maemo.org Bugzilla – Bug 3599
Option to disable auto-connecting to specific saved wifi connections
Last modified: 2008-12-16 14:11:02 UTC
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I'd like to have the ability to disable automatic connection to a stored WiFi connection. Consider the following (unfortunately very true) scenario: On my work, there is a badly working AP, which draws all power from my N810 when it connects, so I run out of battery on less than a day. The WPA key is non-trivial, and I want to store it as a remembered connection. At other places (home, etc) I want the NIT to connect automatically to any stored connection it can find, but at work, I'd like to treat the WLAN connection like the Bluetooth connection, that is, only connect when I accept. There are of course several ways of solving this. I'd suggest adding a checkbox at the Advanced settings window on a connection with something like "Disable automatic connection for this connection". And correspondingly, in the connection code, if only such connections are found, ask the user how to connect. (Presumably suggesting a found, but "disabled" WLAN account in front of a bluetooth connection).
So going into Offline mode is not an appropriate workaround?
It's the workaround I'm using, but it's a workaround, not a good solution. It requires me to remember to bring the N810 into offline mode when arriving at the office in the morning, and to bring it out of offline mode when leaving. If I forget the former, I'll end up with a dead N810 on the subway home, and if I forget the latter, I'll end up with a N810 that doesn't do the things it's supposed to do. (Like, checking mail when I get home and it finds a working WLAN connection). Another workaround (which solves the problems the one above creates) is to not save the connection, but that requires me to enter the WPA key everytime I want to connect, which in practice is too tedious.
Sounds like this could be another use case for enhancement bug 1046 which asks for more and sophisticated power management profiles. In the case of your "Work" profile (which would be determined based on day of week [eg. Mon-Fri] & time of day [eg. 9am-6pm], availability of specific WiFi networks and/or geo location etc.) your tablet would not auto connect to the available networks, and may exhibit other "Work" related behaviour. However when you get "Home" (again determined by geo-location, available WiFi networks, day of week/time of day) your tablet would auto-connect to a known good WiFi network.
Well, maybe, but that really feels like just another, somewhat more usable, workaround. The real problem here is the broken AP. The "correct" solution would be to replace it with a working AP; unfortunately, I can't affect this. So, from my point of view, the best way to handle this is to handle this specific connection as "non-auto", in the same way that GPRS connection is "non-auto". This is not really a question of a power profile (even if I like the concept with extended power profiles), it's a question of getting a easy-to-use middle way between automatic connection to a known AP, and manual connection on-demand to all WLAN connections all the time.
In fact this is a duplicate of bug 1050 I just realize while looking at the Connectivity bug reports. :) *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 1050 ***