Wireless Unraid


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What I don't get about this whole thread is that it's VERY easy and cheap to get wireless support for Unraid right now, no need to wait for OS support. Wireless game adapters are readily available, and easy to change and upgrade when wireless technology advances, instead of waiting for linux support to catch up.

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What I don't get about this whole thread is that it's VERY easy and cheap to get wireless support for Unraid right now, no need to wait for OS support. Wireless game adapters are readily available, and easy to change and upgrade when wireless technology advances, instead of waiting for linux support to catch up.
I don't think wireless game adapters come in wifi 6.

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On 7/18/2020 at 4:29 PM, BRiT said:

Other hack-a-round is buying a cheaper Wifi AccessPoint with some LAN ports, plug server(s) into AP and let that bridge to your Wireless network.

 

Costs all of $70-$80 for a TP-Link AX1500 to use like this even on Wifi 6!

 

after a search i think i overlooked this tread but,  you are so wrong....   

in another post i explain why.    but basicly  most (if not all)  such devices run outdated mips cpu's that lack pci-e and thus the required bandwidth for  gbit or higher speeds both on wifi and on lan side.  

 

read more:  

 

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4 hours ago, BRiT said:

Did you even bother looking at what was linked to before commenting? It's not using the typical low speed processors anymore.

 

 

first of, - yes i did, only to realize it isn't readely availible here in NL, second of all its broadcom based,  well lets not start on that,  poor network performance with brcm chips, hickery linux drivers (even in stock firmwares),     and overall it wil never  suport openwrt and so will not get decent firmware updates. 

 

and even when looking for a replacement at that pricerange, ??  

to compare it against: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-WBAX200-rev-10#kf 
intel based wifi AX with aproximately 2gbps on the 5ghz band. for only half that price? 

 

the obvious question would be ... did YOU even bother.... but i will refrain from such remarks and so should you! 

 

in the end it boils down to this:  is wifi worth the trouble, both in development cost and eventual support issues 
> you say no, (and probably have easy access to cables), 
> i say yes, (and do not, and furthermore, this topic has been around for years and the ye-arguments have strengthened, and the nae-arguments have weakened. 

 

for my part, if unraid was some kind of opensource software i would just have added the required software myself (or pay someone to do it)  and maybe even provide build info for others.  as it is - limetech can easily add the feature and NOT support it. rather than not having it at all. 

 

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My take on this.

  • Wifi support in Linux is limited, the main reason is drivers are not free. It will be hit and miss with your hardware.
  • Unraid is based on slackware, which has virtually no wifi implementation. The network stack of Unraid is heavily modified to support a lot more networking than slackware offers. Wifi support requires additional development, which isn't a light job (not to mention hardware purchases to do so).
  • Wifi is a support nightmare. Speaking from own experience I can tell that most connection problems are caused by wifi. It is questionable whether the additional support burden is worth it.

The easy solution I have done, is the installation of an AP set as client. APs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. It is a matter of finding the right one for the job. An advantage with a separate AP is its placement. Instead of a server somewhere tucked away in a corner, the AP can be placed anywhere in the room for best reception.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't really get what this fuss is all about "supporting" wireless.  The wheel has already been invented you know.

 

So, a month ago, I blindly picked up a bunch of used wifi adapters from a garage sale. Having never played with wifi, I was curious to see what I can do with them on my unraid test-server.  Turned out it was no big deal.  What I did was, I enabled their drivers in the kernel .config, and recompiled the kernel. Then downloaded one little firmware file, installed a couple of packages from slackware.org, and everything was up and running.  All and all, with googling and stuff, it took me about a day.  As we speek, my Unraid test-server is running as a Wireless Access Point, with a separate smbd process configured to listen only on the wifi interface.  Fun!

 

Just a little note:  I have modified all the regular Unraid services (sshd, smbd, nginx, etc) to only listen on my admin-only ethGreen ethernet interface, so at this point, no service other than that dedicated samba daemon is listening on the wifi interface.  Also, for now, this box is not acting as a gateway, it's not forwarding any internet packets.  May decide to do that later, after playing some more with this thing, and after setting up some sane iptables rules. 

Edited by Pourko
A little extra info.
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+1 from me as well. 

 

I feel that if there are supporting packages available on slackware.org and a non-UnRaid dev was able to pull together the necessary package (drivers / config / packages), then the time has arrived for a re-review of native wireless support within the UnRaid system.  I do fully believe that there is a lot more that the devs would need to build/configure in UnRaid to make this an Official Feature than what Pourko has done, but I think that the factors which made wireless unfavorable in past dev cycles has changed enough to warrant a re-review.

 

From my perspective, my children are already writing code while in High School and Middle School, and they are looking to pursue Computer Science or Engineering degrees.  It's telling that both of them happily chose to give up new video cards in favor of having hardware that is capable of running UnRaid just so that they can have VMs to write code with.  Reviewing college options with my oldest shows that network availability in dorm life (which I know COVID will likely alter) is showing mostly poorly maintained and non-upgraded copper in the walls coupled with limited port availability.  It feels like more dorms are switching to wireless networks instead of tending to the copper in the wall, and I'd like the UnRaid machines that I build my children to be usable when they leave for college with them.

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