Wi-Fi-Direct upgrade for MacBook Air (early 2014)?

Part 7: How to Setup Wi-Fi Direct on Mac

Now, for you to be able to set up the Wi-Fi Direct on your Mac, all you have to do is to follow the guide below.

1. Go ahead and launch the System Preferences on your Mac.

2. After that, go ahead and choose “Sharing”.

3. And then, choose “Internet Sharing”.

4. Once that you are done, go ahead and select to share a connection using AirPort.

The Mac OS X will then turn on a software base station on your PC and this will be the one to serve as the central Wi-Fi hub.

if you would want to connect another device on your Mac using Wi-Fi Direct, then here is what you need to so. Let’s say that you have a TV that you would want to connect to. Provided that both devices support Wi-Fi Direct.

Go ahead and choose to turn on your Wi-Fi.

And then, go ahead and click on the icon one more time and then look for the options listed.

From there, go ahead and choose “Create Network”.

AS for the direct question Yes that card should support WiFi direct and you can buy on amazon for $30 as returns to them is easy just in case

Here is the amazon link

https://www.amazon.com/Willhom-BCM94360C...

mhotspot or airdrop provide some functions/features that you could achieve with Wi-Fi-Direct in a "non-wi-fi-direct" way. So this does not seem to help.

Dear stressmaster,

thank you for your super-quick reply. For some reason, I am unable to reply to your reply, so I am posting a new answer. Feel free to move this text below your answer, if possible.

I did follow the instructions in the link you provided (copied in your comment), but unfortunately, I do not see the option “AirDrop” in the “Internet Sharing” list, so I could not follow the instructions to the end (-> no success).

I did find some other similar sites that all refer to the MacOS option “Internet Sharing”, but it seems to me that this will not enable Wi-Fi-Direct in the narrow sense (= according to the Wi-Fi Allianace standard), but some other sort of peer-to-peer exchange. Also, it will share the internet connection only (no DLNA, no wireless printing, no file excahnge, no screen mirroring/miracast or any of the other nifty things possible via Wi-Fi-Direct).

You write:

> If I remember correctly wifi direct is a software/driver thing not so much a hardware related issue.

I tend to disagree. The Wi-Fi-Alliance certifies _hardware_ that does follow the specification in a very long list:

https://www.wi-fi.org/product-finder-res...

(note the selection “Wi-Fi Direct®” in the Advanced Filters under Applications & Services)

I could not find the device in your amazon link in the list of certified devices. In addition, please note that no single Apple product is certified to comply as of today (2021-11-17):

https://www.wi-fi.org/product-finder-res...

That said, it might be possible to “emulate” some sort of not-certified Wi-Fi-Direct with this card? To investigate, I booted the MacBook with Linux, and ran the command

``iw list

``The output did not include “P2P” (no “P2P-client”, no “P2P-device”, no “P2P-GO”; full output here: https://pastebin.com/ACMvzpvc, available until 2022-05-17). This means that the linux driver is not able to use Wi-Fi-Direct on this device either - at least using the currently built-in card. Whether this could be fixed in the low-level hardware driver remains uncertain, but I could not do that myself, anyway.

Now the questions remains: Is there another wifi card, compatible with my MacBook that is certified (or at least known capable of) Wi-Fi-Direct?

Regards,

David

the card that I linked was just the amazon listing of the one that you linked. they have the same model number. On a hardware level most AC cards should support airport or airdrop. did you try a application designed to allow DLNA? (thinking you want tv sharing)

as for the the certified list that is very incomplete. if they change a manufacture of a resistor than they don't tend to get it recertified but they have to have a different model number. even though functionally it is the same.

they problem you are running into is that apple hasn't certified the card for airport so they disable it even if it can do wifi direct. I have this card in my windows laptop and can use it fine as a wifi direct enabled device.

The hardware isn't any different but the firmware/software interaction with the OS is.

do you see a option for airplay?

Dear Dan,

thank you for your answer.

I do not intend to share my network connetion with anyone.

I would like to write a piece of software using Wi-Fi-Direct functionality.

Wi-FI-Direct is not the same as Ad-Hoc networking (even though Wi-Fi-Direct over infrastructure can use Ad-Hoc networks as well as cables (don't be fooled by the name *WiFi*Direct). The standard is defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance:

https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-...

It is quite different from Ad-hoc networking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Dire... explains the differences briefly).

This question is about hardware that is compatible with my MacBook(s) and that supports this standard.

Thank you anyway for the good hint, which may be very useful for other users stumbling upon this thread!

Kind Regards,

David

@dfronczek - I stand corrected! Most people are looking at file sharing within meetings or moving files between systems Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer

What you are looking at is a competitive service to AirPlay which is Apples proprietary macOS/iOS/iPadOS/tvOS inter-connection function which runs across multiple network types.

I recommend you join Apples Developer service to see what they can offer. You'll need to make a case on why you need access to AirPlay.

Dear Dan,

you are completely right. AirPlay and AirDrop offer pretty much everything I could do with Wi-Fi-Direct.

Nevertheless, that does not answer my question. I did ask the queston on ifixit, because I thought that (compared to stackoverflow, superuser and the likes) it is a purely hardware-related forum.

I apologize if I did not pose the question clearly enough in the first place.

-- David

@dfronczek - The only issue within the hardware is 802.11n with Bluetooth 4.0 LE support which your 2014 MacBook Air has for Continuity services

But, that doesn't get into your Wi-Fi-Direct API services for direct app support as Apple doesn't offer them as far as I can see in reviewing the developer forum.

I really think you need to talk directly with Apple to see what they say via the developer relation group. Bottom line =your question is within the API's of the OS not hardware at all.