HA should be able to be installed and operate over Wi-Fi

I use Apple sharing to support Ethernet from the Raspberry Pi to my iMac and Wi-Fi from the iMac to the internet.
The installation progresses without error but times out loading the CLI. So I am unable to complete the installation.
It should be possible to use Wi-Fi completely. Other similar products (e.g. Vera) support Wi-Fi.

You can.

But note, wifi is especially on rPis not the best and can/will get easily disturbed by other things on that rPi => it is not supported nor recommended. :slight_smile:

But try for yourself, in many cases there are no problems with it, just that some commands are not that fast. :wink:

You can.
But…

  1. make sure you turn the RasPi’s Wi-Fi power-saving mode OFF. Power saving stops listening to wi-fi when the RasPi is not actively using it. Great if battery powered and the the RasPi is initiating the communications (eg reporting the results of sensor readings, or requesting the next song to play) - but totally inappropriate when running a server like HA which cannot know when another device will send it a message.
  2. Wi-Fi is definitely convenient and necessary in some situations where portability is necessary (phones, laptops) or you are unable to lay cables (e.g renting). However I strongly recommend using wired cables wherever feasible.
    (a) Wi-Fi devices are miniature radio stations broadcasting to anyone within range who listens on that frequency. Each device incorporates encryption to prevent other devices within range who don’t know your wi-fi password from decrypting your messages, and discards all those messages which it can’t decrypt. Thus you normally don’t get to see home much other data/messages are sharing the same radio frequency.
    (b) The number of radio frequencies allocated to Wi-Fi is limited, and signals interfere with neighbouring frequencies, effectively limiting us even more. No doubt that seemed plenty when authorities allocated the frequencies, and they couldn’t imagine businesses and apartments packed so closely together; all wanting their own secure wireless communication. And now we have faceless whiteware sales driods telling customers (your neighbours) to stream their 4K movies over wi-fi to sell more expensive devices, as though wi-fi is unlimited magic.

With a cable, no-one else is listening in, and you are not sharing the bandwidth. But cables are not always convenient, so a definite trade-off.