Alternative to Network Manager May 17th, 2009
Let me rant once before anything else: "Network Manager SUCKS!"
After thinking that I may be having problem with my network speeds, or maybe a faulty wireless card, I tried WICD.
It absolutely ROCKS.
Before you needed to edit your sources.list to add a line for a repository but not anymore with Ubuntu 9.04. Just do:
sudo apt-get install wicd
And you are set.
But beware!: This will remove network-manager and restart your network connection.
You will find an entry in Applications => Internet => WICD T start configuring your connections.
Works like a charm, hope you find it as good as I do.
Unfortunayely NetworkManager is the only one to support USB 3G-modems as far as I know.
Do you have any idea how to configure WICD so it can handle 3G modems ??
Ivo
Sorry, since I do not have a 3G modem I will not be able to troubleshoot your issue.
:(
Ok. So Network Manager sucks. It can't deal with multiple network cards properly... you can't enable and disable individual interfaces.
But WICD is even worse - it doesn't even support the notion of having more than one network card. Seriously.
Why has network card management become the worst part of Ubuntu?
I've never had network manager work successfully out of the box. I don't know what it means by "automatic" for the connection. I don't see anything automatic about it. Seems to me it's pretty much impossible to configure the stupid thing to bring up your connection on reboot or after you log in. It just sits there disconnected. Have to disable / enable it to get it to do anything. And that's on a WIRED connection. I'm fighting with it for a wireless connection now.. good lord.
I'm going to try WICD, but I need to get my connection up to download it first. I could edit /etc/network/interfaces manually, but network manager gets jealous.
Ok, done ranting.
I cuncur, NetworkManager is BALLS. And worse, the devs are arrogant and unwilling to listen to any criticism, constructive or otherwise.
When I suggested the ability to have user-defined init strings for handling otherwise unsupported 3g cards (my dell mini9 in particular, needed special init strings to turn on the gps and to use direct IP mode as opposed to the much slower PPP mode of 3g), they called this a ludicrous suggestion and advised that a user, tech-savvy or not, should NEVER ever ever have the ability to edit such things. Nevermind the fact that NetworkManager as it is is broken in such regard.
This project is clearly a committee-run pile of fail and bollocks.
must be able to use 3g and wireless on nm it is so bad that windows is where i'm going
NetworkManager just cost me my morning.
How do you configure the nm-applet? how do you refresh it? how do you have it bring up the "more connections menu" once it has disappeared? why does it even disappear in the first place? why is the "Connect" button grayed out for selected networks? how do you actually connect to one of these "hidden" networks? how, why, where, what... many unanswered question.
I guess the only one that matters at this point is, do the developers of NM actually use their piece of manure?
I'm over a hundred hours wasted on Network Manager wireless WPA, as an experienced Linux user.
WICD is great, but it doesn't have VPN. If it did, that would be game over and NM could die the inglorious death it richly deserves.
My specific problems with wireless WPA:
Greyed out Connect button
Watching the spinning the icon, knowing it will never connect
The wired connection and VPN are great.