Re: "Autoip" - icon

["Jerone Young" <jerone gmail com>]

On 11/14/06, Jason Martens <me jasonmartens com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 09:46 -0500, Robert Love wrote:
> > On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 09:41 +0100, Martin Vidner wrote:
> >
> > Hey, Martin.
> >
> > > How about a small superimposed "1:1" or "2" to hint that this kind
> > > of connection is only useful for an ad-hoc connection of two
> > > computers?
> >
> > There are also "Apple-style" networks without a DHCP server (or anything
> > else) where there might be more than two machines.
> >
> > But your fundamental point is spot on: We should somehow show graphical
> > that a Zeroconf IP is in use.
> >
>
> This would certainly be progress, but I think it doesn't go far enough.
> If apps rely on n-m to tell them when they are connected, having a
> different icon will notify the user, but will essentially "break" any
> application that relies on this information, and cause it to do The
> Wrong Thing (tm), which is contrary to the goals of n-m and gnome in
> general.

Very true. This would probably make a good case for having autoip off
by default. But you can have a situation where an autoip address can
be valid for reaching some network resource (though this case is
probably only done by a handfull of people on the planet, it is
possible). Since there is really no programmic way to determine this,
it's hard to determine.

> I have personally observed great confusion from users when autoip on
> windows kicks in, and I have to agree that in the majority of cases it
> causes more problems than it solves.

I believe Windows XP does give visual indication that the connection
never got a response from the DHCP, then it does autoip.
> What about having n-m configure two IPs? If it can't contact a DHCP
> server, then it will configure an autoip, but not show the connection as
> active unless it can find another device using autoip?  In which case,

sadly this becomes a chicken and the egg problem. If you have 2
machines (we'll say both running network manger) over a cross-over
cable. How will either get an autoip if neither can initinally see the
other has an autoip yet. But this ideas does have some merrit, but the
real problem is there is no real good way to tell when a good time for
autoip to kick in.

> then it would be in "limited access" mode, and the icon would reflect
> this condition.

> Jason Martens
>
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