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I'm pretty new to Linux networking and I'm not sure how to fix a file transfer issue I have.

I have two Raspberry Pis. One is running Raspberry Pi OS and the other is running OSMC. Both are connected to a pretty dodgy Wi-Fi connection. I would like to periodically copy files from one Raspberry Pi to the other using smb, but because of the inconsistent WiFi connection, file transfers often fail.

To get around the inconsistent WiFi connection, I would like to connect a network cross cable between the two Raspberry Pis. Is there a way for me to keep the smb file share available over Wi-Fi, and when files transfer between the Raspberry Pi's, they make use of an ethernet cross cable?

Thanks in advance!

Appelman
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  • you'd need to set static IP addresses for the eth0 interfaces on the pi's - you should be OK then - I don't think you'll need a network cross cable since I believe the ethernet ports on pi's are "Auto-MDIX" so the cable doesn't need to be special – Jaromanda X Jan 26 '21 at 04:09

1 Answers1

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You want to have two connections to the same destination. This is mainly a routing problem to decide what interface to use. I can't see an easy solution at first glance because the destination is the same subnet, so you cannot use classical routing.

But to make a weak connection more stable with a second connection there is a well known solution called "dynamic failover". It uses one preferred connection but will automatically switch the lines if one fails. This is all done transparently in the background, and applications do not notice the switch. So if the WiFi connection goes down, it will use the wired connection, even on a running file transfer without interruption. This has also the advantage that all other programs do not notice the failing WiFi.

How to setup this you can look at Using bonding for dynamic failover.

Seamus
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Ingo
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