One … can. I have a script for this myself, but I only set that up after wanting to do ad hoc and then realizing that it was basically impossible to do from scratch. Ad hoc requires an Internet connection to download the knowledge necessary to do ad hoc, and that utterly defeats the point of it all. (Except in how I've now cached that into a script.)

Ad hoc requires the machines be in "WiFi shouting range".

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hoherd 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I was about to talk about how online help files are forgotten these days, and should guide you to the right information to set up an ad-hoc network, but I was disappointed three times over by macOS.

macOS does not have any offline documentation like pretty much every OS used to. When I turn off my WiFi and then open "Mac User Guide" or "Tips for your Mac", they both tell me they require an internet connection.

When I re-enable my internet connection, neither of those apps have information about how to set up an ad-hoc wifi network.

When I looked up how to create an ad-hoc network in other sources, I discovered that the ability to create an ad-hoc network was apparently removed from the GUI in macOS 11, and now requires CLI commands.

I hate how modern tech companies assume that everybody always has access to a high speed internet connection.

	▲	userbinator 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I hate how modern tech companies assume that everybody always has access to a high speed internet connection. I suspect it's deliberate, especially when said company also sells cloud services.

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loloquwowndueo 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Oh so you bought two computers at a store with the operating system preinstalled and have never connected them to the Internet? And you have no Internet access whatsoever to look things up for your two 100% air gapped computers?

I’m not buying it.

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deathanatos 5 days ago | parent [-]

That's sort of a disingenuous phrasing, but yes. I'm not thinking of them as "air gapped", since I'm intentionally attempting to form an ad hoc WiFi network between them, but yes, until two laptops are connected over a network, yeah, they're effectively "air gapped" I suppose.

They have normal, consumer OSes on them. Whatever one might reasonably already have preinstalled.

I'm sitting at an macOS machine presently. If I poke around the Wi-Fi menu, and the Wi-Fi settings … IDK, I come up empty handed.

So let's cheat, and Google it. But the entire point of my post above is that needing to Google it defeats the point; if I have an Internet connection (which would be required to Google something) — I can just network the various machines using that Internet connection. In every situation I've wanted to form an ad hoc network, it is because I do not have any access to the Internet, period, but I still have the need to network two machines together.

Anyways, Gemini's answer:

> To set up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network on macOS, you can use the "Create Network" option in the Wi-Fi menu.

Apparent hallucination, since there is no such menu item.

The first result says the same thing:

> 1. Click the wifi icon on the menu bar. 2. Click “Create network. . .”

(… I suppose I see where the training data came from).

The next result is a reddit thread; the thread is specifically about ad hoc WiFi. The only answer is a link to a macOS support article; that article tells us to go to General → Sharing, and use "Internet Sharing". But AFAICT, that's for sharing an existing WiFi connection over a secondardy medium: i.e., if you have WiFi, you could share that connection over a TB cable, or some other wired medium. And "To Devices Using" conspicuously lacks "also over WiFi", or similar. I.e., this also isn't what we're looking for.

The rest of the results are mostly all similarly confused, and I've given up.

So even if I had Internet, … I still can't do it. So if I'm actually in a situation where I need an ad hoc, it definitely isn't happening.

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loloquwowndueo 5 days ago | parent [-]

> if I have an Internet connection (which would be required to Google something) — I can just network the various machines using that Internet connection

Wow, tell me you don’t know how computer networks work without telling me you don’t know how computer networks work.

I think we are done here.

	▲	roetlich 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		What? I think there must be some misunderstanding? I think deathanatos just wants an easy way to send files between computers when the internet is down, which seems decently reasonable.

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cozzyd 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This is super easy in Linux with NetworkManager. I assume other OS's have simple hotspot functionality?

	▲	deathanatos 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I never got around to installing NM in Linux. wpa_supplicant on its own is just … mostly good enough. Perhaps that's mea culpa, and I suppose perhaps I should try NM again, but I also sort of thought this wouldn't be rocket science, until I tried to do it and failed.