On a new Acer E 572, I can connect via wireless to an access point. Because of security, I have a long difficult password for the wep.
However, every time I reboot the computer, I have to enter this password to get connected.
Is there a way of remembering and automagically appplying this password after a reboot?
Yes.
And actually it should be remembered by default.
But plasma-nm uses KWallet to remember the passphrase, so if you disabled that (in “Configure Desktop”/Systemsettings->“Account Details”->“KDE Wallet”) it won’t work.
Hint: if you don’t want to enter a password to open the wallet on every login, either use a GPG-Key, or set an empty password.
You can also configure your connection as “system connection” (enable “Allow other users to connect” in the connection settings), then the passphrase will be saved system-wide by NetworkManager itself. This will also establish the connection during boot already, not just when you login.
Sidenote; The length of a WEP password is completely meaningless as it can be cracked in a matter of seconds (Yes, seconds - even on a laptop). MAC address protection is also meaningless and SSID hiding doesn’t do anything either.
You should not use WEP under any circumstance, WPA2 is the only way to go for security.
Sorryfor putting incorrect info - It is using WPA2 - PSK
Well, the WPA2 passphrase should definitely be saved (I never used WEP, so it might have been a specific problem with that). 
As you are using 13.1 (haven’t noticed before), your plasmoid-networkmanagement should support saving the password without KWallet as well (if you don’t want to enable that). Have a look into its settings (should be in “Advanced” IIRC, or might be “Misc” or similar).
But this has been removed in 13.2’s plasma-nm, as it saves the password as plaintext (practically) in the config file.
The part about “system connection” (as it is called in 13.1) still applies though. So try that if you cannot get your passphrase to be remembered.
(This is a new 13.2 laptop) As I mentioned earlier, I was getting a wireless connection. It was just not remembering the password.
I have no desire to use kwallet. The solution was simple: left click on the wireless icon, click the spanner and a connection editor comes up.
Highlight the connection and click on edit. Under “wireless security” you can enter your password. Click on OK and you’re done.
I know.
I have no desire to use kwallet.
But the networkmanagement applet uses kwallet to store the passphrase, although it does allow to save it in the config file (as plain text) as well.
By default it uses kwallet though, unless you configure it otherwise.
And the new plasma-nm in 13.2 (an early version is included in 13.1 already but not installed by default) requires to use kwallet for saving the passphrase.
Here, you have to create a system connection if you want to save the password but not use kwallet…
The solution was simple: left click on the wireless icon, click the spanner and a connection editor comes up.
Highlight the connection and click on edit. Under “wireless security” you can enter your password. Click on OK and you’re done.
Yes, I know.
But it should normally save it when you enter it in the passphrase dialog as well.
I am using WEP and it cannot connect properly when I add the password under Connection Editor.
Is NetworkManager active? YaST->Network Devices->Network Settings->Global Options
Is kwallet enabled and working?
Have you tried “Allow other users to connect”?
I got it working by enabling kwallet, thanks.