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Idea #21953: Make it easier to restart the network

Written by audunmb the 20 Oct 09 at 12:34. Related project: Network Manager. Status: New
Rationale
Sometimes, for some reason or the other there's something wrong with the network. The easiest way to fix it is usually to restart the network with "sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart". Though, if you're not familiar with the underlaying structure of networking in Ubuntu, you won't know this. Only more experienced users have this option, newbies and people uncomfortable with CLI will have to restart their computer to restart the network.


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Solution #1: Make restart network a GUI option
Written by audunmb the 20 Oct 09 at 12:34.
Add an option when you left-click network-manager that says "restart network" which does "sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart". Windows has a similar option, so users coming from Windows will expect it.

It is also quicker than opening a terminal, typing in the command, or copy-paste it from wherever you left the howto-note.
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Solution #2: Restart automatically--No GUI
Written by Dataphile the 25 Oct 09 at 18:56.
Network failure is either 1) a bug, or 2) caused by unreliable hardware in the system.

If individual bugs are fixed, then I feel it would be simpler to deal with unreliable hardware with automatic restarts, rather than manually, which only clutters the UI.

Propose your solution

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Comments
andruk (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 20 Oct 09 at 16:53
This will get complicated if multiple people are logged into the machine, but if the user is a sudoer it should prompt for for authentication, and if the user is the only logged-in user, it should just do it.

nikgare wrote on the 20 Oct 09 at 19:08
Is this the same as right clicking on the Network Manager Icon and deselecting "Enable Networking" and then re selecting it?

Dataphile wrote on the 25 Oct 09 at 18:48
I think this is a mis-feature. The average user won't know that the network is the root problem unless it is automatically detected somehow.

If detection is possible, then the solution would be to restart automatically, making user interface redundant and unnecessary.

Jon Monreal wrote on the 31 Oct 09 at 14:13
@Dataphile: You may (or may not) be underestimating the average user.

Windows has a "diagnose and repair" button, which I have seen sone "average users" try to use before. Unfortunately, in many of their cases it was not such a simple problem; however, the fact is that they did try it.

While this may be anecdotal, there is certainly something to be said for just putting the option there for those who may find and make use of it. Also, when said average user comes to the forum for help, they will probably be far less "scared" and "overwhelmed" with having to click this option when there other computer's networking isn't working rather than having to go into the terminal and copy-paste a bunch of "text" that they don't understand.

On the other hand, actively monitoring for problems could take up valuable resources on a PC, and there is always the possibility for failure of the monitoring system (the average user won't like it when there networking would otherwise work fine but instead keeps restarting because of some falsely-detected problem, not that they would realize the root cause in this situation).

Network manager doesn't have that many options as it is; one more won't hurt.

Dataphile wrote on the 2 Nov 09 at 03:04
@ Jon Monreal

I realize Windows has "Diagnose and Repair" and I definitely don't want to copy it without understanding what problem it solves; it has never helped me on Windows, so I don't see the use, just cruft. I understand that users might be willing to push such a button, but if it never helps them, is it justified?

Should either solution fail, then cutting and pasting may be required, so I'm not sure you are making a meaningful distinction in mentioning this. Besides, would a user be less scared doing nothing (automatic detection), or pressing a button?

Your concerns about resources are fair, but I fail to see how a fix simple enough to be cut and pasted would be a resource hog if implemented correctly. I see no reason why false-positives are inherent to the problem, either. Am I missing something here?

And, just as a monitoring system can fail, so can a UI. One big way in which UIs fail is in providing meaningless choices to most users. From my perspective, adding UI for this is already a design failure, whether there is "room" for it or not.

Thank for your comments, but I remain unconvinced. I might feel differently if I understood what situations lead to this kind recoverable failure, though.


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