Or to put daf's point from my point of view as a completely non-technical
user, it used to work fine by clicking on network manager (whatever
underlying program this was I don't know) and filling in the phone number.
Now it's broken.

Why has something which worked fine been removed? As I originally posted
when I had this bug filed under another bug report, it's not an issue to me
when my normal broadband connection is working, but when my broadband
provider goes 'bust' (as they have done twice now), or has a service problem
it leaves me in the intolerable position of not being able to get on-line at
all, not being able to email my provider to find out what's going on, not
being able to get on the internet to arrange another provider, not being
able to get my bank statements, not being able to recieve my emails, not
being able to access my online diary and documents etc, etc, etc.

On 19 August 2010 06:33, daf <email address hidden> wrote:

> Mathieu, I understand that technology *can* have a role to play (though
> I think that role is not as major as you might think here). I also
> appreciate that this is a level-headed discussion. Please understand I
> come from a place of passion about Linux-based operating systems, in
> particular Ubuntu. If you don't mind a bit of a read (and I hope this is
> a reasonable place to make this post) then please also understand that
> my frustration stemmed from the following:
>
> * _many_ 3G modems (and, with that term, I incorporate GPRS and EDGE, since
> the tech involved is often transparent to the user -- the modem is simply
> supplied by a wireless telecoms company on a contract basis) are correctly
> identified and work with the usb-serial kernel module, producing what, for
> all intents and purposes, looks "like" a serial modem to client apps. Even
> more of these modems can be "made to work" by getting their vendor/hardware
> id's forced at the time of module load -- not trivial for a newbie, but
> fairly simple to do (all things considered) when following some kind of
> instructions to edit default module parameters or try out with a modprobe
> line. The point is that as soon as usb-serial has recognised this device,
> the actual establishing of a connection via pppd is trival to script from a
> dev's point of view -- I would have expected the basics of ppp network setup
> to be available. In other words, the hardware here is not the issue. Whether
> you have a HUAWEI or a cheap Siemens modem, whether you use one of the
> zillions of phones out there which present a modem interface via cable,
> establishing a connection to the internet should be really simple with these
> devices -- and is, if you have a background in Linux networking. It's just
> that the common user is left out in the cold -- as is the lazy expert (:
> * Even if ppp connections can't be configured through NM (as with wicd,
> another fine lan/wireless network helper), the problem remains that the
> client-space applications all believe NM on the opinion it has with respect
> to "being online". The general idea of being able to help the user with an
> online status is neat -- just not well thought-out if it doesn't cater for
> one of the most common methods for connecting to the internet -- most
> especially at the time of the original post and my "+1". Now that wireless
> routers and DSL are becoming more of the "norm", the importance of this
> issue may actually, if anything, be dwindling a little. But I would still
> count it as important.
> * A larger issue is that gnome-ppp (or similar) isn't installed by default.
> NM is -- and could fill this gap. So the user gets a dvd/cd from a
> friend/colleague who is a FLOSS-pusher, installs (or hits the "try me out"
> option) and finds that something which was really trivial to do under her
> other installed OS is not immediately available to her -- and, as far as I
> can see, for no particularly good reason (yes, there's dev-time -- and yes,
> I should be putting my programming skills where my mouth is!) when the
> establishment of a ppp connection over a serial device has been the
> granddaddy of internet connection methods -- and typically something
> Linux-based systems actually do *better*: faster, better intrinsic hardware
> support (ie often no need to install extra 3rd-party drivers), more reliably
> -- in my opinion.
> * NM offers "Mobile Broadband" and "DSL" connections but won't let the user
> tweak the devices to use -- it's just like NM is so close, but missing that
> crucial cigar -- and I can't rationalise why. Perhaps someone else can?
>
> --
> MASTER Network Manager integrated ppp support - should allow the
> configuration of dial up modems
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/311581
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug (355553).
>
>