Comment 51 for bug 5364

I'm just adding a bump here. Reading through the thread I'm at a loss as to why it's so complicated with regards to vpnc. I have a desktop at home and a laptop. On my laptop, I can use the Network Manager applet to fire up the VPN connection with work (because of the current design, this is because my laptop uses WiFi). On my desktop, I cannot, because it is configured with a static IP on my home network.

My expectation as a user is that vpnc should be accessible in the same way on my laptop as on my desktop. That expectation is not being met with the current design.

I understand there was an original intent for the people who made Network Manager -- and it does a great job of managing different network environments that one finds with a laptop.

This vpnc thing needs attention though, because it shouldn't matter what your local area network connection is when you start your VPN connection. Ideally, the user should only have to worry about establishing an IP connection to his VPN concentrator -- and at that point be able to launch vpnc with Network Manager.

The other alternative is to create a vpnc applet that's separate from Network Manager. I think it would be better to improve Network Manager.

/me realizes he's sending to know for whom the bell tolls.