Network manager applet

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An easy way to configure wireless networks is using the Network manager applet - a little icon of two monitors by the clock. When you (left) click it you should see something like Image:Network_manager_gnome.png

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Wireless network not displayed

When you click on this icon you may only see Wired Network, with no Wireless networks listed. First, verify that there is a wireless network available. If there is, and you still don't see anything other than Wired Network, then this indicates a fairly common problem. It is caused by the Network Administration tool (System > Administration > Networking) conflicting with the applet. See the fix below.

If you can see the wireless networks ok, then you can ignore the fix and just go to Networking.

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The fix

This is a simple fix but it does involve opening a terminal (Applications> Accessories> Terminal), then copy and paste in the following commands (one line at a time). 

sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces_backup
sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

Gedit will open and the file will look something like this: 

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless-essid MYWIRELESSAP
wireless-key MFKLDSH12938SM

Comment out all lines except the loopback network interface as so: 

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

#auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

#auto eth1
#iface eth1 inet dhcp
#wireless-essid MYWIRELESSAP
#wireless-key MFKLDSH12938SM

That's it. Now, when you reboot, you can use the applet next to the clock to connect to any wireless network and it will automatically switch to a wired network when you plug in an ethernet cable. If the network is secure (WPA), you will be prompted for the WPA pass phrase as well.

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