NetworkManager Connects to Wrong AP

sancho · 03-27-2008, 11:51 AM

This is in regards to the Ubuntu 7.10 (32-bit) installation on my laptop with a Broadcom WiFi card.

I have two WPA2 protected access point in my home (call them "X" and "Y"), and I'd like to have NetworkManager automatically connect to AP "Y" when I log in. Every time I log in, however, it automatically connects to AP "X" and I have to manually change it to "Y", wait a minute or so, and then enter my long WPA2 passphrase, after which it connects normally. This gets annoying quickly because, from start to finish, it takes me about 2 minutes to actually get into the AP that I want.

I have tried deleting the passphrase from my keyring for AP "Y", but that doesn't help. Every time I log in again, I see a new key in my keyring for AP "Y" after I enter the passphrase; yet NetworkManager continues to connect to the wrong AP and then prompt me for a passphrase when I try to connect to the one I want.

What gives?

Takla · 03-28-2008, 11:15 AM

from /usr/share/doc/network-manager

Quote:

For wireless networking support, 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.............

.........The nm-applet provides a DBUS service called NetworkManagerInfo, which should
provide to NetworkManager the Preferred Networks lists upon request. It also
should be able to display a dialog to retrieve a WEP/WPA key or passphrase from
the user when NetworkManager requests it. The GNOME version of
NetworkManagerInfo, for example, stores Preferred Networks in GConf and
WEP/WPA keys in gnome-keyring, and proxies that information to NetworkManager
upon request.

so I would use gconf-editor, navigate to system>networking>wireless>networks and delete the network you don't want to use and then try again. Hopefully your network "y" will then become the preferred network.