Why does the computer only connect to the network (e.g. eth0) when you log in?

Question

Not sure if this has always been the case, but I notice that only when I log in, does the computer establish a network connection (e.g. on eth0).

Is this the standard behaviour? What if I wanted the computer to connect to the network without me logging in so I can log in remotely?

Answer 1

Presumably because the network manager uses user specific network settings located in that user's home folder. The global network settings go into /etc/network/interfaces, which is a common way to set up networking on CLI servers. The down side is, you'll have to stop using the network manager. Here are some examples: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/setting-up-an-network-interfaces-file/

Answer 2

mikewhatever has given the answer I needed (and answered my primary question), so to answer the secondary question ("What if I wanted the computer to connect to the network without me logging in so I can log in remotely?"), all I needed to do was add the following to /etc/network/interfaces:

auto eth0

and voila!