NM -- does it actually work?

[yoyo opennet ro]

Hi list,

First of all, I'm not sure that this is the correct list to ask this, but
since this is the NM-list...

Secondly, sorry for the "offending" subject.

The problem: FC 6 on a dell d820 with a tg3 and a ipw3945. Both are
configured to get their ip addresses by dhcp and not to start at boot. My
problem is with the wireless configuration. Running by hand the 2-3
commands to connect to the ap (which is open by the way - no wep no
nothing, just connect to it and your done) but since redhat/the
community(FC)/gnome is giving away this brilliant (at least in theory)
piece of software that allows you to roam through any kind of connection
types I wanted to have it run and not bother with anything that's not "out
of the box" (UI wise). Running with nm-applet trying to connect to my AP
is a no go every time. When I click on the applet I can see the AP, the
signal strength everything. After it associates to the AP, it seems like
it forgets to start the dhcp client request.

Running daemons:
NetworkManager
NetworkManagerDispatcher
wpa_supplicant

weird enough, when I click connect on the applet, it spawns another
wpa_supplicant with the argument "-g /var/run/wpa_supplicant-global".

wpa_supplicant.conf :
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
eapol_version=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
        ssid="any"
        key_mgmt=NONE
}

I am in wheel group.

nm-tool output :
nm-tool

NetworkManager Tool

State: disconnected

- Device: eth1
----------------------------------------------------------------
  NM Path:           /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/eth1
  Type:              802.11 Wireless
  Driver:            ipw3945
  Active:            no
  HW Address:        00:18:DE:6F:E0:4B

  Capabilities:
    Supported:       yes
    Speed:           48 Mb/s

  Wireless Settings
    Scanning:        yes
    WEP Encryption:  yes
    WPA Encryption:  yes
    WPA2 Encryption: yes

  Wireless Networks (* = Current Network)
    opennet:         Infrastructure Mode, Freq 0.000 MHz, Rate 62 Mb/s,
Strength 62%


- Device: eth0
----------------------------------------------------------------
  NM Path:           /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/eth0
  Type:              Wired
  Driver:            tg3
  Active:            no
  HW Address:        00:15:C5:B0:B6:81

  Capabilities:
    Supported:       yes
    Carrier Detect:  yes

  Wired Settings
    Hardware Link:   no

I truly want to enjoy this very useful software but first it has to work.
After trying to understand it and make it work for almost 24h, I'm tired
and bitter about it.

Thank you in advance for your help,
Adrian