No way to hide SSID on TL-WA850RE~ it can't make it.

Rediculus in this age of security awareness to 1) not be able to hide the SSID and 2) not be able to use special characters.

When will a firmware update be release to fix these major security flaws? Any router in the last 10 years supports this!

I wouldn't botehr too much with hiding your ssid, since it is pointless and a pain in the neck at times: http://lifehacker.com/5636856/is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure
Also hiding essid's on routers, isn't part of the standard, although a lot of routers can do it.

Adding special chars into the ssid doesn't add security either and some (sometimes older) devices then have issues connecting to it as well.

You could alternatively if you are bend on having an hidden ssid on the thing, flash openwrt on it. But that voids the warranty and is harder to understand then the current firmware.
Openwrt can be used as wifi repeater as well.
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=46859

I actually meant special characters in the password for the admin ID. You can't really have a strong password to protect admin access without special characters. Has anyone tried openwrt? I'll have to search this forum for results on that.

Read very carefull https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=46859 FriedZombie it's a Openwrt member that has the knowledge on this subject and will help you along the way

beprahst wrote

I actually meant special characters in the password for the admin ID. You can't really have a strong password to protect admin access without special characters. Has anyone tried openwrt? I'll have to search this forum for results on that.

Yes special chars in the ssid and passphrase both work with openwrt. I have special chars myself in the passphrase
in that same thread a youtube video on how to create a wireless repeater

Also the admin pass you can set anything you like :) (only on openwrt the user is root)