Re: Network Monitor Capabilities in NM



On Sun, 2006-03-26 at 15:07 +0200, Nikolaus Filus wrote:
> 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
> 

Hi,

first a clarification: I'm not talking about providing complete
statistical information about network traffic, I think just providing
some visual indication of a network's activity would be quite useful as
one quick glance at the icon for example would show you that the network
is still active (huge downloads, distributed applications etc. ).

Therefore I would propose that just the icon of the nm-applet indicates
the current network's activity by using four different icons:

(1.) Inactive: Both monitors dark.
(2.) Receiving: Upper right monitor lighten up.
(3.) Sending: Lower left monitor lighten up.
(4.) Sending & Receiving: Both monitor lighten up.

This is equal to the network monitor applet.

Thomas

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part



[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Thread Index] [Date Index] [Author Index]