Having trouble with your static / dhcp / wireless internet connexion in Ubuntu (and most linux distro’s)? Try Wicd

The Gnome Network Manager is really buggy and a lot of people are having trouble configuring the network connexion and getting it to work. Rather it’s wireless, static or dinamic ip, it’s just a pain in the a**. So i looked for an alternative, especially after my girlfriend’s computer started behaving oddly: internet worked for about 5 minutes and then she needed to restart in order for it to work… every 5 minutes that is. That’s when i found out about Wicd, an alternative for the gnome Network Manager.

Wicd has the ability to connect to any network (static, dhcp, wireless), profiles for each network, backwards compatibility with networking commands (iwconfig, ifconfig), select between static IP addresses and DHCP on a per network basis, store different static IPs, gateways, subnet masks, DNS server addresses per network, automatically connects at resume from suspend, ability to run scripts before/after connecting/disconnecting and of course, a tray icon.

Here are some screenshots:

This is how you can install it in Ubuntu:

Go to System > Administration > Software Sources, click on Third Party Software, Add:

If you have Ubuntu Hardy, add this: deb http://apt.wicd.net hardy extras
For Ubuntu Intrepid: deb http://apt.wicd.net hardy extras (yes, this is not a mistake, hardy repo for intrepid)
And so on, depending on your distro. If you are using Ubuntu Jaunty (not currently released), Wicd is in the universe repository.

Then, in a terminal, enter this:
wget -q http://apt.wicd.net/wicd.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Now click “Reload” in the Software Sources and then enter this in a terminal to begin install:

sudo apt-get install wicd

Then, press Alt + F2 and enter:  wicd-client

You will then see Wicd in your notification area, click it, and and configure your network. That’s it.
You can see how to install it on other distros, here.