At what point does wireless connection occur?
 

I have just purchased my first Linux PC - up to now I have always rolled my own so to speak. It is a little Dell Latitude 2100 which I got a good deal on through the outlet store - a refurb but it looks new. Ubuntu 9.04. It has built in wireless and I have gotten it to talk to my D-Link router although only with WEP and not yet WPA - that will come later.

The question at hand... When is the wireless connection supposed to occur? If I reboot the PC and watch for it to connect (using ping from another machine on the network) it does not appear until I login to it. It remains on the network after I logout(?) Is this normal? I am used to hard wired machines which come up on the network before a user logs in. Is there something I need to change in the network connection settings?

TIA,

Ken

p.s.

I was in error when I stated that it stays connected after logout. In fact it disconnects. Curious.

Depends on what Network Manager you are using. I use WICD (using ICEWM and FLUXBOX Desktop) and it has a checkbox that states use this connection at startup. I think in Gnomes Network manager all you need to check is the enable wireless button. Don't know how Knetwork manager works. I have a slight aversion to KDE Desktops.

Thanks rokytnji,

I am running the Gnome desktop. I have Enable Networking and Enable Wireless checked on the network icon on the panel. The wireless connection configuration has "connect automatically" checked. I will check "available to all users" and see what happens...

Test complete - with "...all users" checked the connection occurs before anyone logs onto the console.

Now to figure out how to configure WPA.

Ken