Re: NetworkManager autoconnect

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2015-06-03 at 16:11 +0200, Pieter Cardoen wrote:
> Dear
> While network testing, I've noticed that NetworkManager automatically connects to a network if its 
> available. However when it isn't available, I've noticed that NetworkManager stops trying to connect. 
> What's the reason of this and how could I make NetworkManager unconditionally try to connect to the network 
> until the end of time?

NM will attempt to reconnect when specific events occur, like new scan
results or a carrier change.  So the answer to your question depends on
what kind of interface you're talking about.

For WiFi, it may be that the scan interval is too long to find your new
network quickly, which you can mitigate by asking NM to scan more
frequently.

Ethernet depends on the kernel's carrier indications unless you have set
'ignore-carrier' for that interface in the NM configuration file.

However, WWAN autoconnect happens continuously because WWAN doesn't have
quick/easy event notifications (scans take minutes and interrupt
connectivity, plus some modems only start registration when you ask them
to connect).  This means that whenever there is a WWAN autoconnect
connection, NM will attempt the connection if the modem is not in
Airplane mode.  If the attempt fails, NM will retry after a couple
seconds, and after 5 failed attempts will pause for a couple minutes,
then retry 5 attempts again.

Dan