Network setup wizard

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Created 3 years ago, edited 3 years ago.
Status changed 1 year ago

Author:

remoulder

Status:
Selected

Score:

159
217 votes

Idea:

Windows has its network setup wizard, KDE has its Samba and User Sharing configuration applets, Gnome has ...?

Since NM replaced the old network config, there is no simple GUI way to configure local network sharing.

My suggestion is for a simple wizard/gui to allow this to be configured.

A more advanced GUI might also allow the changing of hostname, editing the hosts file, changing workgroup/domain, samba user configuration, etc.

Comments:

3 months ago	Jimw	Easy networking capability should be top of the list for development. I don't want to have to use Windows ever again.
7 months ago	gloriousigor	Took me about thirty - forty hours, conservative estimate, to connect Linux Mint to my already existing local home network on a reliable basis. and I haven't even begun to figure out the mysteries of the firewall. I even downloaded a GUI or two, didn't help. It's a bear setting up a network in Linux, and I wouldn't recommend Linux for anybody that has more than 1 PC in their household unless they already know Linux networking and have done it before or learned about it from a friend, classroom or book. Why is networking so incredibly complicated in a simple home network scenario, where a user just wants to share files and maybe a printer, and keep the outside world (Internet hackers) out? This will be the scenario for 90% of users with a home network. It would be nice to have a GUI with a drop-down menu for selecting one of ten common scenarios, and then the GUI sets up everything to support that, and if any changes are needed to support a more complicated scenario, then the advanced user can do it himself.
1 year ago	olbus409	An excellent idea. Should be a high priority.
1 year ago	dagon	Something for a developer to have a look at. new -> considered
1 year ago	erojoquin	plese so many hours and days wasted trying to share with my family's pc's
1 year ago	alan0kerns	Oh yes please. I've wasted tens of hours over the last few days on this. The biggest problem for the ignoranti is the Byzantine complexity of all the rules. I suspect I may have rendered a difficult task impossible during my many desperate experiments. Most frustrating is that I can see my 2 pcs on file managers which refuse to do business with them because they are not mounted. And I have no idea how to mount each machine on the other. For normal work, however, Linux Mint (Debian/Gnome) is great. For my own sanity I'll have to give up on a LAN.
1 year ago	RavS	Excellent!
2 years ago	Gurman	Good idea! Must be a two gui: wizard/simple for newbies and advanced for admins.
2 years ago	haluan	it's to easy,not so important to write it as an idea
2 years ago	Tonya	@ckristi: good, but not enough
2 years ago	ckristi	How about "Press Alt-F2 and type shares-admin".
2 years ago	Tonya	A very good idea! Network setup wizard must be in "Control Centre". And I am for more advanced GUI.
2 years ago	Reljoy	I have found it very strange that I can very, very easily network to a Windows computer using Mint but I can't very easily connect to another Mint computer. I would love to see a streamlined simple approach to networking between two Mint computers. Another thing that confuses me is that AFAIK samba was created to connect Linux to Windows - why do we use samba to connect Mint to Mint?
2 years ago	clevermercury	Agreed... I haven't seen a way outside the CLI to change the hostname.
2 years ago	oi_antz	Yes to this, especially Samba configurations. One thing seriously lacking is the mounting of network shares, such as Windoze has the "Map network drive" which is quite a simple entry into /etc/fstab or a script run at startup, but certainly a gui would make this process much easier to manage and more rock-solid, especially for newbies.
2 years ago	bepin	I support the idea. I'm a newcomer to linux (great!!!) and i grew up with dos and windows.
2 years ago	punkrtekk	Very good idea, should be implemented in new Mint control center.
2 years ago	zaenal1234	yes,it's bright idea I like this idea.
2 years ago	Pappasmurf	I too like the idea of a easy to use wizard to set up a network.
2 years ago	tanmays	Sounds good to me too.
2 years ago	kneekoo	Network sharing in Gnome is very important to me as well. It should be easy to change the workgroup, the computer name and shares within a simple interface so I vote for this.
2 years ago	LinuxWiz83	baffle-boy KDE don't need it, gnome does so that is why this idea is brought up
2 years ago	baffle-boy	sure, if it is made available for KDE like most of the existing mint tools.
3 years ago	plaguethenet	I like this idea, Check out my suggestion about easy internet connection sharing. The two combined would be a huge help to new users of linux (or lazy users like me who would really rather not edit a bunch of files in /etc/, Im an ex gentoo user btw ;) )
3 years ago	thx1138	I like this idea. Sounds like a very usefull tool.
3 years ago	Flaviy	Network manager now is terrible and buggy. I think it will be better to replace network manager with something like wicd or better. Or improve NM and test it.
3 years ago	cardom77	Great idea, think simple, be simple
3 years ago	waka_choko	Yeah, there isn't any easy way to do a simple workgroup network in Linux as in windows. My grandma can easily setup a network in windows. I promote this idea.
3 years ago	Cant_Winn	I would agree on this. I was just looking around for something to do this too. My laptop runs Mint and my desktop runs Win7. I would like an easier way to get my network up and running.
3 years ago	davedarkblade	And it must make easy the configuration of static ip, dhcp, wifi or wired and the dns
3 years ago	tynerjr	Easy for you, but not for many of the rest of us. We don't have servers, and don't know how to (or maybe don't want to) set one up. Instead we probably have several Windows machines (XP and Vista), one or two of which dual-boot Linux, wired or wireless printers, connected through a router, and just want to share files between all and print, easily, regardless of the OS that happens to be running. I suspect a lot of the difficulty (from within Linux or Windows) is on the Windows side, however.
3 years ago	eiver	What are you talking about? I have a Mint Server hosting windows shares and a printer. I can access these shares and the printer from another Mint machine, from an XP machine and from Vista too. In Mint I just added a bookmark in Nautilus pointing to: smb://myserver and thats it. What is really peculiar, it is easier for me to access my Windows Network using Linux than it is using Windows. In linux everything can be done the GUI way. In windows I had to write a *.bat script to force the system to use different login for shares and different for the machine itself. To sum up. No. We do not need that. Everything already works and is easy regarding network sharing.
3 years ago	FrostyC	Setting up sharing on your wireless home network between mint & windows is a horrible experience & for some reason, I can't get it to save the settings, so everytime I reboot, I have to re-do it all... Talk about a freakin' pain. And if it's a network with a password on it, just shoot yourself in the head...
3 years ago	Rovanion	This is an upstream bug and should rather be reported at bugzilla.gnome.org
3 years ago	waka_choko	Great Idea, I always dream for an easier Network configuration in gnome.
3 years ago	adaemox	I would like an easy way to do Samba and NFS, but I agree in general.
3 years ago	mintee_jamesee	It Should...
3 years ago	Pierre	Should this be just Mint - Mint, OR, Mint to anything ?. Eg: Giver, only works on Mint - Mint, & on the same network.

community.linuxmint.com

Network setup wizard

Other ideas from remoulder