Re: hidden ssid's

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 23:20 -0500, Bill Moss wrote:
> I have the Nov 17 CVS development distribution working with a fully 
> update installation of FC3 on a IBM T42 with version 0.16 of the ipw2200 
> driver. So far it is working nicely on my home network which broadcasts 
> its SSID, except that the signal strength bar in the Info popup is 
> empty. I think this is an issue for the ipw2200 driver and I have 
> submitted a bug report.

Yes, the ipw2200 drivers don't report _any_ signal strength for scanned
access points, and the ipw2100 drivers don't either.  What's worse, last
I checked the ipw2100 drivers didn't do it for your current Access Point
either.  Driver bug.

> Next, week I will be back at Clemson University, which is covered by a 
> set of Cisco AP's all using the same hidden essid and the same WEP key. 
> Now that I see how information is being stored in gconf, I am wondering 
> if I can make a network entry that will include the list of MAC 
> addresses that I usually see on campus along with the key. It is not 
> clear to me that hidden essid's will work, hence this message. Also, can 
> you tell from a gconf entry whether a network is trusted or preferred?

Versions in CVS for a while have done this, after the first time you
connect to the AP (either from the menu or with Other Network) NM will
cache the MAC address of the AP in GConf, and next time it scans for the
network it should show up in your menu automatically, even though its
hidden (namely because while the ESSID is hidden, the MAC address is
still broadcast).  I've been using it for a while, seems to work quite
well.

I've pushed an update from CVS to FC4, and if that's stable enough I
will update the copy of NetworkManager in FC3.  You could try the FC4
RPMs though, they might not have problems with FC3.

Dan