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Binary package hint: network-manager-gnome

Serious Network Manager Issues with Mobile Broadband


There are several serious (and partially related) issues regarding the Network Manager Applet and Mobile Broadband using a USB Mobile Broadband dongle.  They occur on a netbook with Ubuntu 11.04 (fully updated, Gnome desktop).

1/  The attached image shows the "Enable Mobile Broadband" option NOT
ticked in the Network Manager Pull-Down Menu.  Yet there is a fully
working connection via "Vodafone UK UMTS" Mobile Broadband.  Clearly,
this cannot be correct.  But, furthermore, when ticking "Enable Mobile
Broadband", then establishing a Mobile Broadband connection routinely
(but not always) fails.

2/  It is unclear which settings are required to smoothly establish a
Mobile Broadband connection.  In the "Edit Connections" panel there are
two options, "Connect Automatically" and "Available to All Users".  In
the Taskbar Pull-Down Menu, there is the option "Enable Mobile
Broadband" and there is the possibility to click "Mobile Broadband >
Connect".  It appears that selecting "Available to All Users" and
ticking "Enable Mobile Broadband" give rise to major problems to
establish a connection.  However, the behaviour of Network Manager in
this regard is erratic, unpredictable and lacks consistency (see also
3/).

3/  When restarting the netbook -- both after a full "Shut Down" and after a "Suspend", and leaving the Mobile Broadband dongle in its USB port --, three scenarios may variously occur:
  (1) a connection is automatically established;
  (2) a connection is established only after clicking "Mobile Broadband > Connect";
  (3) Network Manager switches off the dongle, and the dongle needs to be physically unplugged and re-inserted after a pause, followed by either (1) or (2) or (3).  Unplugging may be necessary up to five times.
Which of these three scenarios actually materializes is unpredictable and varies, even though no configuration settings have been altered.

4/  When the netbook is also within range of a Wi-Fi network, then
Network Manager will make a second simultaneous connection (that is. not
only via Mobile Broadband but also via Wi-Fi).  It is entirely unclear
whether traffic is then routed via Mobile Broadband or via Wi-Fi.  The
"Resources" tab of System Monitor also makes no distinction.  Clearly,
as Mobile Broadband comes with strict data limits, the ability to choose
to direct traffic through Wi-Fi is elementary.

5/  Network Manager lacks any accounting tools.  Because Mobile
Broadband comes with strict data limits, it is elementary that both real
time data consumption and cumulative data consumption can be monitored.
(System Monitor enables current data traffic monitoring, but it fails to
differentiate between wired, Wi-Fi and Mobile Broadband; and it resets
traffic to zero when a connection is interrupted.)  A simple task bar
utility applet displaying current and cumulative Mobile Broadband data
consumption (rather than a full-blown desktop application) is the
obvious approach.  There is, however, nothing to this effect in the
Ubuntu repos.

** Affects: network-manager-applet (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: Confirmed


** Tags: broadband bugs manager mobile network
-- 
Serious Network Manager Issues with Mobile Broadband
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/796872
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