Re: Fix for topic: "Connected wireless once using WPA, cannot connect again"

["Russell Harrison" <rtlm10 gmail com>]

On 1/10/07, Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com> wrote:

Not entirely true; if you don't broadcast your SSID, then wpa_supplicant
isn't necessarily able to determine your APs capabilities from a scan,
and therefore isn't able to automatically set up the ciphers that your
AP supports, or other capabilities of the AP.

Except that you've already configured the SSID by hand so NM should have everything it needs to reconnect stored from the first time you manually connected.  If you're disconnected you should have everything you need to reconnect seamlessly.

So basically, WPA + non-broadcasting SSID isn't going to work reliably
until 0.7, where if you don't broadcast hte SSID, you'll have to
manually configure your ciphers and other information before NM will
allow you to connect.  That's just life.

What's different between 0.6.x and 0.7 allowing NM to handle hidden SSID's properly?

Besides, non-broadcasting of SSIDs is pretty much useless since your
SSID is transmitted _in the clear_ whenever you attempt to [re]associate
to the AP.  It's not really protection at all.

I won't argue the point.  However, many network managers do turn off SSID broadcasting simply because its an option to do so.  The fact it isn't any more secure is beside the point since there is a perception of increased security, even if its false.

Russell