nm-applet network sort order - by proximity?

[Jud Craft]

Wouldn't it be better if the network-manager menu sorted networks by
signal strength instead of abc-order?

This would make it more likely that a user's personal network will be
near the top of the list (since obviously your personal home router or
wifi connection should be closer to you than your neighbors, in
general - or at least in the top three or so).
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[Mads Kiilerich-3]

Ud Craft wrote, On 11/05/2009 05:48 AM:
> Wouldn't it be better if the network-manager menu sorted networks by
> signal strength instead of abc-order?
>
> This would make it more likely that a user's personal network will be
> near the top of the list (since obviously your personal home router or
> wifi connection should be closer to you than your neighbors, in
> general - or at least in the top three or so).

Agreed ... kind of.

I think that an even more usable primary sort key would be some kind of
"most recently used available" or "most popular available" ordering. It
would be great if connections with same "popularity" (for example "never
used") then were ordered by signal strength as you suggest.

I sometimes see 40 connections, and "the right" connection doesn't show
up in the 1st level top 5 list. Recalling the the right name and find it
in the long alphabetic list is not a good usability experience.

/Mads

NetworkManager-0.7.996-5.git20091021.fc12.i686
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[Jud Craft]

> I think that an even more usable primary sort key would be some kind of
> "most recently used available" or "most popular available" ordering. It
> would be great if connections with same "popularity" (for example "never
> used") then were ordered by signal strength as you suggest.

I'd agree except for the hesitation that a mutating-list isn't very
consistent.  Usability-wise, it might be more important for a user to
have the same list each time (with his choice in the same place),
rather than a constantly changing list.

Since wireless signal is mutable, I'd propose setting each network in
the list based on its first detected signal strength.
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[Dan Williams]

On Wed, 2009-11-04 at 23:48 -0500, Jud Craft wrote:
> Wouldn't it be better if the network-manager menu sorted networks by
> signal strength instead of abc-order?
>
> This would make it more likely that a user's personal network will be
> near the top of the list (since obviously your personal home router or
> wifi connection should be closer to you than your neighbors, in
> general - or at least in the top three or so).

There was a bug open about this.  There are two reasons why:

1) signal strength still isn't reliable enough to use, and the AP you
want to connect to is *not* always the strongest, especially if you live
in places like apartment complexes like some people do.  Signal strength
also isn't always reliable, it varies depending on whether somebody
around has WiMAX turned on, or bluetooth turned on, or a microwave
between you and the AP.

2) The menu is mostly useful for *first time* connections to an AP, and
when you connect to an AP the first time, you almost always know the
name.  Otherwise there's nothing you can use to distinguish the AP you
need to connect to from any other AP.  Like in a coffee shop I often go
to, the SSID and the password are clearly printed on a slip of paper
near each table.  But there are also 5 other APs around.

So if you've connected to the AP before, NM should be automatically
reconnecting to it.  Or, in 0.8 your previously-used APs will be listed
first in the menu anyway.  If you've got a bunch of APs you no longer
connect to, you can remove them with the connection editor too
(right-click nm-applet, Edit connections...)

Dan


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