(Modified 2013 Nov 13)
Networking
May be specific for Ubuntu
I had a minor, recurring problem with (X)Ubuntu sometimes with my network, and more recently a bigger problem. The smaller problem was that, if I plugged into a wired network, my laptop sometimes would not connect, and rebooting would (somehow) fix the problem. I think the tricks I learned to solve the bigger problem, described below, will solve this smaller problem, should it recur.
The bigger problem was self-inflicted, as I found out at Ask Ubuntu. In order to get my home laptop on the network at work, I had had to assign it a static IP number. This made it impossible to connect to a network elsewhere where I visited. In /etc/network/, I backed up the file interfaces (sudo cp -a interfaces interfaces.bak) and removed any reference to a specific device (e.g., eth0 or wlan0), such that it read simply:
auto lo iface lo inet loopback
There are a few commands that I found useful:
ifconfig [OPTIONS] -- shows status of devices specified with [OPTIONS], for example:
-a -- all devices
eth0 -- the information for eth0, the wired adapter
nmcli [OPTIONS] -- the command-line tool for NetworkManager (Part of (X)Ubuntu
nm help -- list of the possible nm options
nm status -- shows overall status
nm wifi {onn|off} -- toggles wifi
-- I was toggling this to make the NetworkMonitor applet appear when it had disappeared.
sudo service network-manager restart -- restarts the network
-- I hope that this obviates the need for rebooting the computer, but we'll see.
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