[Kde-hardware-devel] Wifi interface (revised patch in)

[Kevin Ottens]

Hi list,

Sorry for the delay I got dragged to other duties and didn't have time to 
finalize a revised patch until now. Find a cleaned up patch attached, it 
basically takes care of Stefan's comments (more on this below) and integrates 
better in the source tree (removed the Net namespace).

Le dimanche 6 août 2006 17:34, Stefan Winter a écrit :
> [...]
> BTW, IPv6 will (as always) save the world: you get an automatic
> notification of subnet and router change because routers send Router
> Advertisement messages. But we can't wait for decades until IPv6 is the
> default for client device connections.
> This functionality is not a big thing (after all, just a ping) but is
> lacking pretty much everywhere. It would move us ahead of MS, OS X etc.

That's definitely something that could be addressed in the backends (the 
NetworkManager backend for example). As you probably noticed the interfaces 
exposed through Solid are too abstract for this.

> [...]
> Oh, and my earlier comment still is valid in this regard:
> QStringList ...addresses, instead of QString ...address;

Ok, I just put an extra comment regarding this one because I admit I'm a bit 
split on this issue. I tend to think that for the average desktop usage you 
have only one address on the network not several of them. That looks more 
like a setup used for servers, so the questions are:
1) Is such a setup common on desktop systems?
2) Do we want to support a feature like this one more server oriented?

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> +        enum OperationMode { Adhoc, Managed };
>
> See my comment about Master and Repeater. Unassociated went away. Why? I
> thought that is a valid state...

I agree, hence why the enum got extended (Unassociated is back, Master and 
Repeater are now in).

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> +        enum Capabilities { WEP = 0x1, WPA = 0x2, WPA2 = 0x4, PSK = 0x8,
> IEEE8021X = 0x10, WEP40 = 0x20, WEP104 = 0x40, TKIP = 0x80, CCMP = 0x100 };
> [...]

Added a comment for this one. It can probably get simplified a lot (or simply 
disappear) thanks to the Encryption classes. It also addresses Christopher's 
comment regarding the fact that it's pretty much tied to NetworkManager, and 
I'd dislike to have something that backend specific in the libs.

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> +        /**
> +         * List of access points making up the network,
> +         * or ad hoc network nodes
> +         */
> +        virtual MacAddressList bssList() const;
>
> Um. This list is inherently incomplete, and thereby worthless. You can only
> add those MACs that you _see_ belonging to the same network. There may well
> be other APs that make up the same network but your client can not see.
> Same goes for Ad-Hoc, here this is commonly called the "hidden station
> problem". I'd suggest to just drop this function.

Well, I think you missed the point here (hence why I ignored your comment). 
It's here to allow us to determine that two networks with the same ESSID but 
different APs are probably different (think about the "netgear" SSID). Two 
networks (same ssid, different aps) could then be merged if we know (for 
example we asked the user) that they're really the same network.

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> +    signals:
> +        virtual void signalStrengthChanged( int );
>
> Fine, just keep in mind that the strength reported by the card is _almost
> never_  constant, even if you don't move. So this signal will basically
> almost always be emitted when you poll the device info.

Yep and that's fine IMHO.

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I didn't see outOfRange() in the diff. If it's still in the code, see my
> remarks on its reliability.

No it's not there anymore.

> Having it in the repository would be great!

I'd like to commit it soon, the problem is that the Encryption and 
NetworkManager classes are missing. So maybe it'd be nice to wait for Will 
first.

> I expect my cookies to be delivered at aKademy :-)

Sure! <mental_note>Bring cookies for Stefan.</mental_note>
That said you know that it'll probably be easier to find beer than cookies in 
Dublin. ;-)

Looking forward to meet you there.

OT: You weren't at previous aKademies, were you?

Regards.
-- 
Kévin 'ervin' Ottens, http://ervin.ipsquad.net
"Ni le maître sans disciple, Ni le disciple sans maître,
Ne font reculer l'ignorance."
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