What is the name of a wireless network broadcast by an access point?

• A. BSSID
• B. ESSID
• C. MAC Address
• D. SSID

Answer: (D)

The network name broadcast by an access point is the SSID, which stands for Service Set Identifier. This is the human-friendly name that devices scan for to identify and connect to a wireless network, and it is what you see in your Wi‑Fi list (like “HomeNetwork” or “GuestWiFi”). The beacon frames from the AP include this SSID so nearby clients can discover the network. The BSSID, by contrast, is the MAC address of the AP’s wireless interface, used to distinguish one AP from another within the same network. The MAC address is a hardware address, not the network name. ESSID is sometimes used in different contexts to refer to the extended service set name, but the standard term for the network name broadcast by the AP is SSID.