Re: Network Monitor Capabilities in NM

[Nikolaus Filus <nfilus gmx net>]

Thomas Voss wrote:
> Nikolaus Filus wrote:
> 
>> It's name is NetworkManager, not NetworkMonitor and the guys here
> follow
>> some (clever) usability guides
>>  that say, don't clutter the UI with too
>> much information. Especially, when there are other tools for doing so.
>>
>> I'm using gkrellm as monitor for all relevant data, I want to monitor.
>> Have a look at it ...
> 
> Then they should avoid displaying the signal strength of wireless
> networks as well, as the normal network monitor applet provides this
> information and it's not essential for _managing_ network connections.
> Or the other way round: I think additional information is essential for
> _managing_ network connections.

Partly - or yes and no. IMHO, the applet shows now 3 states:
 - no connection
 - wired connection
 - wireless connection
For the 3rd one the signal strength is shown, as online/offline can vary
with the signal strength. But throughput seems optional information to
me and is too much data to be shown in a good way on such a small area.
There are some applets, that try to show it graphicaly or as text and
most of them are more gimmics or visual toys, than real statistics.

Once I asked for a little modification on the ML, because those auto-ip
configured networks (169.x.x.x) shouldn't be interpreted as "online" in
some (or most?) cases, but the discussion didn't come to a result.

> 
> To my mind, _monitoring_ the active network connection is just an
> augmentation of the nm-applet with additional information that doesn't
> clutter the UI in contrast to using several different applets / utils to
> do on taks, i.e. managing all available network connections. It's a
> question of confusion as well.

Propose a better way to show all "relevant" information without
cluttering the UI and maybe someone shares your mind.


Just my 2¢

Nikolaus