On a hopeful whim, I've decided to install networkmanager, so that will probably just introduce other bugs into the process, but originally I was using netcfg on arch. My symptoms are/were:

Internet randomly fails

Rebooting while I can get to the internet works, but rebooting when I don't have internet access hangs and I have to hold the power button to get it to shut down.

When the internet doesn't work, the command to bring the interface down hangs. (ip link set down wlan0).

Also, in thinking this was a hardware problem, I've plugged in a wireless usb adaptor, but not configured it for lack of knowing how.

Also, after my attempt at installing networkmanager, my computer buzzes on startup...and doesn't stop. It's quieter than the beep from pushing a key when you aren't supposed to, and constant. What have I done?

I would use wicd. It is more stable and offers nice cli (wicd-cli / wicd-curses) and graphical options(wicd).


Hope this helps.