How can I run disconnect without terminal window coming up? It's a bit annoying when I choose the icon from the desktop and then terminal window comes up for many seconds before it closes.

I would recommend to try ConnectNow widget. I made two shortcuts on my n900 desktop. One for 3G and one for my home wlan... Connection goes on and off with one simple button

Sounds great, I'll try that.

Edit: I have to say that it is an excellent widget and just what I wanted and needed. No need for fooling around with own scripts any more.

When I run
my IAP is shown as
Presumably the actual IAP does not include the preamble and colon, thusly?

I believe it is meant to be a list of access points and cellular network that your device recognised (probably because it was pre-configured or because you manually configured it).

On mine I can see entries of older entries to wireless broadband network that my device could be configured to access (of course provided that I have the SIM card for that instance) as well as other access points that I have manually set in the past.

Though from that gconf directory I cannot see what it is currently connected but I could see what I have previously connected to (which is in the form of UUID).

I am guessing in your case if you only have one then there could only be one answer