When did you buy the device?
Frankly speaking, as V1 is not new anymore and maybe it is discontinued, you may not expect any newer firmware for V1 any more.
You may report it here to see how TP-LINK people say about your problem. http://www.tp-link.com/en/Support/contact/

I bought it almost a year ago and it was lying in its box until I set it up for what I need.

I honestly didn't expect a new FW for this model. I was more curious to see whether other people saw the same problem, whether there are solutions/workarounds, whether I made some silly conf mistake, and if TP-Link acknowledges this deficiency.

Supposedly, this operation mode ('wireless client') is the "standard" and recomemnded mode for when you have wired AV equipment in a living room and you want to conenct it to your "main" ISP access modem/router (in your "office") without pulling Ehernet cables all across your flat. Since that default and unsecured SSID (TP--LINK-XXX) does allow connection through it, it opens up a major security hole in my home network rendering this operation mode unacceptable. This what make me curious.

As to my own practical problem, I solved it with using the Bridge operation mode which does what I need.

Thanks

Offer

Offer, you can follow Mavis's advice to report it to TP-LINK technical support team if you want to verify it. :)

Thanks, I may do it. Unfortunately, I did send them a query (about a different matter) about a week ago and I'm still wating for an answer beyond that automated confirmation ...:-(
Don't wish to increase their load :-)

Hi Offer Pazy,

Mine was a Hardware version 1, too (the ivory colored box with the black plate in front). Have you tried the fix that I posted long ago? i.e. Enter the thing in router mode first, disable SSID broadcast (there is such an option in router mode). Don't think you need to do other settings at this point. Reboot. Now you have the thing in router mode without SSID broadcast. Then, set up the thing in client mode as usual (I suppose you are still using a computer to connect to the 743 in wired mode at this point and have access to admin). As you have observed, there is no option for no SSID broadcast in client mode, but apparently, it remembers its setting from the router mode setup. Your SSID should show up no more.

Worked for me.

Hope it does for you, too.

Hi Eduardo,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Yes, I tried essentially what you're suggesting and it didn't work (i.e. still got that annoying TP-LINK SSID).
It could be that I didn't do EXACTLY how you described it and I should try again (and if I succeed this time, I'll sure report this back). But I suspect that what I did was supposed to achive the same goal.

Yes, I am connected via wired Ethernet and can access the management panel so there is no problem making all these experiments.

Thanks again.

As an aside, I would really have prefered that TP-link docs would more clearly explain the "real" differences between the modes. For example, I assume (??) that in "wireless client" mode, wireless
cleints should not be able to access the AP (even though the wireless signal is still there in order to connect to the root AP). Only wired clients are supported. Fine. But then, if I want to also have wireless clients in this mode and have my OWN and SECURED SSID for this, I basically have to switch to a bridge mode which does that and so far I didn't notice any drawbacks with this mode.


Cheers
So I wonder what the real/fundamnetal difference between the two modes. It would have been much simpler to read it in a doc rather to deduce all this stuff from experiments. Oh, well :-(

Hi Eduardo,

Thanks again. The short update is that your suggestion worked and when I followed it to teh letter, I manage toget rid of that default SSID. So it really helped.

What made it difficult for me to debug it first (and made me very confused) is that very late in the game, I realize dthat I had a bug in my XP-based old Toshiba laptop which I used for all this
exercise. I repeatedly did "view wireless networks" to see if a ceratin SSID exists and if another went away. The bug there was that often the "cache" or whatever in teh wireless adapter of the laptop did not get cleared properly and often showed SSID that no longer were there. I have found that by disabling and then enabling that adapter, that "cahce" is cleared and the netwroks it shows are accurate. You can imagine that until I found this bug, this "tool" thre me off in all wrong directions. So now I\ve added this operation (disable/enable) to my "testing procedure" and life are much simpler.

I did verify though that the original bug I complained about was real and not due to the laptop bug. That is, when I configured the 743 as 'wireless client' in the "official" way (i.e. starting with the operation mode and not with hiding the SSID) that default SSID was still there.

One final observation if you still have patience to read :-)

From all my experiments I concluded that the "leftover junk" that kept the SSID visible was not somewhere in the device's NVRAM, but rather in the configuration file that apparently was not created properly on my first attempt. After I verified that your solution works I saved a new configuration file and then flipped back and forth between config files of diffrent modes (some which have that SSID visible) and in all cases when I restored the "good" config file of the 'wireless client' mode, that SSID was not there. (In my distant past, I dealt with QA of such devices, hence my obsession....)

This is good news since if the junk was left in the NVRAM it would mean that each time one needs to restore to factory defaults, cahnhe something, or flip config files, one would have to go thru the steps you listed rather than just reloading the appropriate config file.

Again, thanks a lot.

Offer

Good to know that it finally worked it for you. I was certainly quite shocked and annoyed when i first found out about this bug, and the "fix" was just good luck. The bug is a pretty big one and shouldn't be there in the first place, but I guess that's sort of the price we pay for getting something so functional for so little money. : )

Cheers.