Re: Network Monitor Capabilities in NM

[Jürg Billeter <j bitron ch>]

On Son, 2006-03-26 at 15:21 +0200, Thomas Voss wrote:
> 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.

IMO, there are two problems with that proposal. First, if you replace
the current icon, you loose the current information (wired/wireless,
wireless signal strength); integrating all information in one icon is
not feasible. Second, flashing monitors are distracting for some people,
so it shouldn't be mandatory in nm-applet.

What you really want is enhancing the network monitor applet by the
possibility to always select the interface chosen by NetworkManager,
that shouldn't be hard. And maybe the same for the netspeed_applet, if
there is need for more detailed information.

Regards,

Jürg