[lug] network scripts

[Nate Duehr]

On Fri, 2002-12-06 at 17:35, Sean Reifschneider wrote:

>    Device Automation -- Doing the right thing automatically
>       PCMCIA -- Modifying the scripts to do the right thing.
>       usbplugd -- A daemon I built that runs particular scripts based
on
>             USB plug/unplug events depending on vendor/device IDs.
>       autoether -- Run start/stop scripts when an ethernet cable is
>             plugged in.  My "smart script" does different things
>             depending on where it is.

I found some ways to make my networking do what I need on this RH 8.0
machine -- but it'd be neat (no pun intended, see below) if there were a
"cleaner" way to teach PCMCIA and the network scripts stuff like: 

Case: 

1) when the wireless card is inserted, ask whether or not we're at home
or "abroad" and ...
  -- if "abroad" ask for the ESSID and WEP key from the console user.

2) when the Xircom ethernet card is inserted, we must be at work...

3) when the 3Com ethernet card is inserted we must be downstairs at home
plugged into the switch or hub... 
  -- or like wireless above have a "enter IP/network" info choice...

GRIN... none of the distros are very "smart" in this sense.

It can be hacked, but then you ended up tearing up whatever distro
you're using's scripts... oh well... the joys of customization...

I did find that if you configure RH 8.0 for your wireless card complete
with ESSID, WEP key, etc... set the machine up for DHCP... then pull the
wireless card and put in the wired card... PCMCIA sees the new card and
brings it up with all the stuff the non-wireless network scripts know
about... and it works properly on wired DHCP networks... going from a
wired to wireless config is useless, of course, because there's no ESSID
or WEP information... 

And those silly "Profiles" in RedHat's GUI tool "neat" don't work right
at all for a mixture of wired and wireless cards, as best I can tell.

And I can't think of a time when a non-laptop machine needs to change
network settings very often, nor do people change hardware much in their
desktop machines... so what were they thinking releasing junk that's
useless in the most COMMON application -- changing TYPES of cards from
one network to another?  What else would you use a profile for?  (GRIN)

Oh well... 

--
Nate, nate at natetech.com