Network adapter management in laptop

[Bob Alexander <bob@ngi.it>]

Dear Debian friends,
until recently my laptop's eth0 adapter was managed perfectly by 
removing the "auto" param in /etc/network interfaces and using ifplugd.

In this way at boot I did not have to wait for DHCP timeout when running 
disconnected but activated the ifup command as soon as ifplugd sensed 
the network plugged in.

Now ifplugd is broken and every time I boot I must issue a manual ifup 
eth0. Of course using the auto param would work when plugged but be a 
nuisance when not.

Are there any other alternatives I can use ?

TIA,
Bob