network icon disappeared after installing wifi

[linuxa]

Hi there

I've recently managed to setup my wireless card using ndiswrapper on Mandrake Linux 10.1 Official.

Unfortunately,I seem to have lost my network icon in the tray when I made the transition from network cable to wifi.

The icon is really quite useful in allowing to connect/disconnect from the net as well as monitoring my internet speeds.

I've heard of third party programs that does the same thing (probably better), with the likes of Kwifi.

But despite the dangers of sounding whimsical , I'd really like to know how I could activate/deactivate the icon.

I've currently got "start on boot" ticked for the wifi, unfortunately, although the card does load on startup, I can't connect to the net until I explicitly use the "Connect Ethernet" button in KMenu -> System -> Configuration -> Configure your computer -> Network -> Monitor connections. Which is a really long winded way of getting it done.

I'd really appreciate some help on this matter.

Thanks guys.

[bigtomrodney]

The applet you're talking about is great, I love it too....

The application that it runs - (from memory) is K-Menu > System > Configuration > Monitoring > ...and I think it's called network monitoring. It has an option to start at boot too, so it should be a bit easier to connect. I'll check the binary name later for you.

[linuxa]

Hey bigtomrodney, thanks for posting, you were good enough to participate in both of my active threads, you definitely deserve a prize

Anyways, I'd really appreciate it if you could track down what the app is called. I was poking around the the Monitoring section a few days but couldn't find anything relating to what I wanted. Will do an urpmf tomorrow

But I did give Kwifi a try, didn't turn out to be that great, only showed signal strength, is about it

No traffic stats, or ability to connect/disconnect...

[linuxa]

Hey bigtomrodney, I found the applet, it's called net_applet.

The only odd thing with it is that when I start up my wifi, the label on the applet context menu reads "connect eth0", but it does show "disconnect wlan0" after I'm connected.

Thank.

[bigtomrodney]

I was gone boozing there for a few days - festival time here. Glad you found the net_applet, I find it very handy but that's a bit weird about the tags. What interfaces are listed on the "Watched Interface" part?

[linuxa]

It lists only wlan0 under Monitor Connections. but when you press the "Connect Ethernet" button. BOTH (!!) appear to be connected - i.e. two tabs, one for wlan0, and one for eth0.

Weird eh?

[Giles]

I can't connect to the net until I explicitly use the "Connect Ethernet" button in KMenu -> System -> Configuration -> Configure your computer -> Network -> Monitor connections. Which is a really long winded way of getting it done.

What I've done with a similar problem is to put a link to /usr/sbin/net_monitor in my menu (using the application menu applet in MCC > System).
Those directions are correct for LE2005, but MCC seems to have been rearranged since 10.1, so if you're using a different version, you may need to have a look round.

This should make it a little quicker, at least, and interestingly you don't need root privelidges (sp?) to access that particular applet

Hope this helps

Giles