Using Network Manager and WPAPK2

[manimal29]

I have configured wireless on my CentOS 5.3 install and use Network Manager to access my home Network. It works fine, but what I would like to do is two fold. I want my home network to be the "default" network that Network Manager uses on bootup and secondly, I want it to be able to find my passphrase without having to enter it each time. I'm hoping that someone can let me know if its possible and if so, how to do it. My default desk top is KDE. Thanks in advance for any help!

[waterhead]

NetworkManager will usually try to connect to a wireless network that it has been previously configured to connect to. On the latest versions of NetworkManager, you right-click the tray icon and select "Edit connections...". Under the "Wireless" tab, you can edit an existing connection or create a new one. When you edit the connection, there is a box to enable it to "Connect automatically".

EDIT: CentOS may not have the latest version of NetworkManager available (ver 0.7.0)

As for password saving. The Gnome desktop is configured to save passwords in the Keyring Manager, the KDE desktop uses KWallet. Both of these programs will save numerous passwords, but they are protected by yet another password.

I consider this to be a security feature, and live with it. But I use one distro that will automatically connect the wireless at boot, that is openSUSE 11.1. It too uses NetworkManager, so I know that it is possible, I just don't know how it does it.

The other option is to use wpa_supplicant to connect to the secured networks. You first must set up a config file containing the network information, and the password/key info.