netconf is a tool designed to replace Debian's ifupdown in a backwards-compatible manner while aiming for maximum extensibility and flexibility. While it can read existing interfaces files and execute hooks in much the same way, it ties in closer with aspects of network configuration that have become more and more important in the past decade: link and location autodetection, including a framework to configure printers, smarthosts, proxies, etc.; zeroconf; wireless LAN configuration; VPN; firewalling; advanced routing and traffic control; and more.
