Re: "Autoip"

[Jason Martens <me jasonmartens com>]

On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 07:17 -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-11-12 at 23:25 -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> > On Thu, 2006-11-09 at 20:01 -0400, Derek Broughton wrote:
> > > How do I prevent Network manager from doing this really annoying 
> > > pseudo-connection with IP 169.254.56.71
> > > 
> > > NetworkManager: <information>^INo DHCP reply received.  Automatically 
> > > obtaining IP via Zeroconf.
> > > NetworkManager: <information>^Iautoip: Sending probe #0 for IP address 
> > > 169.254.56.71.
> > > 
> > > I suppose if you have no Internet connection but you do have a LAN, it might 
> > > have some value - but really, most LANs have a DHCP server.  When I can't 
> > > reach my DHCP server I don't WANT the system to think I'm network connected.  
> > 
> > Why can't it reach your DHCP server, but yet you are connected just fine
> > to your access point?  It seems the problem is that the DHCP server is
> > not responding, not what NM does when it can't find your DHCP server.
> 
> In any case, in 0.7 with the better configuration structure, it's not
> out of the question to add a "Don't do autoip for this connection"
> switch buried somewhere in prefs for those people that don't want it.

I agree with Derek on this point.  If applications are relying on the
connectivity status from network manager, then it causes the apps to do
the wrong thing if nm says it's connected.  Most apps will assume this
means connected to the internet, no?  Perhaps it would be a good idea to
have two different connected signals, one for internet availability, and
one for autoip.  I believe there was some discussion about having
different icons in the past as well; is that still in the works?

My 2 cents worth.

Jason Martens