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kavoktoday at 11:56 AM3 repliesview on HN

Can any OS gracefully handle switching between WiFi and Ethernet without at least a blip in connectivity?


Replies

dathinabtoday at 2:20 PM

if it's just about connectivity then yes, that should be normal, a OS should only switch the default interface _iff_ the interface it switches to is up and ready.

Idk. about desktop Linux, but my phone does the (WLAN -> Mobile) switch just fine.

If it's about _not reconnecting_ (e.g. which for many apps might require some manual pause/resume of streamed data or similar), then things are more complex as you can't keep your IP, so it then depends on weather the application uses HTTP3/Quick or similar protocols in implementations which are designed to be able to freely roll over to different IP addresses.

So both yes and no :)

prmoustachetoday at 1:40 PM

Without a blip maybe not but is it noticeable?

I've been regularly plugging/unplugging my usb-c docking connected to ethernet while being on teams video call without issues on both linux and windows but ultimately it depends on the protocol. Web/https stuff is usually more forgiving thanks to sessions being maintained "externally" from the protocol itself. Copying files via sftp be a different experience I reckon because you usually use a different source ip address when you switch and need to initiate a new connection.

Krutoniumtoday at 12:21 PM

In my experience Linux can yeah.