Visible wireless networks are not sorted by signal strength

[David Balažic]

Binary package hint: network-manager

Ubuntu 10.10 desktop i386 Live CD desktop environment

The menu that appears when left clicking the network applet icon in the bar at top does not sort the found WLAN network by signal strength/power.

So it happens that the AP in my room is not listed in the menu, but only in the Other networks submenu, even it of has the strongest signal.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: network-manager 0.8.1+git.20100810t184654.ab580f4-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.33-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Mon Oct 11 12:00:02 2010
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
IpRoute:
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
 93.103.0.0/16 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 93.103.191.185 metric 2
 default via 93.103.0.1 dev wlan0 proto static
Keyfiles: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: network-manager

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Related to Bug #636839 ?

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

> in the Other networks submenu

The sub-menu name is actually "More networks"

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Package: network-manager 0.8.4~git.20110319t175609.d14809b-0ubuntu3

Ubuntu 11.04

Still same.

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

A request to autoconnect based on signal strength is open upstream.

    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=593654

Closing here to save us the trouble of tracking the same request here.

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

On 4 July 2012 12:10, Thomas Hood <email address hidden> wrote:
> A request to autoconnect based on signal strength is open upstream.
>
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=593654
>
> Closing here to save us the trouble of tracking the same request here.

This is not the same request. The gnome bug is about automatic
connections, while this one is about the list displayed in the menu
when connecting manually.

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

Yes, the requests are different, though related insofar as code must be written to rank the networks. Please file a new request upstream.

    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/browse.cgi?product=NetworkManager

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Thomas: don't think this is going to get changed. The list is sorted like this because you normally know what the name of the network you want to connect to is; it's not normally "the highest signal", especially when there are multiple networks in range.

Once the initial connection is made, then the network will always show up in the "top" list of 5 networks if it's in range.

[Gino Miglio (gino-miglio)]

Mathieu,

I disagree. As I write this, I am sitting in a shared office building with about 20 networks in sight. My company's network is (obviously) the strongest signal, because I am in my office. There is no reason I should have to sift through an alphabetical list of distant networks to find the one I'm trying to connect to. It should be in the top 5.

I know the SSID and only need to do that once, of course, but that isn't always the case. If I'm visiting a friend in an apartment building, it's a similar situation. The same goes for most public access points. Honestly, I can't think of very many situations where sorting alphabetically would be more useful than sorting by signal strength. I think it should be the default, but at the very least there should be an option.

I think it's absurd that this was closed as a Won't Fix. I don't imagine it's difficult to implement, either, though that is not the point. This is a feature which should exist and doesn't. It makes network-manager seem amateur.

Gino