Wifi Support

[Gray J]

Since hardwire is not always available for some people, will wifi card support be available?

[Midnight2ss]

I'm not a developer, so take what I say with a grain of salt until it's confirmed. It's likely that HexOS won't support wifi because it's based on TrueNAS, which doesn't support wifi. However, I do believe that if the developers wanted to, they could add wifi support in the future. But as of now, I'd say that it won't support wifi.

[Toby]

TrueNAS (Scale) in turn is based on Debian, which *does* support WiFi, so not removing the drivers shouldn't be impossible. The bigger issue I think is support, since there would be more potential sources of errors.
Personally I'd like to have WiFi as a fallback option, since troubleshooting my headless server if ethernet ever stops working for some reason will be dreadful ^^;

[TeamBVD]

I feel like having your core NAS support being WiFi connected is likely to be a customer support nightmare - maybe that'll change a bit once WiFi 7 adoption starts to spool up, but until then at least, I'm not sure I'd want to support it were I in their shoes. I can only imagine the number of complaints about disconnects and terrible performance theyd likely end up recieving from folks using 5Ghz in super dense apartment complexes 😳

[Dylan]

There should be a path to "enable" wifi usage but not "support" it. Enabling it allows it's usage but if you want some help? Plug your box into an Ethernet port. We can (should?) have it both ways.

[jonp]

Wifi is not a short term objective. I know it's be ideal in the perfect world, but it is a non starter for us to add to our 1.0 roadmap.

I'll never say never forever, but definitely no time soon. 

[Mobius]

1 hour ago, Dylan said:

There should be a path to "enable" wifi usage but not "support" it. Enabling it allows it's usage but if you want some help? Plug your box into an Ethernet port. We can (should?) have it both ways.

this is all i want and its more than good enough for a jellyfin server

[Gray J]

4 hours ago, jonp said:

Wifi is not a short term objective. I know it's be ideal in the perfect world, but it is a non starter for us to add to our 1.0 roadmap.

I'll never say never forever, but definitely no time soon. 

It would be great if yall would be able to add it in a few years. It would definitely set ya'll apart in custom NAS space. Even if it is handful of cards I think the community would be grateful. 

[Smir]

Would have helped me when setting up truenas to have a little play, had to run a cable up the stairs 😝 didn’t have the drop down in the bedroom at the time. 

[Clixxi]

That's something i really miss in NAS software in general. How nice would it be to store your device under stairs, behind some furniture and just forget its there. This would also have some nice side effects like not having to explain why there is another device in the house or what it cost 😆 You have to be creative.  

You can laugh all you want but my ideal place to put my devices if WIFI was available would be the toilet. (WIFI only for non critical devices/services)

[Midnight2ss]

There is one problem with WiFi. It would I think cause a ton of issues as well WiFi never seems to work all of the time plus when transferring data any distance from the router and the connection is basically non existent you can take a gig connection and basically cut it in half which it you plan to back up to something else like the buddy backup could cause issues

also if transferring very large files or streaming from pled while the nas is on WiFi I could see that having issues as well

[Clixxi]

Right -  you would need the correlating WIFI standards like 6e, 7 or something and good WIFI reception. 

[Midnight2ss]

1 minute ago, Clixxi said:

Right -  you would need the correlating WIFI standards like 6e, 7 or something and good WIFI reception. 

The only practical use I see for it right now is as a secondary management option, in case something goes wrong while setting a static IP or making other network changes. Using Wi-Fi for storage transfers would, in my opinion, defeat the purpose of having a NAS since the transfer speeds would be painfully slow. Personally, I prefer to hardwire everything, including printers, whenever possible. It just seems to result in fewer issues overall.

That said, this is just my perspective as someone who works with tech daily and sees the challenges Wi-Fi connections can cause. With Wi-Fi 7, the situation might improve, but I’m not sure how they’d configure it to ensure it only uses Wi-Fi 6+ and not older standards if the network card supports them.

Considering Wi-Fi 7 was only released this year, it’ll take some time for the necessary ecosystem—hardware, routers, and other network gear—to fully adopt it. To truly benefit, devices like phones and computers would also need to support it.

[Mobius]

3 hours ago, Midnight2ss said:

The only practical use I see for it right now is as a secondary management option, in case something goes wrong while setting a static IP or making other network changes. Using Wi-Fi for storage transfers would, in my opinion, defeat the purpose of having a NAS since the transfer speeds would be painfully slow. Personally, I prefer to hardwire everything, including printers, whenever possible. It just seems to result in fewer issues overall.

