I'm sorry if this disappoints you. I use network-config program to manage multiple network configurations on my debian laptop. The program uses its own configuration and applies the network setting directly with ifconfig. So I think it works for all distros or *nix types.

I work interchangeably at two offices (of the same company), both use wifi connection. At home, I use ADSL connection. Having all my configs done correctly, all I do each time I switch work place (and thus network connection) is fire up the network-config program, choose a suitable network profile, click the apply button, and I'm connected. BTW, it's written in Perl with Gtk2 for its nice and simple GUI.