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A comment on Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to AirDrop. Parent comment

Re:Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to A... by max8539 on Tuesday April 28, 2026 @11:13AM (#47935762)
So, should there be apps that use it to transfer files between iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac without requiring them to be on the same network?
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Re:Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to A... by Asmod4n on Tuesday April 28, 2026 @11:54AM (#47936207)
No WiFi cards for pcs support it.
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Re:Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to A... by sleepybrett on Tuesday April 28, 2026 @12:25PM (#47936637)
it might be interesting to use unused or extra wifi cards to support this. My pc motherboard has both wifi and ethernet and I only use the ethernet. That card does absolutely nothing at all.
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Re:Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to A... by ssl-3 on Tuesday April 28, 2026 @02:28PM (#47938443)
That's not quite accurate, I don't think.

I've definitely used STA and AP modes concurrently on my Windows laptop with the operating system's built-in internet connection sharing function to help troubleshoot a problem in the field.

That was around a decade ago. It didn't take any extra effort on my part; I just told it to do the thing, and then it did that thing.

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Re:Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to A... by max8539 on Tuesday April 28, 2026 @08:22PM (#47942668)
Researched this for a bit: there is some hardware for PCI supporting it, but Windows 10/11 not, and Linux is still work in progress, so no real support on OS level, only for some iOS/Android devices.
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Re:Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to A... by Asmod4n on Wednesday April 29, 2026 @04:24AM (#47945579)
Afaik the hardware supports it for a while now, but there is no firmware to expose the functionality.
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Re:Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to A... by jeroenhd on Wednesday April 29, 2026 @03:10AM (#47945061)
Google's QuickShare contains a reverse-engineered AWDL implementation that works on Pixel and a few other phones.

As for WiFi NAN: support for it seems rather limited outside of iOS and Android. From what I can tell the feature is barely tested on Linux and I can't find any generic Windows APIs for it either.

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