That said, this is just my perspective as someone who works with tech daily and sees the challenges Wi-Fi connections can cause. With Wi-Fi 7, the situation might improve, but I’m not sure how they’d configure it to ensure it only uses Wi-Fi 6+ and not older standards if the network card supports them.

Considering Wi-Fi 7 was only released this year, it’ll take some time for the necessary ecosystem—hardware, routers, and other network gear—to fully adopt it. To truly benefit, devices like phones and computers would also need to support it.

As a more casual user, i use my nas more for archival and don't need any of my files in speeds faster than wifi can provide. I had no issues playing back a 2 hour 60gb movie via jellyfin using wifi so i am more than content.

I want wifi because it lets me stick the super loud machine in a corner far away from anyone that can hear those damn exos drives i have. I don't have networking infrastructure in that corner and its a lot of effort running cabling in an approved (by family) manner in a rented home.

[Clixxi]

My thoughts. When you don't need the speed it's ideal. Just pack your Server into some cabinet.

[Astrid]

I am really concidering buying this, but wifi support would be a must, as my income isn't enough to move anywhere i can hope to be near ethernet (shared living spaces, etc. It's not super popular to have a cable running over half the appartment then being unable to ever close the door)

Wifi instability is way less of a frustration than SMB permissions and ACLs x)

[Dylan]

45 minutes ago, Mobius said:

As a more casual user, i use my nas more for archival and don't need any of my files in speeds faster than wifi can provide. I had no issues playing back a 2 hour 60gb movie via jellyfin using wifi so i am more than content.

I want wifi because it lets me stick the super loud machine in a corner far away from anyone that can hear those damn exos drives i have. I don't have networking infrastructure in that corner and its a lot of effort running cabling in an approved (by family) manner in a rented home.

Yeah, I'd have to pay for a cable run from bedroom downstairs...so hoping the new device I just bought (with exos drives) isn't louder than my current nas.

[Mobius]

2 hours ago, Dylan said:

Yeah, I'd have to pay for a cable run from bedroom downstairs...so hoping the new device I just bought (with exos drives) isn't louder than my current nas.

its not that its insanely loud, but im get annoyed very easily by constant sound. Example being I got rid of every clock that ticks in my home because they drove me nuts.

[WhyCheese]

On 11/30/2024 at 5:28 AM, jonp said:

Wifi is not a short term objective. I know it's be ideal in the perfect world, but it is a non starter for us to add to our 1.0 roadmap.

I'll never say never forever, but definitely no time soon. 

This feature would make hexos more unique. As i understand truenas doesn't support it in any way.

I would sacrifice speed for wifi feature and would love to hear some workarounds.

[Mobius]

30 minutes ago, WhyCheese said:

This feature would make hexos more unique. As i understand truenas doesn't support it in any way.

I would sacrifice speed for wifi feature and would love to hear some workarounds.

the main work around is to get something like a tp link wifi extender with an ethernet port but they hurt power efficiency compared to built in wifi and they are also more flakey from my experience 

[WhyCheese]

1 minute ago, Mobius said:

the main work around is to get something like a tp link wifi extender with an ethernet port but they hurt power efficiency compared to built in wifi and they are also more flakey from my experience 

Sounds promising, maybe will buy to try as they about 20€ .

But not sure if it fully work because i tried to network share wifi through phone USB (i can see hexos on other devices but can't see folder and install apps.). Thinking similar logic appliest to non USB wifi sharing.

[Mobius]

if i can find my extender i guess i can try it. Its an older model so i imagine newer ones with wifi 6e or 7 would work slightly better

but im sure itll be more than enough to tell if network shares work

[WhyCheese]

5 minutes ago, Mobius said:

if i can find my extender i guess i can try it. Its an older model so i imagine newer ones with wifi 6e or 7 would work slightly better

but im sure itll be more than enough to tell if network shares work

Mega* respect if you can try extender.

EDIT: Giga

Edited December 7, 2024 by WhyCheese

[Mobius]

22 hours ago, WhyCheese said:

Mega* respect if you can try extender.

EDIT: Giga

found my extender. I tried it. i placed the extender about 5 feet from the router
i was able to access my smb share on my mac that is connected to my main network via wifi with no issues. 
a 1.45gb file took about 2 minutes 45 seconds to upload
it took about 2:12 to retrieve that file

when directly wired to my router it took around 1:10 to upload the file
and then 18 seconds to retrieve that file

 

[SCLAleet]

Would love Wifi support. I can't place the nas near the router. It is wall mounted next to the appartment door. A wire to another room would be a pain in the a. Don't care about bandwith or stability. Wifi is convenient which this whole thing is about^^