[Novalug] Recommendation: Network Manager (on Fedora?)

[David Lerner]

Maxwell,

I have had mixed experiences with NetworkManager. I'd like to share
these with the group and I would like to hear from others about both
positive and negative as aspects of this program.

On the positive side, it works nicely there are multiple interfaces
configured and you want it to chose a single best interface. Examples:

A desktop system with 2 ethernet ports. Simply connect the cable to
either port and you will have connectivity. This works well if one or
both ports are configured with DHCP. I don't know what would happed if I
wanted a static IP address with I wanted it to work with the ethernet
cable connected to either port.

A laptop computer with a wireless adapter and an ethernet port.
NetworkManager will automatically switch to the ethernet port if there
is a connection. It can handle handle your home network with encryption
and still let you connect to an unencrypted hot spot when traveling.

On the negative side I have been frustrated in attempting to handle the
following situations:

I wanted to configure my wireless router on a separate subnet. I could
not have connections to 2 different subnets at the same time even with
separate network interface devices.

I purchased a USB network adapter for my TiVo and discovered that it
would only support WEP encryption. NetworkManager would not allow me to
connect to the network after the encryption was downgraded from WPA to
WEP. I could not change the configuration.

My conclusion is the NewworkManager is great in simple situations but
that it has too much potential to get in my way when I want to do
something advanced.

Dave

Maxwell Spangler wrote:
> Based on comments in passing on this list recently, I looked into 
> NetworkManager to manage my wifi network connections and would like to 
> recommend it to others.
> 
> It is a service visible as a small applet on the desktop that monitors wifi 
> connections, switching from network to network automatically or through manual 
> selection.
> 
> It is a real pleasure because I use an open, non-encrypted wireless connection 
> at home and a hidden, WEP encrypted network at work.  With other nice tools 
> like WifiRadar, I had to manually switch from one to another.  NetworkManager 
> rescans available networks and reconnects between my two locations making 
> movement more natural and effortless.
> 
> NetworkManager is a GNOME app available on a variety of distributions.  I was 
> surprised to see it was already installed but not enabled on my aged Fedora 
> Core 5 system.  Enabling it and configuring it was very easy.
> 
> For more information:
> 	http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/	
> 
> hth,
>  -- 
> 
> -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Maxwell Spangler
> Chapel Hill, North Carolina
> _______________________________________________