Install in parallel with Windows

[danb35]

Fire up the VM for them when they need it and let em go.

How do you fire up the VM on the FreeNAS console? I'm thinking this needs another computer with a VNC client--and if you're going to do that, just run Windows on the other computer and be done with it.

 

[Jailer]

I'm thinking this needs another computer with a VNC client--and if you're going to do that, just run Windows on the other computer and be done with it.

Exactly. I assumed (bad thing to do I know) that his desktop was not a windows machine. And if he has no desktop other than what he intends to install FreeNAS on then what's the point?

 

[Gorbush]

Ok.
Thanks everybody, let's finish it.

It seems like i will just try one more time to install FreeNAS to USB and hide it somewhere inside the box.
I just thought that i missed some way how to set up the FreeNAS to take only part of HDD - and that would be the easiest solution for my case.
But appeared that there is no simple way to do this.

P.S. Kid needs to run windows just to do some his homework - there are windows applications. And play flash educational site - for a short period of time.
If i buy him a laptop or a standalone PC - i will have to monitor it's usage - and i would like to avoid this.

 

[pirateghost]

Ok.
Thanks everybody, let's finish it.

It seems like i will just try one more time to install FreeNAS to USB and hide it somewhere inside the box.
I just thought that i missed some way how to set up the FreeNAS to take only part of HDD - and that would be the easiest solution for my case.
But appeared that there is no simple way to do this.

P.S. Kid needs to run windows just to do some his homework - there are windows applications. And play flash educational site - for a short period of time.
If i buy him a laptop or a standalone PC - i will have to monitor it's usage - and i would like to avoid this.

Have a look at securing your home with sophos UTM. It has options for controlling and monitoring internet usage.

 

[Gorbush]

I am not talking about internet usage - i am about playing games - like flash games on some sites - but not the educational ones :)

However - thanks for this - i am seeing a lot of attempts to log in to NAS from outside with passwords and logins brute force...

 

[pirateghost]

I am not talking about internet usage - i am about playing games - like flash games on some sites - but not the educational ones

Again. Look at sophos utm. ;). It will handle all of that

 

[danb35]

i am seeing a lot of attempts to log in to NAS from outside with passwords and logins brute force

Your NAS is behind a firewall, isn't it? How are attackers even able to attempt a login?

 

[Gorbush]

It is behind router, but i sometimes add a route to manage it from outside - ssh 22

 

[pirateghost]

It is behind router, but i sometimes add a route to manage it from outside - ssh 22

Ouch.

 

[danb35]

It is behind router, but i sometimes add a route to manage it from outside - ssh 22

My preference (and practice) would be to set up a VPN service on the router, rather than forward a port through to the NAS box, but openssh is pretty secure. You can greatly increase your security by (1) disabling root logins (log in as a non-privileged user, and then su to root if necessary), and (2) disabling password authentication, using public key auth instead.

Lots of folks suggest running sshd on a different port. I'm not much of a fan of security through obscurity, and I figure attackers are going to be using portscans anyway, so I don't bother.

 

[Gorbush]

(1) disabling root logins (log in as a non-privileged user, and then su to root if necessary), and (2) disabling password authentication, using public key auth instead.

Both of these are already done
Ssh run on the 22, however the port shown outside is not 22

 

[Nick2253]

Honestly, I still think you're going about this the wrong way.

Your solution is privileging FreeNAS, but I'm not sure what you want out of FreeNAS. It sounds like you think we're getting caught up on the Windows bit; this is incorrect. We can't figure out why you want to use FreeNAS at all in the first place.

From your posts, I see the following explicit requirements:

• One computer
• Provides NAS capabilities
• Runs Windows programs/flash

Of note, there are no requirements to provide data security (over and above a possible desire to do mirroring sometime in the future). I too would recommend running Windows and being done with it. Windows will provide all your NAS capabilities, Windows can do software mirroring of drives for redundancy, it will run Plex and pretty much any other program you need. Windows also has a lot of very user friendly programs that can be used to control your little one's computer user time, website visits, etc.

If Windows is not your thing, than maybe Linux with WINE would do (depending on the program). You also can also do disk mirroring, run Plex, etc.