For the last year or so, I've been leading a project called Network Auto-Magic to simplify and automate network configuration on Solaris. See the project page on OpenSolaris for full details about story boards, requirements, architecture, etc., but the exciting news is that we just released a prototype yesterday.

It monitors network interfaces and brings them up and down as availability changes, including the ability to activate user-specified hooks (such as a VPN) automatically. It will scan wireless networks, then offer the user a list of each, including signal strength and encryption type, plus an Other choice to allow the user to select a WLAN which does not broadcast its ESSID. When the user makes a selection, it will remember the selected WLAN, and will connect to it automatically thereafter. It will also prompt for WEP keys as needed and remember them, so such prompting need occur only once. So if you have a recent build of Solaris, try it out and let us know what you think!