i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

Sometime ago, I asked why kde didn't just copy the gnome net manager applet, which works just fine -- instead of re-inventing the wheel with the plasma net manager applet, which refused to work altogether.

Follow up:

It never occurred to me to actually try and use gnome's nm-applet in kde 4 plasma. Then my kde 4 borked, I reinstalled it -- and the reinstall used the kde 3.5 knetworkmanager instead of installing the kde 4 network manager widget. (The widget exists in YAST, but I was not about to replace something that was working with something that -- the last time I tried it -- didn't work at all.)

Then I read some comment suggesting nm-applet could be used with plasma. This immediately caused one of those, "why didn't I try that?" moments -- so I did. And it worked.

I'm not precisely certain how to avoid autostarting kdenetworkmanager. So, I have to exit it and then launch nm-applet.

But, nm-applet provides more feedback so I prefer it.

Possibly, since the new 4.2.3 version is out kde4 networkmanager works now. I haven't tried it and I have been wary of installing it.