NetworkManager in fedora 15 various questions/problems

[Tim Smith]

> On Tue, 24 May 2011 19:52:32 -0400
> Tom Horsley wrote:
> 
> > if I
> > right click the network icon and look at connections,
> > it shows a wireless connection, and even knows the
> > MAC address but it says it is Disconnected
> 
> OK, I tried some stuff and found an answer: Apparently
> NM in fedora won't talk to a network that doesn't
> broadcast the SSID (in Ubuntu, NM has a "connect to
> hidden network" option at the bottom of the list
> of wireless interfaces it sees, which worked great
> when I booted the ubuntu live USB).

That's worth a bugzilla entry. It won't connect to most Corporate WiFi 
networks in that case. There is a valid reason for not putting the SSID in 
the beacons which has nothing to do with security, to whit, supporting 
multiple SSIDs on one AP, which many corporate systems do to separate public 
and private VLANs.
 
> I know there is no real security in hiding the SSID,
> but since I am irritated by looking at the SSIDs of
> everyone in the neighborhood (most of which all
> seem to be called "linksys" :-), I thought I would
> at least be nice and avoid cluttering up their
> lists with my SSID.

Maybe someone could try convincing linksys to randomise their default SSID, 
or include the BSSID in it, but I don't hold out much hope for that. It's 
always annoyed me. An identical SSID constitutes a promise that this is the 
same network with the same security parameters and you can hop from one to 
the other and expect things to carry on working. With the same SSID on lots 
of differently-configured APs you may expect most clients to take an 
increasingly long time to connect when they walk further from their "real" 
home, as they try all those apparently-identical APs with better signal 
strength and fail to get authenticated...

Randomising the default SSID would have little-to-no effect on people who 
just use WiFi Protected Setup (press the 2 buttons at about the same time) 
and hopefully people who thought 'netgear793C4DF377' was ugly would pick 
something locally unique to replace it...

Ah well, I should know better than to hope for sensible behaviour by now...

(retires muttering in beard)

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