Post-It notes at your neighbor’s door.
Passive aggressive Wi-Fi messages have all ranged anywhere from noise complaints (“Shut The Barking Dog Up No 7,” “Stop slamming the door!!!”) to actual Wi-Fi network exchanges between neighbors, such as ”You’re music is annoying!” met by by ”Your grammar is more annoying!”
People have also been using Wi-Fi titles as a way to express allegiance to a certain causes, such as political parties or veganism. A recent study by OpenSignal reveals that New York City alone contains pretty mixed voters, from Wi-Fi names like “Obama4President” to “ImpeachObama.” It’s another way the Internet provides a space for people to say what’s on their mind without the awkward confrontation, unless you’re that fed up and feel the need to barge over and scream at your neighbors in real life.
Have you had any experience with ridiculous Wi-Fi names? My college friend certainly has, when he named his Wi-Fi network “Free Public Wi-Fi” only to password protect it. I’ve also spotted pretty bizarre names from “WhatsWrongWithTwoGirlsKissing” (with the password being “nothing”) to “Go Away.” You’ve gotta admit, however, that these passive aggressive names are pretty inspirational. I might go home and change my Wi-Fi name now.
Image Credits: PassiveAggressiveNotes.com, BBC, OpenSignal

At work we use “The Rebel Alliance” and “The Empire.” Makes joining fun!
I had one that said “Free Viruses”
My wifi names is CIA Surveillance Van and FBI Surveillance Van. It’s funny cause my neighbor owns a black van.
Other popular ones include
Hide your kids hide your wifi
Abraham Linksys
Use this one mom
I used to connect to my a persons wi fi, he then changed the name to “stop useing my internet” so I reconnected and changed the name to “put a password on it” he then put a password on it :/ LOL
All this when one of the first security measures you should take is disabling SSID broadcast. Sigh.
As if that was a security mesure… Sigh.
Any script kiddie with a linux boot disk can find out your hidden SSID in less than 5 minutes. Hiding it just makes it more attractive to them.
I have a spare router I plug into a timer that turns on for 10 minutes every hour to display the SSID
“FBI Surveilance Van”
on the default channel 6, so it knocks my neighbors offline since they never bothered to change theirs.
I use mostly 5GHz anyway, because of the mental midgets using channels other than 1, 6 or 11 in the 2.4GHz band, meaning their signal steps on 2 of the 3 non-overlapping channels in that band.
The only decent one I’ve seen was “Get your own internet!”, and I’m pretty sure it was my household downloading movies and streaming content that eventually led to that SSID haha
One of my neighbors currently has “Buck the ****eyes” Those asterisk are in place of a naughty word.
Can you guess which college town I live in?
Ann Arbor FTW
I have it on good authority Columbus and East Lansing landscape contractors have been doing lowball bids in the area just so they can plant Stinking Buckeye trees whenever they do a job… so good luck walking around with bare feet in about 10 years. :-)
I use FBI Surveillance and it works really great. Someone was trying to break into my router… They have now stopped. I like that. I have a couple more that I will change to after a while
Just one that I’ve seen: “Pretty Fly for a Wi-Fi”.