In some implementations, a network daemon can manage access to a mobile device's network interface. The network daemon (e.g., network connection managing process) can monitor the condition of the mobile device's network connection on one or more interfaces. The network daemon can monitor many conditions on the mobile device. The network daemon can receive background networking requests from network clients (e.g., processes, applications) that specify criteria for initiating a network connection. The network daemon can then smartly manage network connections taking into account network conditions, mobile device conditions and/or client criteria received in the client request. This can help reduce battery life impact, memory usage, likelihood of call drops, data usage cost, and load on network operators.