Bugzilla – Bug 11734
Squeezeplay devices should auto-detect your network settings -- always.
Last modified: 2011-11-06 23:23:43 UTC
Instead of just auto-detecting during the setup, Fab4 should always monitor your network and give you the appropriate options when a network change has been detected. I suggest the following: a) Using Wireless 1) Ethernet is plugged in: Fab4 pops up a new menu that says "I found an Ethernet connection, do you want me to use this as your primary connection?" 2) Wireless Network Disappears: Fab4 pops up a new menu that says "Your wireless network has disappeared, would you like to switch to Ethernet?" b) Using Ethernet a) Ethernet is unplugged: Fab4 pops up a new menu that says "Ethernet has been disconnected, switch to Wireless?"
During setup behavior could be: A) if Ethernet is plugged in, just move forward. (as it already is) B) if ethernet is unplugged, show network list (as it already is) 1) On network list, include "Use Ethernet" at bottom. 2) If user plugs in an ethernet cable while already on the Wireless Network list, immediately switch to ethernet and move forward.
For now, we've decided to make network switching always a manual process. A pain for us in development, but consistent for our users.
See the reason I opened this ticket is that over the weekend I had two different users of SB3's complain that they switched to ethernet but it was still using wireless. Its not obvious to them that it would continue to use Wireless after they install an Ethernet jack. In IP3K i dont expect to solve this issue -- but Linux can pretty easily detect when Eth0 gets plugged in or unplugged, so it seems like a no-brainer to have some kind of watchdog that alerts the user to a network change. I think we're making a mistake if we set this to WONTFIX...
This sounds like an improvement to our experience, for the most part. I don't agree with 100% of Matt's suggestions, but overall this sounds like a great idea. If the ethernet connection is lost, either something catastrophic just happened, or the user pulled the cable. In the case of the user pulling the cable, reacting to that with some options for him to click on sounds constructive and even friendly. I think our users will like that. If the WiFi connection is lost, that's a little more nebulous IMO. So many things may have gone wrong. In this example, I think presuming to ask the user if he wants to use ethernet is premature. (see bug 11314) If instead Fab4 is using WiFi and an ethernet cable is plugged in, again this is something that a customer must do and his action can result in some constructive choices coming up on the screen. Here again, I think our users will like that.
Let's keep setup out of this discussion. Through user testing and after much discussion, we have a solution for hooking up ethernet that works fine (QSG tells user to plug in cable then turn on device. Device asks "wireless or wired ethernet?" user chooses ethernet, if ethernet is plugged in, you're done, if not, you're prompted to plug in cable). There are many reasons why we decided to do it this way, including bridging, having ethernet plugged in while using wireless and doing a factory reset (yes it's an edge case), etc. See Dean's comment #2. ------- As for post-setup, let's wait and see if this is a real problem with users. Matt, have you encountered anyone having this problem on fab4?
CC'ing richard for the discussion. I was personally wishing that we did auto connect to ethernet (and/or an appropriate wlan), but that was because I was moving mine around.
We've much bigger problems to worry about at the moment. Also the feedback I've seen on the forums suggests any auto switching would be a bad idea, as it would confuse users. Once the product is shipping and working well, if you feel strongly about this reopen the bug to discuss again.
I'm certainly not suggesting we need to divert development cycles ... but I do believe that we should keep this in mind. Supporting bridging as an advanced feature is fine, but it can easily be a hidden-away option for only the most advanced users. I bring this up because I had two separate instances over the weekend where "average" users (my dad, and a friend of mine) both thought that plugging in the Ethernet cable would make it work over ethernet. You have to remember that if someone plugs in the ethernet cable, it might be months after they first set it up -- they're not going to remember that there was a little bit in the manual about "oh you have to walk through setup again."
Moving bug from 'wontfix' to 'future' so the discussion can continue
I favor manually setting the network connection type in networking setup, but if it can be done, it would be great to monitor the ethernet port when the current connection type is wireless. Then you could not only ask the user if they wish to switch to ethernet, but could at the same time ask them if they want to enable bridging. Choices being: 1) Yes, switch to ethernet connection 2) No thanks 3) Enable bridging (connection type remains wireless) It would be an easy way to allow a user to switch from wireless to wired and also an easy way for them to enabling bridging without needing to figure out how.
Unassigned bugs cannot have a priority.