SuSE 9.2 wireless connection loss when SSID broadcast disabled on router
 

System config:
SuSE 9.2 on Dell Lattitude C610
Netgear WG511T PCMCIA wireless card
Software, all from instalation (madwifi driver, wpa supplicant, kwifimanager)
Configured using Yast
Noteworthy: Yast does not check for wpa supplicant even when wpa configured within yast net setup, wpa is not installed by default nor kwifimanager (i would expect the later, but not wpa supplicant missing and Yast not complaining, took me a while to debug)

Problem:
Wireless connection breaks down when router has SSID broadcast disabled
If SSID broadcast is enabled all is fine (Windows works fine with both enabled & disabled SSID broadcast)

Note that even while SSID broadcast is disabled, kwifimanager does sniff the router though net connection for apps (e.g. web browser or you updater) are severed.

Any suggestions? Is the problem with madwifi, wpa supplicant or something else in SuSe 9.2

I was very pleased how everything worked out of the ftp box, but would love to hide SSID. (can not say same for FC3 which i gave up on)

Also, can anyone recommend a utility that would scan SSIDs and allow me to configure "allowable" network connections and their WEP or WPA profiles? Same as the utility that comes from Netgear for Windows? kwifimanager scans SSIDs but is not aware of WPA keys.

As an old returning Unix (Ultrix & SunOS) user who has been absent from Unix world for over a decade i love what people have done with Linux, but, the decentralization also has it quirks... experts are not all in one building :)

thanks in advance,
cheapuser
PS I saw similar post on May 5 '04, but no answer (i posted same there as well)