Hard-wired network connection?

GF has a WiFi connection, which is a fine thing.

Does it also come with a hard-wired network connection (aka the socket on the back)?

Take a look here - Cloud Noob - thread discussing this.

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Yeah, just found that one and was coming back to report.

Sorry about that, chief.

The current answer is that there is no ethernet port for a hardwired ethernet :disappointed:

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yeah wish there was going to be one too. Although I think there might be a simple solution for a hardwire effect (well sort of). Something like an Apple Airport Express can take an ethernet connection and create a wifi network off of it. I think I’m going to end up using one to create a wifi network just for my Glowforge. That way there is not competition for bandwidth and less complications. Plus in their recent demo video - Seen here - It shows that you don’t need to be on the same network to access and operate your Glowforge. I’ll use my hardwired mac and the Glowforge on its own network to establish a reliable connection. (also you can pick up an airport express for little to nothing on eBay)

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smart @markwarfel. And yes, the Glowforge needs to be able to talk to Google; it’s fine if you’re driving it from a different network (or time zone).

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We know that officially there is no support intended for Ethernet.

Anyone in favor should voice their support here in the form of a reply since my other post asking for people’s thoughts was incorrectly closed as being a duplicate of this post.

No, they really shouldn’t. I know that lots of people want it. Replies that just say “me too” aren’t helpful. As I’ve said in previous discussions, it’s something we’d like to add, but the plastics are too far along to make room for the port.

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Are you saying the port exists inside then? I don’t mind cutting out a port hole myself if there is a usable Ethernet port inside.

I believe the actual port is long since gone from the board layout. The boards you see in demos are ancient compared to the latest we have running in the lab. (Where “ancient” means “months old”).

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I see. Any chance we could get it added back onto the board? That seems like a fair compromise between your statement that you’d love to provide support but that you are unwilling to run the plastics through a second pass to cut a port hole and relocate the port or add a jumper connection to that hole.

It seems like if there was enough interest and your team was committed enough to provide this feature, a retrofit solution could be put together before shipping, but if that’s not the case I’d like to push for at least the port being inside so I can retrofit a port onto the case myself.

At this point any additional changes to the hardware are going to delay the product for everyone. If we get a freebie with a board spin that’s going to happen anyway we can look at it, but I wouldn’t be optimistic.

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I have understood from the start of the campaign that the GF, at least this first version, would be wifi only. At home office I have several connected devices. I find that the devices that connect to each other via ethernet are easiest to assimilate/integrate into the network. Wifi devices usually work well too. What I don’t like doing is dealing with setting them up on my wifi router (has ethernet too), its a hassle. Although, it doesn’t take long, it does require a restart to add a device wirelessly. So, my question is, what is it going to take to add a wifi device to a secure network, if my wifi network requires some info about the new device, and the device can’t talk to the wifi network? I did read a comment about adding an affordable WIFI access point just for the GF, but then that is providing access into my network, which I’d prefer not to have. if the GF can be setup to use secured wifi (just WPA2) then that would be very good for me and others with the same network set-up. Thanks.

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I don’t have shipping details on wifi protocol compatibility, but as it’s a firmware-upgradeable functionality (for the most part), it’s something we may improve over time.

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Personally, with Wi-Fi being ubiquitous, I don’t see the necessity for a wired connection anymore. Like it was stated before, you can just add a Wi-Fi router or access point for a couple bucks.

Unless, your worried about security, then just make sure you’re using a WPA2 connection

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Here’s hoping there’s absolutely, positively no way you can brick the radio by upgrading its firmware…

Wireless is convenient, but as I have a lot of wired equipment running already, pushing a lot of data preferably at the lowest latency possible, usually hitting 1gbps, I prefer wired if it is available. Its predictable, stable, fast, and very little maintenance.

Wireless has its plusses, but if I had the option to run glowforge on a physical network I would.

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Here is a question!
How do we connect to new wifi networks? Will there need to be a USB connection at some point so passwords can be entered?

I am not an expert at this but I am assuming it will work a lot like my drone. It broadcast a wifi signal that I connect to via iPad or iPhone just like I am connecting to wifi for Internet access. Then I can receive picture and video feed from the camera I have mounted and also change the viewing angles of the camera.

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This questions has been answered on another thread. As I recall from that post, it will work just like @elsman18 described.

Here’s @dan: