Wireless outof range won't reconnect

I'm trying to make my ubuntu reconnect to my wireless network when it's in range.

All the network settings are static.
essid doesn't change
however when I get back in range without:
"iwconfig wlan0 essid tandem"
the connection won't be re-established.

is there anyway to fix it?

Just read an article explaining about "roaming". is it possible without network manager?
tried messing around with 70-persistent-net-rules with no luck.

Desperately need help.

How do i make my wlan0 to be in this mode?

That's strange. In the days before network manager screwed up my life, I just had my laptop configured for each network I used and not only did I not have to re-configure if I went out of range, I didn't have to wait for NM to re-connect after my laptop woke up from sleep. It was awesome. I just had a script for each wireless networks I regularly used.

So, that makes me think you shouldn't need to reconfigure if you go out of range, it should "just work". That means something is unconfiguring your connection when it goes out of range. You just have to find and kill it.

Does it really unconfigure when you go out of range? Does dmesg show any changes? What do ifconfig and ip say before and after you go out of range? What does dmesg say before and after you go out of range?

Hope that helps!
-Pileofrogs