So in my previous post I mentioned some challenges I encountered using macOS on my Hackintosh as a NAS, and my ultimate success in getting it working with Windows as a backup server… after moving the actual NAS’ing to a Linux VM.

What I didn’t realize then, but I know now, is that at least on my NUC, for some reason, the IntelMausiEthernet is not actually stable! I don’t know if it’s tied to high/sustained load, but for whatever reason, over time the NIC would lose connectivity with the network. Re-plugging the network cable resolved the issue, but it would quickly recur.

This rapidly became a dealbreaker, as not only did it render the machine useless for backups, it also made it useless as a Transmission server.

Now, before you ask, no, I haven’t spent any time debugging the issues and don’t plan to. So I haven’t a clue what was actually wrong.

My solution was a lot simpler: I just bought a USB Ethernet dongle and moved on with my life. That, fortunately, has worked like an absolute charm and solved all of my network stability issues!