Binary package hint: nm-applet
I have currently consistently failed using 4 different methods to enable connection sharing. Firestarter has some sort of bug in it (listed here somewhere else, as a known bug) which it mangles an exit hook, I failed to get guidedog working properly (don't know exactly how on this one), and I failed using a method involving iptables directly (in fact, I panicked when I accidently shut off all internet services, and not knowing Iptables, figured I'd have to scrounge around man pages for hours to figure out how to reverse it), and I failed to do route add correctly (although that's more or less because I was in a rush, I'll get to it later).
A general user should not have to go through really any of these steps to share their connection, they should just have to click an option (maybe in network-admin?) that says "Share my connection" and select what interface they want to share from, and what interface is connected to the internet.
Likewise, users should have a wizard for setting up shared folders between ubuntu (or other linux) computers that should be easier to configure, ideally users should not have to go use netstat and go looking for IP addresses, and have to set up a samba or openssh server all on their own (now this I *did* do successfully, but we're talking about grandma here), but rather just click the computers connected to them and select some folders.
Ideally this would just be a front end to existing powerful tools like openssh or what have you, but using non-exotic default options, and set up in a way that grandma will be comfy with.
Hi thanks for your suggestion. Sharing a network can clearly be made easier, but more detail is required before we can start on an implementation. I suggest you start a discussion upstream (http://