Best way to share files wirelessly between Windows 10 & OS X

[Steelbom]

So then for the OP, would using a legacy version work? (I'm also curious about this now.)

I think you could use an older version of FreeNAS if you can find one on their site -- I couldn't. Apparently 9.x.x was the last version (don't remember exact numbers).

FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD.

https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2-U5/intro.html#network-interfaces

Wireless not supported, however.

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/11.2R/hardware.html#ethernet

There are quite a few USB ethernet adapters. (I'll recommend ASIX over Realtek chips since it's their specialty, IIRC)

Oh that's good to know. Maybe in the future if the laptop turns out to be inadequate then I'll consider building an HTPC for running FreeNAS, but I guess then I should have an Ethernet port to use as well.

I used to have an ASIX USB 100Mbps adapter, but don't know where it is now. 😳

Just created a FreeNAS VM in VMware workstation, using Realtek 8153 USB 1Gbps adapter detached from host and attached to guest VM and it installed OK. It won't get an DHCP IP for me however, I have to configure a static IP to be able to access FreeNAS's web interface.

But personally I really don't recommend running enterprise NAS software on an old laptop with USB network card and USB storage. That really doesn't make any sense. It probably will bring more problem than it solves down the road.

Same opinion as following post.

https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/usb-3-0-ethernet-adaptor.40776/

Yeah, I also had a post on the ixsystem forums and received many similar replies.

Running Ubuntu with a SAMBA share is working really well for me at the moment. Now I just need to find a compatible Ethernet adapter for that.

 

[SamirD]

Interesting. So one thing if a laptop is out of the question is to get a expresscard/cardbus ethernet adapter that's supported--if one exists.