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Comment by anonacktua1111y | Hacker News Reader

actually, in finder, you may enable “show this device on wifi” and…no more needing cables for syncing! :) … this probably is not available on windows itunes though.

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It is available on Windows too, in iTunes. You need to connect the cable once to enable it. I’m using this to sync my music and backup my iPhone.

Windows here, but thanks.

But it really puzzles me how that feature needs wifi. Regular TCP/IP has everything you need to discover devices on the network and connect to them. What exactly is 802.11x adding here?

I would say it's referring to WiFi on the phone side, rather than the Mac/PC side. Though you can plug an Ethernet adaptor into an iPhone it's very rarely done and so most people would understand they want to sync with their phone over WiFi, as opposed to USB cable.

Apple seems to mostly use Bonjour (mDNS) for these whether using a local network (and indeed that is the case for this wifi sync feature), but they also have a few features/frameworks that can also be setup over an Apple specific "peer to peer wifi" connection which is bootstrapped with bluetooth and switches to peer to peer wifi for fast data transfer, similar but not the same protocol as WiFi direct (according to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/12885). This is what AirPlay2 does for example. That is one way WiFi could matter for such a feature versus Ethernet.

This wifi sync definitely works with Ethernet on the Mac side (personal experience)

Define "everything you need". Are we talking about finding out other hosts on a LAN? Or modern devices and their capabilities?

There are lots of added protocols (e.g. Bonjour) because TCP/IP alone is not about discovery.

And of course here we're talking about syncing over wi-fi. How would TCP/IP alone, without Wi-Fi enabled, cut it? It would sync wirelessly over ...cable ethernet?

All you need for discovery is broadcast access, and TCP/IP grants that. The discoverer broadcasts, "I'm looking for devices!" And the discoveree replies "Here I am!" Boom, connection is made. This is how game server browsers worked for LAN play back in the day.

Is it really so inconceivable that a phone is connected to a wi-fi gateway on a regular LAN?

Because that is how my network is set up here at home.

Note that this can annoying make your Mac refuse to shut down because it is doing something wirelessly with your phone.

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