Networking with Ubuntu does not need to be static. At any time you can enable new network adaptors and reconfigure existing ones. Network connections may be direct, routed through proxies, or protected through encrypted network connections. With tools like ndiswrapper, you are not limited to hardware with Linux drivers, and IPsec and Tor add security to your connections.
Configuring new network routes is not always simple. Ubuntu offers a variety of powerful packet analysis tools that you can use to diagnose network problems.