Ubuntu Network Manager VS Windows Network Connections

Here is a small comparison between ubuntu's network manager and windows' network connections . I'm more of a ubuntu user since quite a while . But i do tend to use windows at certain times as you know , certain things just work only on Windows . But most of the time , I'm on ubuntu . I connect to quite a few wireless networks often . As i use a laptop i roam around and have the need to connect to different wireless networks . So based on my usage i have compared ubuntu and windows on their networking capabilities.So here's what i found :



Firstly without causing any suspense let me tell you that i feel Ubuntu wins this one . There is one important reason for this . I mean when it comes to networking capabilites there is not much to compare , i mean both windows and ubuntu have a decent GUI to configure network details like ip address,subnet etc . Both can connect to hidden networks . Both can create ad-hoc networks . So basically both can do most of the basic networking tasks. But one feature which i truly LOVE in ubuntu which windows does NOT have by default is this.

THE SCENARIO

As mentioned earlier , i connect to different wireless networks at different times . I am sure most of you do the same . But for most people the wifi networks they connect to are DHCP enabled wifi networks so no need to manually enter static ips , mention gateways, subnet masks etc . So in such cases its perfectly fine , as both windows and ubuntu connects to wifi networks well in cases. BUT , what if say for example , i very frequently connect to 3 different wifi networks . Say 1 in the morning ( at home ) , another in the afternoon ( at work ) and another in the evening ( say friend's place ) . Now here are the network conditions for these three networks.

1)Network 1 ( at home ) - Uses DHCP so ip would be given automatically
2)Network 2 ( at work ) - Uses static ip with say static ip as 192.168.1.15 and gateway ip as 192.168.1.1
3)Network 3 ( at friend's place ) - Uses static ip again but here static ip as 192.168.2.45 and gateway ip as 192.168.2.1

Now this is a very common issue i'm sure . As many of us would have to connect to various wifi networks and some of them require you to manually enter static ips , and some have DHCP enabled.

HOW THIS WORKS IN WINDOWS
So with this kind of situation , on a daily basis , i would have to configure the tcp/ip settings under network connections to "automatically get ip address" for network 1 .


And then at work , when i have to connect to Network 2 i again have to go to tcp/ip settings and setup static ip as 192.168.1.15 and gateway as 192.168.1.1 . Remember i need to make this change everytime i bring my laptop from home to work . Then again when i need to connect to network 3 , i need to go to tcp/ip settings and enter static ip as 192.168.2.45 and gateway as 192.168.2.1 . Then only i would be able to access network 3.

Then the same process again the next day . So it definetly gets irritating to do this . Now ofcourse there are 3rd party softwares where you could create network profiles to do this , some of them require you to manually shift to another profile when connected to a specific network , and not all these softwares are FREE.
You may say that windows has this "Alternate Configuration" option , but hey that allows you to specify only 1 set of ip address if your machine doesnt get an ip via DHCP . So its not a solution for more than 3 - 4 networks.


HOW THIS WORKS IN UBUNTU
In ubuntu things are very simple . I need to configure these settings just once when im connected to the respective networks and ubuntu automatically creates a profile for each network . And as soon as it detects the network around it automatically applies those settings for my laptop . By settings i mean ip address,gateway,subnet mask etc . So i just need to feed this information the first time i connect and after that ubuntu takes care of the rest . Simple isn't it? And the best thing is its FREE and you dont need any 3rd party software , all this works by default.Here's a screenshot of how ubuntu creates profiles.


CONCLUSION
Well from this i guess its pretty clear that networking in ubuntu is way easier than in windows .