iwconfig not setting essid?
If iwconfig wlan0 essid blah is seemingly not working when connecting to a open wireless network, then try
-
iwconfig wlan0 essid blah -
iwconfig wlan0 key open -
iwconfig wlan0 enc off
The above seems to work for me by turning off encryption. It would appear with encryption enabled, iwconfig won't work for a open network because of some magic or other. If it still doesn't work, then try stick the above in your /etc/network/interfaces and prefix the commands with "wireless-", like so:
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid blah
wireless-key open
wireless-enc off
Hope this help some people, it drove me nuts!
Cheers,
Steve