F15 - Hidden Wireless not automatic

[Tim Smith]

> On 06/16/2011 07:58 AM, Brian C. Huffman wrote:
> > All,
> > 
> > Has anyone else experienced the problem where a hidden wireless network 
> > will never automatically configure?  Even though fedora has saved all of 
> > the necessary settings (essid, encryption info), i have to manually go 
> > to Network-Settings->Wireless->Network-Name->Other and select my network 
> > for it to work.  If the laptop has just resumed, it will likely show up 
> > in the list, but still will not automatically connect.
> > 
> > Any suggestions?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Brian
> 
>   If this is under your control, I'd suggest you don't hide the SSID -
> its almost always pointless, adds no security and is borderline
> violation of the 802.11x standards
> 
>   It may cause some clients to choose to not engage with AP's which do
> not broadcast the SSID (and this is allowed by the 802.11 spec .. tho
> the wording is dodgy and I'd bow to Tim Smith as a real expert).

If you think that wording is dodgy, you try getting your head round Block 
ACK :-)

wpa_supplicant supports setting scan_ssid=1 in the network block to make it 
scan with a specific SSID in the probe requests, thus getting responses only 
from the AP which has that SSID (and spotting the "hidden" ones that won't 
respond unless you do this).

/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant-0.7.3/wpa_supplicant.conf on my F15 system 
warns that this will add latency to scanning, which I simply don't believe. 
In a target-poor environment you will send more probe requests, but people 
typically don't have so many networks configured that this matters. In a 
target-rich environment it cuts down the storm of probe responses and thus 
improves things - you get APs on the far edge of range colliding with their 
probe responses and increasing the probability that the one you really 
wanted to see didn't get a look-in before the scanning station gave up and 
moved to the next channel.

I think scan_ssid=1 should be the default, to be honest. If your network 
config is in the text file you can probably fix this. I've got a suspicion 
that you don't get to use wpa_supplicant.conf with NetworkManager though. I 
don't have any NetworkManager-enabled systems to check with though; my boxes 
are either servers or I need NM to stay out of the way for other reasons.


-- 
But while the ant gathered food, the grasshopper contracted to a point on a 
manifold that was NOT a 3-sphere...