56k questions

["Jess Bermudes" <jbermudes gmail com>]

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their hard work on this
project, NM is an awesome tool. This post isn't so much a complaint as
it is feedback and an inquiry, so sorry if it comes off harsh.

I'm an Ubuntu 8.04 user and occasionally I need to use my Dell
laptop's modem because I am not near any wireless or wired
connections. After finally getting the drivers up and running, I
noticed that using a modem in nm is a little awkward. I have two
options: connect to ppp0 and disconnect from ppp0. I'm trying to
figure out what was the design decision behind having it that way. I
feel like I have no real control over my modem when using nm because I
get no feedback about what my modem is doing. As a recent convert to
Linux, here's my experience using nm for dialup for the first time:

1. I press connect to ppp0, nothing happens, so I press it again. I'm
wondering "hmm, how do I know if it's dialing?" after trying again, a
few seconds it starts to dial. I think to myself "that was weird, but
oh well, it's working now"
2. After the dialing process and all those classic beeps and boops and
screeches that we've all come to love have finished, nothing happens.
The icon of nm stays in the disconnected state (two computers with a
red [X]) I'm thinking "wait, did it connect or what?"
3. I go to the dialup connections menu in nm and see that my 2 choices
are still "connect to ppp0" and "disconnect from ppp0". I open my
browser to discover that I do in fact have a connection, but I'm still
confused.
4. When I have concluded the use of the internet, I go to "disconnect
from ppp0", and once again, I find no indication that it has
successfully disconnected.

Now, as a little background, I'm a computer science student in
college, so if it confused me, I'd hate to be in the situation of
other users. And while some of you may suggest that there are other
programs out there instead of nm, if nm is the default manager for a
distro like ubuntu, then making it as transparent to users as possible
is probably a goal.

I guess what I'd like to see is some sort of feedback from nm during
the use of dialup connections. Are there technical limitations that
prevent this, or is it more of a lack of manpower? If I can learn
about the situation, then perhaps I may be able to contribute to make
nm just as amazing for dialup as it is for wired/wireless connections.

 - Jess Bermudes