[SOLVED--sort of] Re: [clue-tech] Coffee shop wireless connection problem

[Matt Gushee]

Matt Gushee wrote:

> I have this ASUS Eee netbook running Arch Linux (BTW, yeah, the keyboard 
> is a bit small, but I love the extreme portability of it), which I use 
> at various places around town. Now, it happens that at my favorite 
> coffee shop I usually can't connect to the Net.

Well, I now have a little better idea of what's going on, and have found 
a workaround.

It seems that some persistent data in /etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf 
was preventing me from connecting. I renamed that file and was able to 
connect immediately with no trouble. I'm not entirely sure what setting 
was causing the problem, but I'm thinking it might have been the PSK 
(that's Pre-Shared Key, right?). For some reason, there was a PSK stored 
for the relevant ESSID in the old file, but there is none in the newly 
generated file.

I don't know if this is a bug in wicd, strictly speaking, but it 
certainly isn't very friendly behavior. Seeing as WiFi networks, 
especially in environments like coffee shops, change configurations 
frequently, there ought to be some straightforward way to get rid of old 
settings, but I haven't found it.

-- 
Matt Gushee