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Network discovering... too many options



Hi,

 please keep <mmagallo@debian.org> in the Cc:.  Thanks.

 I was looking thru the selection of network discovering scripts in
 Debian and I'm perplexed.  The task is relatively straighforward: given
 a laptop and a network connection spit something that can be used to
 configure the laptop for the current network environment.  Why are
 there _so many_ options then?  Let's see (feedback appreciated):

    Package: divine
    Description: Automatic IP configuration detection for laptops
     A utility to locate current network address via arp requests and
     perform light reconfigurations based on its findings.

     "divine" is intended for laptop users or people who use their
     machines in different networks all the time. It is meant to be run
     from the PCMCIA network initialization scripts.

     For more information see: http://www.fefe.de/divine

 Sounds good.  The only downside is that it seems to use PCMCIA, which
 the laptop I have here doesn't even look at for network stuff.

    Package: guessnet
    Description: Guess what network is connected to an ethernet device
     Based on the network detecting code of laptop-netconf, guessnet
     tries to guess what network an ethernet device is currently
     connected to, using fake ARP requests.

     It has been written to be coupled with the debian ifupdown package
     to achieve automatic network detection and configuration, but it
     can be used stand-alone to implement smart network scripts.

 I know this one, I have it on another laptop.  Very simple and it's
 easy to integrate it with ifup/ifdown.

    Package: intuitively
    Description: Automatic IP configuration detection for laptops
     A utility to locate current network address via arp requests and
     perform heavy reconfigurations based on its findings.

     "intuitively" is intended for laptop users or people who use their
     machines in different networks all the time. It is meant to be run
     from the PCMCIA network initialization scripts or the command line.

 Sounds like guessnet plus the "heavy configuration" stuff.  I guess
 it's something like /etc/divine/{network}/{up,down}.d/{dd}{stuff}, is
 that it?  Is the network detection algorithm different?

    Package: laptop-net
    Description: Automatically adapt laptop ethernet
     The laptop-net package supports the built-in ethernet of laptops by
     providing several integrated features that automatically adapt the
     laptop to the network environment.  The package is easily
     configured to support a wide variety of network environments, and
     supports manual as well as automatic management of the network
     interface.

     Laptop-net can automatically: start and stop the network interface
     at appropriate times; disable the network interface when the
     network cable is removed, and enable it when the cable is inserted;
     select the network interface's IP address, either by probing the
     network for known hosts or by use of the DHCP protocol; customize
     the laptop's software configuration to match the network
     interface's IP address.

 This sounds like intuitively plus another package I discovered when I
 was looking at this list, ifplugd.

    Package: laptop-netconf
    Description: network detection and configuration program for laptops
     laptop-netconf can automatically determine the network to which
     your laptop is connected, from a set of preconfigured alternatives.

     Once the network has been detected, you can run arbitrary scripts
     to configure the services on your laptop for correct local
     operation.

     This package requires some basic networking knowledge at present.
     A sample configuration is enclosed.

 Hmm...  dunno what to think...

    Package: switchconf
    Description: Change network config for laptops
     switchconf allows nomad laptop users to easily change their
     configuration.

 I think I've seen this one, but I'm not really sure.  Sounds like
 intuitively minus the guessnet bits :-)

    Package: whereami
    Description: Automatically reconfigure your (laptop) system [...]
     whereami is a set of useful scripts and a coordinating system for
     automatically re-locating your computer within the current
     (network) environment.

     Typically, you would use whereami to automatically detect and
     re-configure your laptop when you move between a variety of diverse
     networks and/or docking environments.

     Although whereami will work best if all of your networks assign
     addresses through dhcp, this is not a pre-requisite and the system
     allows any technique to be used to ascertain the new location with
     as little ongoing user intervention as possible.

     Having ascertained the correct location, whereami will run
     appropriate (user-configured) scripts to adjust the laptop
     operation to suit the current environment.

     See http://debiana.net/whereami/ for more information.  You may
     also get useful assistance from the debian-laptop mailing list,
     which is frequented by several of the contributors.

 This is the one that pops up a configuration screen at boot up, right?

    Package: ifplugd
    Description: A configuration daemon for ethernet devices
     ifplugd is a daemon which will automatically configure your
     ethernet device when a cable is plugged in and automatically
     unconfigure it if the cable is pulled. This is useful on laptops
     with onboard network adapters, since it will only configure the
     interface when a cable is really connected.

 Sounds like a nice addition to guessnet and intuitively.

 Any comments?  The current configuration on the other laptop is based
 arround guessnet.  It basically tries a couple of IP/MAC pairs and then
 falls back to dhcp.  There's an annoying pause when the laptop in
 plugged to a new network where there's no DHCP server, but other than
 that, I'm mostly happy.

-- 
Marcelo             | The Emperor had all the qualifications for a corpse
mmagallo@debian.org | except, as it were, the most vital one.
                    |         -- (Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times)



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