An Ubuntu Essential: Wicd

As I mentioned before I am using Ubuntu Linux on my primary machine right now. Since I had moved to version 8, there was some glitch with networking where it wouldn't allow me to hold a static IP...after posting to a mailing list for help and Googling around the conclusion generally came down to, "Network Manager sucks. Replace it."

With what?

I hesitate to replace default system components because the more you goof with that, the harder it can be to get help (Ever troubleshoot something for an hour to realize that the instructions aren't working because you tweaked some miscellaneous thing three months ago and the fix happens to rely on you having the default configuration? It's another reason that OS X delivers a consistent and generally user-friendly experience while Linux distributions are so diverse that it's hard to give a simple "default" set of instructions for helping newbies...).

But at the same time I couldn't have my workstation periodically altering it's address on the network; I have some network management in place that relied on the machine being consistently found on a particular address.

But eventually I bit the bullet and installed the application recommended by others...Wicd. The instructions were fairly simple to follow: add the repo to your list, enable it, get the GPG key and install that from the command line, then just do an install from Synaptic (or use apt-get from the terminal), both of which are standard in Ubuntu for management of your installed programs. Then you're done.

Even better, this program is such a popular alternative to the Network Manager that with the release of Jaunty (version 9.04) it turned out Wicd is in the Universe repository. Just enable the Universe repos, update, and tell Synaptic to install Wicd.

The installation will automatically remove Network Manager and replace it. I've had zero networking problems since swapping it out. If you're running Ubuntu, and from anecdotal evidence if you're running Ubuntu on a notebook and need wireless connectivity to work more reliably, check out the link to Wicd's installation page. Installation isn't hard and it'll save you quite a bit of swearing...believe me...