Networkmanager - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

WARNING
The use of this interface is deprecated. This interface will not be supported in
future versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

17.5 NetworkManager

NetworkManager is the ideal solution for a mobile workstation. With NetworkManager,
you do not need to worry about configuring network interfaces and switching between
networks when you are moving. NetworkManager can automatically connect to known
WLAN networks. If you have two or more connection possibilities, it can connect to
the faster one.
However, NetworkManager is not a suitable solution for all cases, so you can still
choose between the traditional method for managing network connections (ifup) and
NetworkManager. If you want to manage your network connection with NetworkMan-
ager, enable NetworkManager in the YaST Network Settings module as described in
Section 23.2, "Enabling NetworkManager"
connections with NetworkManager. For a list of use cases and a detailed description
how to configure and use NetworkManager, refer to
ager (page 321).
Some differences between ifup and NetworkManager include:
root Privileges
If you use NetworkManager for network setup, you can easily switch, stop or start
your network connection at any time from within your desktop environment using
an applet. NetworkManager also makes it possible to change and configure wireless
card connections without requiring root privileges. For this reason, NetworkMan-
ager is the ideal solution for a mobile workstation.
Traditional configuration with ifup also provides some ways to switch, stop or start
the connection with or without user intervention, like user-managed devices.
However, this always requires root privileges to change or configure a network
device. This is often a problem for mobile computing, where it is not possible to
preconfigure all the connection possibilities.
(page 322) and configure your network
Chapter 23, Using NetworkMan-
Basic Networking 239