if you are in xubunutu its likely mousepad. ubunutu-proper uses gedit. Look in accessories for "text editor" or some such. I do not actually have xubunutu installed, so I'm not sure what or which you have.

Received "Command not found" for both mousepad and gedit.

looks like xubuntu might use leafpad.

if you start your text editor from the apps menu, there should be a help-about item to tell you what it is.

Okay, I received this under interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Does this indicate anything? I should mention that I am now successfully online. Don't ask me what happened to make the system self-correct because it sure wasn't anything I did! Still, I think something is going on causing that incorrect password to reassert itself occasionally. I talked to a friend of mine who is Linux savvy and he said Linux applications aren't known for doing things like this. Although, I'm working happily along I want to keep it that way so any suggestions are still welcome. On the other hand, I don't want to do anything that will ruin my up-and-running computer! Thanks for your input.

No, your interfaces file is actually what it should be for use with network-manager, so all is well there.

I'm glad its working for you. I agree with your friend. You can usually point to something in linux that is causing the behavior. Your particular case is weird to say the least.

Particularly if you've exclusively used network-manager from day one.

Thanks so much. Is it possible this could be a problem with the router itself? I have a Netgear 7550 which I purchased through att. I have heard people say there are much better routers to be had than the ones purchased through your ISP. My understanding is that most routers are pretty universal and will work with whatever system you have. This problem may have nothing to do with the router but I know all of them have a limited shelf life. I'm just thinking of something I can try. I'm glad that at least all is well with the network manager. If there is anything else you think I should look into regarding this problem, kindly let me know. Thanks for your diligence and attention!

On the router...maybe. I've seen stranger things happen.

I just logged on again and this time the bum password came up and I could not get on. The two arrows up where wifi symbol is kept rotating. BUT--I tried closing the lid to the laptop and then reopening it--when I did that, voila, I was online! Can you explain what this means??? What happens when you close the lid (with the power still on) and then reopen it? I doubt this is a hardware problem--something weird is going on within the system itself. Any ideas??

does your system go into standby mode when you close the lid? perhaps your network services are restarting when you open the lid and clearing out whatever is crufting things up.

have you ever had a different network connection manager installed? (examples would be ceni, wicd, etc...)

have you ever tried to set up a wpa-supplicant file? Maybe there is an old file floating around somewhere. I'm not real familar with this one...

Appreciate your persistence in offering suggestions to correct this. Is "standby mode" the default when you close the lid? I have never altered the power mode settings at all. Never installed a different network manager. What is a wpa supplicant file? Never heard of that. There is sure some kind of weird file floating around. The question is how to excise it!

I'm saying it's your router being funny. My cheapo router came with my landline and I'm forced to use it. Perhaps relocating it would fix the issue. Interference and stuff, you know. Mine has trouble loading the admin pages (192.168.1.254). Obviously not an apache server on this thing.

Well, the only thing about saying it's the router is that our phones and my wife and daughter's laptops work fine. It's just my Xubuntu laptop that has this problem. I realize that doesn't rule out that it's the router, but my sense is this is not a hardware problem. When I look under "Network Connections" I notice there are two networks with the same name. The one that is wrong has the bad password that is screwing things up. Shall I try deleting that or will that delete the good connection that I'm on now? I suppose there's nothing to lose.

Okay, I tried deleting the "bad" network--the one that has the non-existent password--and, as I expected, BOTH networks were deleted! At least it appeared that way. Then when the authentication box came up I typed in my password the "connect" switch would not activate (it remained gray). Then when I typed in the "bad" password the "connect" switch did activate but of course it didn't put me online because it isn't really my password. What is frustrating (but also interesting) is that for some reason I cannot delete that bad password from my system. It keeps reasserting itself as the default password. The system must be "confused" since there are two networks, both with the same name. Does anyone have a sense of how to correct this? I bet it's something embarrassingly simple.

Off the wall idea...perhaps the password is stored in the gnome-keyring, the kind of built in password manager. I don't really know how to check this, but the keyring can store network-manager network passwords as well as other sorts of passwords, so maybe that's where this old password is stored.

This is the closest thing I could find with respect to the problem that I'm having...sounds very similar. I don't know if the solution proposed here is correct, however, because it sounds like the password would be stored in plain text. It seems to me that would leave the system vulnerable and really without protection. But this is at least on the right track:

http://gregitblog.blogspot.com/2010/...g-manager.html