Order of available wireless networks should be by strength, not alphabetical.

[Jason_L]

1) Description: Ubuntu 9.10
    Release: 9.10
2) network-manager-gnome:
  Installed: 0.8~a~git.20091014t134532.4033e62-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.8~a~git.20091014t134532.4033e62-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.8~a~git.20091014t134532.4033e62-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) I expect my home network to be at the top of the list
4) Instead, it is listed way down on a sub-menu below many other neighborhood networks.

The wireless network applet lists available wireless networks. Five networks are listed on the primary drop-down menu and any remainder networks are listed under a "More networks..." sub-menu. The networks are listed alphabetically by Essid, however, in a location with many wireless networks (for example an apartment complex), chances are, the user will want to connect to a strong, close network (their home network) rather than a distant one. It would make more sense to order the networks by signal strength so that close-by networks will appear at the top of the main list, and very weak ones will be on the sub-menu.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Wed Nov 18 16:47:03 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook-Remix 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.4)
IpRoute:
 192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.66 metric 2
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
 default via 192.168.1.254 dev wlan0 proto static
Package: network-manager-gnome 0.8~a~git.20091014t134532.4033e62-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: network-manager-applet
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1541): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1541): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:1571): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1603): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Wishlisting this as a enhancement

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

Thank you for your bug report. This bug has been reported to the developers of the software. You can track it and make comments at: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=607575

[Flávio Etrusco (etrusco)]

Seems like my idea in the upstream tracker didn't gain much traction. This bug with the lousy icon makes up for a really poor experience for the first-time connection...

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Please see the details in the upstream tracker for the reason why this bug "won't be fixed" [see gnome-bugs #607575]. However, I'll still paste the rough details for everyone's benefit:

We do understand that at the very first time you setup your computer (or when you're travelling somewhere), there is a need to select networks from a list (potentially fairly long) which is alphabetically listed; however;

 - this is only for the first time you go to a specific location. After that, your "favorite" networks float to the top, followed by a number of other networks (up to five in the "main" menu), then all others to a submenu, all of which alphabetically listed.
 - alphabetical listing makes sense following the concept that it's the natural way to look for a known network name -- which is the most common use cases: you know the name of your home network, if you go to someone's house, they would tell you the SSID to use, etc.
 - your "home" network will not always be at the highest strength (which is especially true where there are lots of wifi networks in range, due to factors such as interference)

As such, I'll mark this bug as "Won't Fix". Thanks!

[Flávio Etrusco (etrusco)]

The upstream tracker also contains reasons why I think it should be _fixed_ (including "every other OS do it that way), but Ubuntu seems to be trying more and more to do everything from everyone...