Question : Networks that broadcast SSID prevent connection to my non-broadcast SSID wireless router.

Here is my situation:
I have a dell d500 with a built in truemobile 1300 wireless nic and a linksys wireless wrt54g broadband router.
SSID broadcast has been turned off, the router is set to use WPA-PSK with an AES encryption algorithm.

When the my network is set to be the only preferred network, the computer has no problems connecting to it.  When I add a network that broadcasts SSID to the preferred network list, the computer will no longer see my network regardless of its order in the list.  When SSID broadcast on my router is turned on, my computer picks it up immediately.

Is this normal for wifi or just a situation with tm1300 nic?  Probably doesn't have anything to do with the security or encryption settings, but i've provided that info for background.

I have the latest drivers for the tm1300 and firmware for the linksys router.

Thanks

Answer : Networks that broadcast SSID prevent connection to my non-broadcast SSID wireless router.

When you have multiple newtorks, it scans for strongest signal, and with SSID, it would have to do an active scan.  I think it only does passive scans.  Therefore, when it "fishes" for networks, it has to actually "hear" from an AP before it lists it, and it never hears from your AP.

When there is only one network, it just tries it, and if it fails, it stops.

If the other preferred networks are not available, does it ever pick up your AP?  Because I thought, if the passive scan failed, it still tried to find each network actively.