How do I disconnect from wireless networks?

[w4jiro]

Hello all - Mint 12 Gnome 3

New to Linux and am picking things up as I go. My question seems very simple but I can't find it through search for the life of me. How can I disconnect from a wireless network without having to turn off the wireless or disable the adapter? Right click doesn't work, neither the mint nor gNome network connections managers do it either.

Thanks (:

[gn2]

On mine, left click on the wireless icon in the panel (taskbar) then click where it says Disconnect under the network I'm connected to.

[w4jiro]

Hmm, I don't have that disconnect button. I am running Mint 12 with GNome 3.

[gn2]

Sorry can't help with that, I'm a LTS user.

[Aging Technogeek]

In Mint 12 Gnome 3, go to Menu=>Other=>Network Connections=>Wireless. Click on the network you want to disconnect from and click "Delete".

[w4jiro]

Thanks for the reply. I've been doing it that way up to now, I guess I was just wondering if there's a cleaner way to do it where I wouldn't have to forget the network and retype the password, etc. I could only jump from network to network or delete it as a whole, seems like a simple disconnect function is missing.

Is there a command to disconnect without deleting it per chance?

[Aging Technogeek]

I had not investigated this before since I normally use a wired internet connection, but I just checked and found that the type of disconnect you want is automatic when you select a different wireless network.

There are several open wireless networks that I can connect to. I selected each in turn, each connected and disconnected when the next was chosen, but the network connection information was retained in "Network Connections".

I also occasionally use a 4G wireless hotspot (normally when I am using my laptop in the field). This is a secured connection encrypted with WPA2. It works the same as the others. Connects when selected, disconnects when another network is selected, and all connection information including the encryption key is retained in "Network Connections" .

[w4jiro]

Understood, however, I am looking to be able to disconnect without it picking up a new connection. This is useful for many reasons like troubleshooting/investigating a wired connection and flipping back and forth through wired and wireless.

I want to be able to disconnect without having to jump to a new connection and without having to 'forget' the network. I would settle for a terminal command if there's nothing in the GUI. Although I think it's a pretty basic function to include in the future.

[DrHu]

Understood, however, I am looking to be able to disconnect without it picking up a new connection. This is useful for many reasons like troubleshooting/investigating a wired connection and flipping back and forth through wired and wireless.

Even if there is no pause/disconnect option, you can stop the network manager easily by killing its service, probably should be under a system menu option on your desktop or simply right-click and shutdown the network manager applet on your system taskbar..

The reason it picks up connections is that it is listening for any available networks (open or closed ) that your system's antenna can detect; making it dynamic and usually what people want: find an available network..
--other choices are either outside the default decisions of the developers or maybe not considered important: less bells and whistles, but functional..

network manager..
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager
--in a terminal you can simply kill the interface for your network, that will stop it responding and Network manager, since it has no network connection will not be able to activate any network session/device..

You can also consider other network managers that may have more options, such as wicd, however getting them installed without interfering with your current (Network manager) setups may cause you some issues..
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

This might also work, ignore some specific devices..wired, wireless ?..
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/NetworkM ... re_Devices

• Ignore Devices
  If you have some network devices which you want to configure by yourself (For example mobile phones which connect over a USB network interface) NetworkManager can ignore these devices. Just add the MAC Adresses of the devices you want to ignore to your configuration file /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

[AlbertP]

Killing NetworkManager often does not break the connection. Disconnecting used to be possible but many options were removed from Gnome programs in Gnome 3.

[w4jiro]

Even if there is no pause/disconnect option, you can stop the network manager easily by killing its service, probably should be under a system menu option on your desktop or simply right-click and shutdown the network manager applet on your system taskbar..

See that's the thing, I don't want to stop the service. Listening on the adapter is fine as long as it doesn't have an active connection and data packets aren't pouring through. If I stop the service I'd have to re-enable it later to reconnect, and becomes tedious when you have to do it various times. It might be GUI related because as gn2 and AlbertP stated, it used to be a function on previous versions (as well as on most other OS).

I simply want to be able to disconnect from a specific wireless network without having to remove it's settings or connect to another network or stop the service or disable the adapter. I think i'll play with KDE if it's any different... Not sure if this is a Gnome thing or a Lisa thing though. Thanks for all the responses, I will be checking back if any has other ideas though. (:

P.S. I can't right click the network icon on the taskbar.

[AlbertP]

It's a Gnome thing.

In Gnome 3 you are supposed to left-click instead of right-click on the network icon.

[maxdule]

Almost unbelievably stupid, but it actually is - as described in the first post.

[darlof]

I know this is an older post, but Im wondering if anyone has any solution to this. I like to dc from my network connection when I stop using the net, so as not to use any more bw then I have to since Im on a limited plan. Id rather not have to turn off wireless or delete the connection every time I do this.

[upacreek]

Almost unbelievably stupid, but it actually is - as described in the first post.

Still no right-click dissconnect option or any other dissconnect option besides turning off wifi using the default cinnamon network manager applet... unbelivably stupid describes it perfectly.

[matmat07]

Where should I ask for this "feature"? I would like to do the same.