Network Manager on 14.04 not an improvement

[GreyGeek]

..... I'd love to have a better way to search for elusive SSID's, like a scan button. .

In the old system there was a "scan" button which would give a graphical display of nearby APs, in concentric rings according to signal strength. Sometimes AP icons were overlapping and difficult to select, so one manually entered the SSID.

In the new manager one clicks on the Wrench icon at the top of the AP display and opens a Connection dialog. Under the "Wireless" tab there is a dropdown combo box with the label "SSID:".
Clicking on that produced a list of APs with pertinent details. A LOT easier to use. Of course, one can always use the iw command, or Kismet or nmap...

By the way, in the Connection editor, when one clicks "Add" it gives 8 hardware options, 3 virtual and 7 VPN options to choose from. Never saw that before.

[Teunis]

The SSID list was also available in the previous version, it even was the default.
Agree it is easier to pick from the list but I'm missing the means to force a scan...

The rest are big, worthwhile and nice improvements, such a difference to the barren system Windows has!

@TWPonKubuntu, in the menu under System you'll find KSysGuard, the System Monitor.
It has two tabs and the second has a nice graph of the network.

[TWPonKubuntu]

@Tenuis Good find! The network history graph works well for what I want, Thanks.

[TWPonKubuntu]

This is more in the way of public advice for the NetworkManager devs.

Yes, I can contact them directly (see prior posts). I'd like it visible here, too.

The prior versions have a lot of information, nicely compacted into a single popup window, accessible with one click.
It shows the AP list, a set of contact parameters and the graphical rate of data transfer chart.
All in one small popup, off the Launcher.
Not scattered over several screens.
This is a step backward, hopefully it will be "corrected" in future releases...

[claydoh]

Me I love it and would be a little upset if they went "back". I don't want all the graphs and charts most of the time, bordering on never. I want a list of APs. Some on/off buttons.

I do think that perhaps VPN connections might be better in their own collapsible section, so that wireless access points are more readily visible.

Sent from my Droid DNA using Tapatalk, like that really matters

[GreyGeek]

Ditto, Claydoh!

[TWPonKubuntu]

@claydoh and GreyGeek
I can understand the desire (my guess here) for a "clean" interface, without extraneous information, but I use the data from the original design every hour of my online time. It feels like obfuscation when that data (listed in my previous post) is now on different screens/windows/popups/pulldowns and I have to click back and forth to read each item, separately. Not conducive to getting my work done n a timely manner. YMMV

[richb]

You can't please everybody. I align with claydoh and GreyGeek on this. I prefer the neat clean interface and it addresses the basic function of Network Manger, finding and connecting to access points.

[claydoh]

Yes, YMMV. The question is maybe how many people are best served by whichever sort of layout is chosen, perhaps? It for me has nothing to do with a "clean" desktop.

I do not quite understand the popups/screens you are mentioning, as the only popup I see is if I want to configure a connection.


**EDIT**
Ok, if one needs to create a connection "from scratch" the Connection Editor does open. Way off to the left, lol, as far away as possible.

[Teunis]

Indeed people have different wishes and expectations.

The interface TWPonKubuntu talks about in post #19 was already a few distro's back and indeed it was probably the best, clean and easy to comprehend yet not quite as complete as the present.

But I must say the present applet works smoothly, after I resized it's primary window it shows me all I need.
This laptop (W520) has a broadband chip and on occasions* I do use the 3G connection, I really like the way it is integrated in the applet.

* Like our company's firewall settings are of the David Cameron security kind and regularly block sites I want to visit.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/c...article/374304