I've built a PreLoginAgent and it works great when the computer is connected via ethernet. However, when a user starts the laptop it does not connect to wifi and my app has a networked component.
How is wifi handled in OS X in the pre-login state?
Is there Wifi access available for Cocoa PreLoginAgents.
In general Wi-Fi should come up during pre-login. There are some situations where it can't--for example, if it requires authentication that can only be done by the user--but in a typical network such user action isn't necessary and Wi-Fi should come up by itself [1].
Remember that your pre-login agent will run /very/ early, so you may just have a race condition where your agent is launching before Wi-Fi is up. Your agent should be able to respond to the network coming and going in general, and that includes having the network come up after the agent has started. Reachability can help with this.
Share and Enjoy
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Quinn "The Eskimo!"
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware
[1] In a typical home network, using WPA2, the network credentials are store in the system keychain so they are accessible even when no user is logged in.