Idea #497: Preferred wireless network list, and hidden networks

This idea is a duplicate of idea #4: Provide a simple graphical interface to manage _any_ type of network connection.

849

Written by MichaelTheDrummer the 29 Feb 08 at 02:18. Category: Internet & Networking.
Related to: Nothing/Others. Status: New

Description

There should be a way for Network Manager to maintain a list of preferred wireless networks. In particular, the ability to save network setups for wireless networks that don't broadcast their SSID.

Consider this. At my university there are two wireless networks. One is a public network that uses no encryption and broadcasts the SSID. The other is for staff, uses WPA encryption, but does not broadcast the SSID. NetworkManager will always connect to the public network, meaning that every time I use my laptop at uni I need to manually enter the details for the staff network.

If it were possible to save the network settings and make NetworkManager attempt to connect to networks that don't broadcast the SSID. Hardcoding values in /etc/networking isn't a fix because that means it breaks if I connect to the home wireless network.

Tags: (none)

Attachments

No attachments.

Duplicates

[Report a duplicate and merge its votes to this idea]

Comments

Ansible wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 04:55

Agreed. I have had problems in the past because the first wireless network I connected to after install was my neighbor's open network, because it was simpler than entering the key to mine - I just wanted to get it working. The problem comes in when I put my own network info in. It will connect to my network, but it always prefers that first network I connected to.

To fix, I had to go into gconf and delete all the info out of the entry for my neighbor.

A priority list of what network to connect to would be nice - simply connecting to the last network used by datetime would probably be a 90% fix.

MichaelTheDrummer wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 05:20

Yep that would solve a lot of problems. My issue at the moment though is even if I delete the open network (again the uni example) using gconf-editor, it will reconnect to it because the staff network doesn't broadcast the SSID. Windows handles this fine.

A preferred network list that the user can sort would solve this, eg:

1. HomeNetwork
2. WorkNetwork
3. UniStaff
4. UniOpen

NetworkManager just needs to pick the highest priority network that is available and connect to that.

Gewitty wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 12:17

This one has my vote also. I am unable to switch off the ssid broadcast on my router, without Ubuntu losing its connection.

bigdufstuff wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 14:06

Instead of a preferred network list, it would make more sense if NetworkManager could keep track of which networks you choose. And based on the frequency of your choice, intelligently choose the right one. This the user wouldn't have to configure this, but it would get her the same result.

jvanvolk wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 06:40

I would like to add to this. I previously had Win XP on my laptop and my Intel wireless Network management application allowed me to add networks to an ignore list. This is helpful because someone in my neighborhood has an open network on the same channel as mine. There are many wifi networks in my neighborhood, so finding an open channel is hard. Occasionally I find myself connected to the unsecured network, which is also a slower network. It would be nice to be able to add this network to an ignore list.

LeonB wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 14:34

[quote]simply connecting to the last network used by datetime would probably be a 90% fix.[/quote]

This would be really nice!

pier11 wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 11:38

Network manager is a good looking thing, but annoying a lot.
Why should I every laptop start (every day) enter keyring password to be able to connect to encrypted home wifi network??? Was it not enough to enter wireless network password once on the first connection?
Why this thing 80% of time chooses neighbour's open network to connect instead of my own encrypted one??? And I should reconnect it manually after.

scubanator87 wrote on the 31 Mar 08 at 14:36

if you test out the beta of 8.04 this is implemented already.

pier11 wrote on the 1 May 08 at 11:22

@scubanator87

What implemented? I run 8.04 final in the moment. No difference from my site. Maybe I'm missing something.

Looks like it chooces right network now but keeps asking keyring password.

It happens if I make user to automatically log in. (May be in this case Key Ring does not receive it's password and keeps asking for it).

I turned off roaming for wi-fi connection and defined my wireless network directly in network settings. I got annoyed to enter key ring pass every time I turn on my laptop.

forgandenny wrote on the 2 May 08 at 09:24

I have 8.04 and right-clicking on wireless icon -> Edit Wireless Networks brings you to list of networks you've ever connected. You can remove unwanted networks, change settings and probably define keyring access behaviour.

darrena wrote on the 9 May 08 at 22:29

@Pier11

A couple of comments: If you are getting the Keyring prompt your keyring password is different than your login password. Use the Keyring password to change it.

If you are getting the Wireless Key prompt repeatedly then there is a problem associating for some reason. You should post on the UbuntuForums networking forum or the NM Mailing list and maybe someone can help.

As for the connection editor it was implemented in NM 0.6.6 in Hardy and allows you to delete or edit Wireless networks. The version in 0.7.0 is a HUGE improvement and should cover all your wireless needs and should be done in time for 8.10.

jvin248 wrote on the 18 May 08 at 20:22

Network manager needs to look a bit more like "Wicd" in showing the available networks.

There should be a list of available networks and a preferred list. If you travel a lot you will need an "home", "office", "library", "Dallas Airport", "Heathrow Starbucks", etc list. This preferred list will each be configured and saved.

It's bad to just pick up "the last" network - that may have been two cities/countries ago.

The other issue is navigating around the network manager options is not easy (right/left click, which menu, etc) - which "Wicd" seems to have done better with (though Wicd has some other issues - maybe due to WPA implementation).

dogscoff wrote on the 18 Jun 08 at 21:25

Please implement this! In Gutsy my laptop would automatically connect to my hidden SSID on boot/resume. Since upgrading to Hardy it refuses to do so. This is a step backwards that needs to be resolved.

Post your comment