Selecting preferred networks with NetworkManager

[Philip Ganchev <phil ganchev gmail com>]

Hi,

I have a technical question and I can't find a better place to ask it.

In my location, NetworkManager sees several wireless networks in
roaming mode; let's call them 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. When I start my
computer and log into a Gnome session, NM always connects to Network
3, which is not protected by a password.  But I always want to connect
to Network 1, which is the first in the list on nm-applet, has the
strongest signal, and is protected by a WEP 64/128-bit hex password.
Currently I have to manually select Network 1 in nm-applet. How can I
make NM connect to Network 1 automatically?

I found this documentation in /usr/share/doc/network-manager/README on
my Ubuntu box:

"... NetworkManager keeps a list of wireless networks, the preferred
list.  Preferred Networks are wireless networks that the user has
explicitly made NetworkManager associate with at some previous time.
So if the user walks into a Starbucks and explicitly asks
NetworkManager to associate with that Starbucks network,
NetworkManager will remember the Starbucks network information from
that point on.  Upon returning to that Starbucks, NetworkManager will
attempt to associate _automatically_ with the Starbucks network since
it is now in the Preferred Networks list.  The point of this is to
ensure that only the user can determine which wireless networks to
associate with, and that the user is aware which networks are security
risks and which are not."

Shouldn't NM (1) automatically connect to the network with the
strongest signal, and (2) automatically push Network 1 high on my
preference list because I connected to it earlier?

By the way, it may be useful if the text that is in
/usr/share/doc/network-manager/README on an Ubuntu box is also in the
NetworkManager's standard manual page.

Thanks very much for your responses,
Philip Ganchev