managing networks on laptop

[Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz>]

Hi all,

Currently I'm using Network Manager on my laptop, which mostly works
except when I want to ssh in from my desktop, and I'm not logged in on
my laptop. Under those circumstances, the network isn't up.

What I really want (I think) is for my laptop to connect to known
networks, either by wired or wireless, when it finds them, but allow me
to connect (probably with a gui) to other networks manually when they're
available. I also need to be able to connect manually to an OpenVPN VPN
from time to time.

Additionally, where wired and wireless networks are both available, and
are the same, I'd like them to get the same IP address. (Addresses, in
fact - at some point I should get IPv6 running too ...) I've seen
suggestions to use bonding to achieve this, but I'm not sure how that
works when wired and wireless are not always the same network.

Are there standard tools that will let me do these things?

I think Network Manager might not handle it. Whereami might, but I think
it's been unmaintained for a while now.

Any tips appreciated :-)

Richard