Network Manager

[Amitabha Roy]

Hello:

What exactly is Network Manager supposed to do ? I  started NM as a 
service from system-config-services,
it is running. However, the wireless applet  on gnome-panel shows no 
networks and all options are grayed out (on right click).
And it says that there are no network devices, which is wrong, since I 
am using an integrated WIFI card which is working.
Is there an alternate user interface to access the Network Manager ?

Is it because pcmcia, network is loaded before the NM is loaded ?

Does NM have the ability to pick up a wireless network in a location 
(that has many wireless networks) based on what the user
chose the last time around ? I know that Windows does this even for 
non-broadcast essid networks, correctly choosing my non-broadcast ssid home
network over my neighbours' broadcast members after the first time I 
choose it over the others. This functionality would be very nice
for my linux laptop.

Is it just me who has problems with configuring wireless cards in linux 
? Are there other users with similar issues ?

Thanks
Amitabha