PreShared Keys

can someone explain how preshared keys (PSK) are stored? For example, I go to several friends' homes and they use WPA2 for wireless security. They give me their PSK which is associated with their SSID. When I visit their homes, the system automatically recognizes the SSID I've used before and connects to that wireless network with the appropriate PSK.

My question and concern, recently my notebook computer asked for the PSK of my own wireless network. I can enter it back in but it's a bit disconcerting. What would cause that to happen? Why would my computer ask me for my PSK? How and what could cause it to be missing ? Is there a potential problem that I should be worried about?

answer here:

WirelessKeyView: Recover lost WEP/WPA key/password stored by Wireless Zero Configuration service

thanks Mark. This helps a bit. Looks like there's some limitation for Windows 7 which is what I'm running. Have you tried the code injection?

Also while helpful, it does not explain about how the PSK can be lost where the system asks for the psk again.

Anyone have any idea of what might cause this? Again, I'm concerned if there could be any problem with my system. I had another problem come up - "Catalyst Control Center Host Application has stopped working error" and was concerned that my system had problems or was compromised, especially when it was asking for my PSK.

I've since updated and re-installed the video driver that is supposed to fix that problem. Still have the problem where its asking me for the PSK.

Help from anyone on this is much appreciated.