PDA

View Full Version : Let networking be easy.

psychic
October 13th, 2005, 07:58 AM
My intention was to develop documentation and applications for the ubuntu-distribution. Unfortunately i had some personal problems the last 6 months, so i could not help the community. Sorry for that.

The one thing i was hoping to see improved was the network-configuration utilities. But after seeing the specs at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NetworkMagic i understand why it has not started / finished yet.

One way to get some development going is to write down the specifications of a low-level network-configuration utility. My view on this is that it should be a script or application which wraps around the existing ifconfig, iwconfig, iwlist and wlanctl-ng programs making it possible for one configuration utility to configure more then one type of NIC's. This script/application should then identify all supported stuff of each NIC. (Wireless extensions, MAC-spoofing, scanning)
This way we can remove any properties from sight which are not supported by the device (less confusing).

An easy to use application that configures IPTABLES can take firewall configuration for its account.

These two utilities can be combined by an application which manages profiles for location-dependent network configurations.
vvlist
October 13th, 2005, 12:22 PM
I would be satified with my "Location" in the networking dialog loading every time I start Gnome. That would be a step in the right direction. I think breezy networking is easy enough, but it's a far cry from OSX's networking.
AndersAA
October 13th, 2005, 12:55 PM
networkmanager (with the addition of WPA support) and I think most people would be very happy.
ArBaDaCarBa
October 13th, 2005, 03:46 PM
networkmanager (with the addition of WPA support) and I think most people would be very happy.

Yes, networkmanager is a very nice app. I don't understand why it's not a default yet.
quickgun
October 24th, 2005, 03:04 PM
1.) NetworkManager needs to mature a bit more.

2.) Linux kernel net-drivers also need to mature a bit(in some cases, alot!) more. For instance, some wireless drivers don't properly support scanning.

I'm not bashing NetworkManager though, it has the potential to be a killer app for network config'ing.
UbuWu
October 24th, 2005, 04:17 PM
Networkmanager is planned to be included in breezy.
AndersAA
October 24th, 2005, 05:12 PM
Networkmanager is planned to be included in breezy.


yes it was, but breezy is out already ;)
poofyhairguy
October 24th, 2005, 06:51 PM
yes it was, but breezy is out already ;)


Its in Breezy's universe.
kperkins
October 24th, 2005, 08:06 PM
I gave it a try. Looks nice but doesn't support wpa, and from the looks of it ndiswrapper, either.
Wah!
Guess I'll stick with netapplet for now.
Anthem
October 25th, 2005, 12:33 AM
I gave it a try. Looks nice but doesn't support wpa, and from the looks of it ndiswrapper, either.
Wah!
Guess I'll stick with netapplet for now.

WPA's one thing, but does it really not support ndiswrapper?
quickgun
October 25th, 2005, 01:00 AM
NetworkManager is receiving a lot of flak(the fact that it's not an applet at all(nm-applet?) but a "notification daemon" on the gnome/kde panels and even for its use of capitilization!).
Lots of devel work is going into it however(wpa/vpn support), so keep it on your radars.

Try it out, send bug reports if it tanks on you.
UbuWu
October 25th, 2005, 06:35 AM
yes it was, but breezy is out already ;)

Sorry I meant Dapper ;) Still not used to the fact that breezy has already been released. :cool:
kperkins
October 26th, 2005, 02:09 PM
WPA's one thing, but does it really not support ndiswrapper?
I'm not sure, I think I had a glitch when I tested it, and I uninstalled it and have reinstalled, because I can't use it anyways, without wpa support.
I might reinstall it at some point just to see if it does work with ndiswrapper.