Re: NetworkManager with hidden ESSID

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2006-11-01 at 10:41 +0100, Riko Wichmann wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I have a problem with NetworkManager at work, where the APs don't 
> broadcast their ESSID. At home, where I don't hide the ESSID, there is 
> no problem.

Does the AP show up in the scan list if you do a manual "iwlist ethX
scan" as root?

> So, here it goes: I'm running NetworkManager on a Dell D600 and really 
> like it, especially the dispatcher feature. However, when I'm at work, 
> the internal wireless network does not show up in the list that the 
> nm-applet provides. I can connect to it without problem using the 
> 'Connect to other wireless networks' option. Then it shows in the list. 
> However, next time I reboot the machine and look into the applet, the 
> internal network is gone again from the list. It's a WEP encrypted 
> network, if that makes any difference.
> 
> in ~/.gconf/system/networking/wireless/networks I find a configuration 
> for the network, but it never shows up. It kind of defeats the purpose 
> of NetworkManager, if you need to configure the same network all the 
> time again.

Does the AP's bssid (looks like a MAC address) show up in the "bssids"
key in the saved settings for that wireless network?  NM caches the
BSSID of base stations it's connected to for each wireless network, and
then reverse-matches those to the BSSIDs it finds in the scan list, and
that's how it finds hidden SSID access points.  We need to figure out
which part here is breaking down.

Dan

> I googeled already, but didn't find any answer.
> 
> Am I completely optimistic to assume, that the network should show up, 
> once it was configured correctly? Is there any solution for that?
> The way it is now, it's useless for me :(
> 
> I'm running Ubuntu Dapper Drake and tried both the default network 
> manager version, which is 0.6.0 and the lastest (0.6.4) one compiled 
> form sources.
> 
> Thanks and cheers,
> 
> 	a very frustrated Riko
> 
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