The Situation with External Hardware on Mac Compared to Windows or Linux
The Speedify App Provides Faster Download and Upload Speeds on Your Mac
Use Speedify to Increase Your Upload and Download Speeds: Combine Wi-Fi, 4G / 5G Cellular, Ethernet, Starlink and Other Satellites
Speedify combines Wi-Fi, 4G / 5G cellular, Ethernet, Starlink, and other satellites for faster internet uploads and downloads
Speedify is the only software app that combines Wi-Fi, 4G / 5G cellular, Ethernet, Starlink and other satellites at once for secure, faster, and more reliable internet uploads and downloads so you stay online without interruptions.
Speedify will automatically detect and start using any available Internet connections on your device while intelligently distributing your online traffic between them for optimal performance. If you need help we have quick start guides available for most common set ups.
Speedify combines multiple personal hotspots for faster internet upload and download speeds
Speedify's Pair & Share feature enables you to connect to multiple hotspots at the same time for faster upload and download speeds and more reliable internet for everyone. Speedify's Pair & Share feature allows you to wirelessly share 4G / 5G cellular connections back and forth between multiple Speedify users on the same local network when live streaming from an event, calling from the commute or sharing from the field.
Speedify is the only app that allows you to share 4G / 5G cellular data between PCs, Macs, iPhones and Androids. Use multiple iPhones and Android phones as hotspots for internet access and get faster upload and download speeds and mobile failover for all paired devices.
Use Speedify to combine...
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Why Apple Restricted Kernel Access for Mac
Ryan: How is kernel access different on Mac versus Windows and Linux?
Alex Gizis: Somewhere around 2020, Apple just locked down the kernel. They do not allow any drivers from anyone but them, no matter what the situation. Where both, Windows and Linux, lets you write your own drivers to add things to the kernel, and it is absolutely impossible on the Mac.
Ryan: None at all?
Alex Gizis: No. Apple is aware that there are some situations where it's legitimate. If you have a new USB dongle, you need a driver for it, so they've created something called DriverKit, where you can write a driver to talk to your new hardware, but it runs in User space.
Their kernel module is asking your driver out there in regular space: "what should I do about this new device?" And if you crash, whatever device stops working, the Mac doesn't crash.
Speedify is a VPN. We need to be able to intercept packets out of the kernel. They've written a driver and given us something called the network extension where we can write code and they pass us out packets. We say what to do with them and pass them back. They've absolutely locked it down.
Apple Kernel Drivers Lockdown Impact on Wi-Fi Hardware Compatibility
Ryan: Why is Apple allowed to have that restriction and Microsoft isn't?
Alex Gizis: When it comes to the Mac, what do they have? 10 percent market share? They're not falling under antitrust concerns.
Ryan: Is that why there are no third party Wi-Fi dongles on the Mac?
Alex Gizis: Yes. Before 2000, you could go to Amazon, buy a USB Wi-Fi card and it will come with drivers for both the Mac and Windows. And now there aren't. They only come with Windows. They don't work on Apple. The only thing you can get is Apple cards for Apple. In fact, it's only the ones that come built into the Mac.
I don't see any reason why you couldn't write a Wi-Fi driver in DriverKit. But I might just be missing something because no one has. None of these cards come with a driver for Mac at all anymore. You are just stuck with what comes with your Mac.
Ryan: Yes, I think they ended that round 2019 or 2020 'cause I made speed a unified tutorial video back then about how to combine two Wi-Fi connections on Mac and then I updated that and I can't do it anymore.
Alex Gizis: They had, I remember that. That was brutal. It really hurt us.
Ryan: Yes. Kept getting comments like, I can't do this. Why doesn't it work?
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