ability to connect to several networks at the same time

[pequatre]

This is a feature request.
I want to share my internet connection with the computers on my wired LAN.
As of now if i connect to either my wifi network or my wired network, it works fine, but if, say, i'm connected to wifi and i want the wired connection to be enabled too, wicd will disconnect me from wifi before connecting me to the wired one.
It turns out wicd won't allow me to be connected to more than 1 network at the same time. Thus i can't share my connection.

So as a feature request, i'd like wicd to allow me to be connected to more than 1 network at once.

[Adam Blackburn (adamblackburn)]

I'm setting this to Won't Fix as Wicd can't support more then one connection at a time. Eventually, we hope to allow multiple connections, at which point this may become a possibility.

[Loye Young (loyeyoung)]

We have the same issue, and here's how we fix:

Set up the wired connection in /etc/network/interfaces like the following:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Then go to the wicd preferences and delete the setting for wired interface. Reboot.

The effect will be that ifupdown will manage the wired connection, and wicd will manage the wireless connection.

Also, to allow internet connection sharing, you'll need to allow IPv4 packet forwarding by uncommenting the appropriate line in /etc/sysctl.conf.

Happy Trails,

Loye Young
Isaac & Young Computer Company
Laredo, Texas
http://www.iycc.net

[Florian Lagg (http://www.lagg.at) (florian-lagg)]

Thanks for that workaround. Anyway I want to vote for this request:

I often use two networks simultaniously, e.g.:

* Internet (WLAN) + new Router to configure (LAN)
* Fileserver on one Interface, Customers client (for security reasons) on the other
* ...

I think Wicd should not disconnect the current network if I connect to a new one. Maybe there could be a setting for users which want this behavour. I dont.

gnome-networkmanager made a big effort to support this. See: http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManagerToDo
If Wicd wants to be the better replacement we have to support this too.

Switching back to gnome-networkmanager - but trying Wicd at least once a month (and check for this feature).

[Florian Lagg (http://www.lagg.at) (florian-lagg)]

I'm sorry for not beeing able to solve this on my own.
The feature is essential, please consider fixing it in some release.
Thanks.

[Dan O'Reilly (oreilldf)]

There is already work being done on this here: https://code.launchpad.net/~wicd-devel/wicd/verypluggablebackends

But to do it right requires a very substantial rewrite of our codebase, which is going to take some time for a two-person development team. You're not going to see full support for a while. However, I am working on some things in the 1.6 timeframe to at least handle one wired and one wireless connection properly.

[Florian Lagg (http://www.lagg.at) (florian-lagg)]

Thank you for re-considering this request.
I understand that this is hard work - I'm sorry that I am busy in some projects and therefore have no time to assist you. I also think I do not have the necessary background.

Hearing that you are working on it is great! Your Wicd works much more stable than Gnome-NM. For me as an IT support person this feature is essential, therefore I use Gnome-NM in the meantime.

[guanx (guanx-bac)]

Hello Dan O'Reilly,
Thank you for working on this feature! My notebook always have a reliable wired connection to some important servers, and a wireless one to the Internet. It's not allowed to connect the internal network to the Internet, so I must have both up together. It's very handy if wicd supports multiple connections.

[giriNathan (giri-pushpanathan)]

I am trying to maintain simultaneous connections to a wireless and a wired network. I understand that the
Need help with setting up simultaneous network connections.

current version of wicd supports only a sigle connection at a time. Based on the previous postings, I decided to use wicd to connect to my wireless and use the /etc/inteface method to connect to the wired network.

my wireless network uses dhcp:
gateway:192.168.1.1
netmask:255.255.255.0
ip :192.168.1.101 (my router gives me this IP all the time based on mac address)

my wired network uses static ip:
gateway:142.65.64.1
netmask:255.255.255.0
ip :142.65.64.162
dns-nameserver:142.65.67.4

When the ubuntu desktop comes up and just before wcid connects, I can ping the name sever and www.google.com. But, Once the wcid connects, I can no longer ping the name server.
Instead of using my wired interface, ping tries to use the wireless interface. My wireless router is not connected to the internet. Basically, once wicd kicks in, the ping program sends the ping messages the wireless gateway instead of the wired gateway.

thanks

[Adam Blackburn (adamblackburn)]

Targeting for Wicd 2.0 (aqua).

[Mark (markthecodehamster)]

i'd love to see this come true. it would be Great!:) wicd rocks, thank you very much

[Kevin Kaland (kkaland)]

I would like to see this too. I will use Loye's workaround for now.

I am on Karmic.

Thanks,
Kevin

[B3rz3rk3r (adamgalt1)]

Just installed Wicd because of constant connection drops from Gnome-NM. Fantastic replacement that has fixed the stability issues. I too would love to see multiple connections ability implemented in the future. In the mean time i will be using the workaround from Loye Young. Thanks

[Torquil Sørensen (torquil)]

Yeah, multiple connections would be nice. I have two laptops on my desk. One is connected to the internet "wirelessly", and the two are connected through a network cable. Would be nice to administer all this using WICD. For now I'm using a simple workaround by mixing WICD (wireless) with /etc/network/interfaces and using the ifup and ifdown commands (wired).

[MikeR (mike-rechtman)]

After upgrading to Ub 14.04.1 NM icon does not appear - no matter, I prefer wicd anyway.
Installed wicd and I'm hit by this: Can't connect to wired and wireless at the same time.
Did this ever work before? Or am I having a senior moment?
Anyway allow me to add my vote, even if it's for one wired an one wireless connection

[Mark (markthecodehamster)]

OP here, 10 years later :) I have switched to NM KDE and it works there.