It is extremely difficult for the average user to bridge connections in Ubuntu, where in contrast it is much simpler in Windows.

Currently with network manager you can right click and get connection information, in a separate window. While it is a lot easier to get the network details this way than it is in Vista, and this would be great for detailed information. If you just want to know your IP, wifi speed, or current gprs/utms etc status for mobile broadband it's annoying.

This weekend I longed for a windows feature in Ubuntu. That feature is the ability to check, while setting up IP address or upon connecting to the network, for a duplicate ip address on the network and inform the user via a balloon pop-up originating from network manager.

i struggled for a few hours trying to figure out why i am constantly getting connection dropps on my office lan. It took me that long as I was focusing on latest ubuntu updates that i ran that could be the issue. Someone on IRC suggested to check for duplicate IP.

Would be a great idea to add this very simple feature to network manager. Maybe doing an arp check before applying an ip via network manager and doing an arp check as soon as the PC connects to the lan. i am not sure how windows does it but I assume it's similar

I had a problem with my network for quite a long time. So I decided to call my ISP provider and ask if they know what's the problem.
They told me that this supposed to be a common problem when double booting. And the only way to repair it is to change dynamic IP to static.
But the thing is that in Windows if there is no IP (connection) you can just plug out and back in, while if I do the same action in Kubuntu nothing changes.
To get things working in Kubuntu I have to try all permutations of computer on/off, cable pluged in/out and hard resetting the modem. And even if this works I think it more of coincidence that this actions somehow reset the IP address demand. The problem lies in that, that Kubuntu demands a new IP but the computer already has a IP which was demanded by Windows.
So I propose that (K)Ubuntu sends at start up a signal to Network card to reset IP addresses so it can get a "clean slate" IP address.
I also reported this as a bug.

Implement /net from Plan 9. (We already implemented /proc from Plan 9). Plan 9 is the successor to Unix.

/net is the API for all TCP/IP, and it can be used even with scripts or shell tools, writing data to control files to write and read connections. Relevant sub-directories like /net/tcp and /net/udp are used to interface to prospective protocols. You can implement a NAT by mounting a /net from a perimeter machine with a public IP, while connecting to it from an internal network of private IP addresses, using the Plan 9 protocol 9P in the internal network. Or you can implement a VPN by mounting a /net directory from a remote gateway, using secured 9P over the public Internet.

Here would be an example of using union (a stack) directories in /net: just like inheritance in OOP, you can take one (possibly remote) /special directory and bind another local special directory on top of that, adding some new control files and hiding others. The union directory now is like a child object instance of the original parent. The functionality of the original can be partially modified. Consider the /net file system. If you modify or hide its /net/udp sub-directory you may control or extend the UDP interface with local filter processes, still leaving the original /net/tcp running intact, perhaps in a remote machine. Note that name space is per process: if you give an untrusted application a limited, modified /net union directory, you restrict its access to the net.

All this makes it easy to combine "objects" or file systems written in different languages on different systems, while using standard naming, access control and security of the file system, largely transparently to the programmer.

Ubuntu is safety but we can grew up by adding for example ip filters like p2p programs.
With this, ubuntu keep away for business that only recolected data for users without her/his authorization.
The filter will lock the business ips that are know that collected data from users.

It is not necessary to create a new filter, it is posible to use an existing filter base for example in peer guardian filter and adapt it to work with ubuntu.