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Idea #23822: No information given on why a network connection has failed

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #11995: Show always an error message if something does not work.
Written by MarkReynolds the 27 Feb 10 at 18:48. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
When trying to connect to, for example, a wireless AP it may fail to establish the connection for a number of reasons. Currently the user is not given any indication of why something failed-just that it did.
Tags: (none)

164
votes
closed
Solution #1: Use the notification system to output a message
Written by MarkReynolds the 27 Feb 10 at 18:48.
I suggest using the notification system to output messages that could be used as a starting point for diagnosing the issue.

E.g. 'Attempt to connect to failed. Unable to obtain an IP address'
60
votes
closed
Solution #2: use clickable notitication with additional information on click
Written by Goury the 3 Mar 10 at 06:41.
subj
57
votes
closed
Solution #3: Add a "Repair network connection" option
Written by cenora the 13 Mar 10 at 21:23.
Auto detect problem, reset network card if necessary, re-check internet connectivity, etc.
0
votes
closed
Solution #4: #3 +Add a wizard to help config network
Written by nckuhuahua the 28 Mar 10 at 03:42.
A user may unable to config network.
A wizard classify the network type including wire ,wireless , ADSL ,etc.
1
votes
closed
Solution #5: Don't add a "repair network connection" option
Written by natureflow the 28 Mar 10 at 11:33.
This option never worked on Microsoft's Windows, it always failed and it cost a lot of time. Simply automatically repair the connection. If it doesn't work, report why.

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Comments
miki92 wrote on the 28 Feb 10 at 02:00
It don't need stupid Ms-WINDOWS ERRORS. hahahah
I just little joke, yes that is good idea but GNOME don't have ERRORS like others OS.
Its good Idea. And imagination "To explain what problem is"
.................

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 2 Mar 10 at 04:17
What's a user supposed to do when they get an error message...and don't understand it, or don't know what to do to fix it?

MsG wrote on the 2 Mar 10 at 19:17
Well because of a user doesn't know what to do with the reason of failure isnt a good reason (to me) to just hide that message of error. Some users cán do something with that error. And it is a lot easier to help users when they have a specific error instead of "my internet isn't working".

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 5 Mar 10 at 09:10
Agreed, I would say the idea doesn't go far enough.
The system should attempt to fix what it can fix automatically, and tell the user what it cannot fix and why.
But there is a risk of frustrating users too.

Example:
I can reach the gateway 'My House' at 192.168.x.y,
But it cannot reach the internet.
Is the gateway really working? It may need to be reset.
Are all the cords plugged into the gateway properly? Is there a short or break in the upstream cable?
Is the upstream server simply down?

Since my Ubuntu machine cannot log into the gateway, it can only reason from the network packets it receives. In this case, it may or may not provide a useful answer to the user. The user may or may not be able to check upstream hardware. The reasoning algorithm may simply be wrong for the network topology, and the system is giving spurious information.

As a user, I would get frustrated very quickly if my system erroneously thought it was giving me clever help.

Darwin Survivor (Brainstorm moderator) wrote on the 6 Mar 10 at 18:55
@cheesehead
That's actually a pretty cool idea. Most systems will either say "couldn't get an IP" or nothing at all. Doing some diagnostics such as seeing if the immediate gateway (usually 192.168.x.x or 10.10.x.x is visible, then checking DNS and a known server (canonicanl, etc) it could probably give you a pretty good idea of what is wrong.

matyy wrote on the 25 Mar 10 at 11:11
Please don't use notifications for that - this should be something you can look up. I hate it when vpn errors just show up for a second there. The user should always be able to copy the error message and paste it into google.

ubu_lin wrote on the 16 Aug 10 at 13:07
I think this is a good idea..


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