Building a PowerNAS G4 MDD

[DaNilePharaoh]

100 posts :) I'm Thrilled, thank you guys for following up and for your support.

TO BE CONTINUED....

 

[anodos]

Out of curiosity, how are you taking photos with both of your hands in it? Have you recruited your wife as a build-assistant? If so, kudos to you!

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

Hacking the Front Panel Power Button and Power On LED Light

The MDD front panel has a fairly simple design, it consists of a Power Button, Led Button and single Audio Jack (Output). all connected to the motherboard via 10 pin cable, that was not color coded except for a single red wire that I assumed is the +5v wire.
You can see that the front panel shell is all rusted but paint should fix this up.



At first i wanted to connect this panel to my Asus MB using 1 pin Female/Female jumper cables,
but i had 2 problems:
First, I did not have this kind of cable,
Second, I did not know the exact pins I should be using except for the +5v pin assuming that my guessing was right :)

To solve these problems I brought a Front panel wiring kit I bought earlier and I removed the Power On and Power Reset switches and connected the 2 wires front to front to make a 2 pint female/female Jumper wire. Did the same to the dual LED wires and now I have 2 pin female/ female jumper wire and 2x 1 pin female/Female jumper wire. Now I’m ready to try connecting the front panle to the Motherboard.



I took the 2x 1 pin wire and I connected one end to the Asus motherboard (PWR/GND) Power Button and the other end to what I assumed is the +5v input on the front panel and the search for the GND pin on the Front panel started :)

I spent hours trying to locate the right pins, with no luck!! during this period i managed to get the system up and running several times but it was switching back off after few seconds without notice!!
so i decided to make it the hard way, SOLDERING!

TO BE CONTINUED....

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

Out of curiosity, how are you taking photos with both of your hands in it? Have you recruited your wife as a build-assistant? If so, kudos to you!

A wise wife would be more than happy to take few photos as a trade to keep her husband at home :p

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

Electrical Engineers and Soldering Experts - Viewer Discretion is Advised (Graphic Content)

You are about to witness what I’m sure many of you will consider a crime in the history of PCB soldering...
Please do not try to (zoom in) the following photos it may be disturbing :)

Ok I spent around an hour or more trying to solder the wires in place, specially with the power button as the area was too tight (My huge desktop lamp & magnifying lens) helped but not so much, I even tried to scratch the surface of the PCB to allow myself a larger working area but the wire refused to stick to the pcb surface.



After all, its now working :) and I can use the front panel power button and LED (as Power On or HDD Activity) but I’m sure of 2 things,

First, I will never attempt soldering again.
Second, If one of my 2 Dalmatian dogs tried to do this one day, it would look better than what I did. :p

TO BE CONTINUED....

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

Hacking the MDD Built in Speaker

This was fairly simple in compare to the soldageddon I survived few minutes ago all I had to do was to change the original 3 Pin FAN like connector to a 4 pin connector, in my case 2x 2 pin connector .



But I should be careful on the final install which is where :) if I really want this thing to work properly.

TO BE CONTINUED....

 

[joeschmuck]

The red wire on the connector is pin 1, that is all it means, not it's the +5VDC pin. If you don't know what the pinout actually is, you will need to take a multimeter to it and find out.

As for your soldering skills... If your soldering iron has two temperatures (watt settings), use the lower one and you see how you have blobs of solder, well to fix that you just apply the iron to the point where you want to solder, press it down firmly (not crazy hard), wait a few seconds and then gently apply a touch of solder. You have about 5X too much right now but it won't harm anything.

You could have used that ribbon cable to pass all your signals and just cut the traces on the board and run wires there to keep it nice and clean looking. Stuff like that will come with experience. I personally think you are doing one hell of a good job with this conversion, just awesome.

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

The red wire on the connector is pin 1, that is all it means, not it's the +5VDC pin. If you don't know what the pinout actually is, you will need to take a multimeter to it and find out.
As for your soldering skills... If your soldering iron has two temperatures (watt settings), use the lower one and you see how you have blobs of solder, well to fix that you just apply the iron to the point where you want to solder, press it down firmly (not crazy hard), wait a few seconds and then gently apply a touch of solder. You have about 5X too much right now but it won't harm anything.

Unfortunately i do not have a multimeter :( sure its the right thing to do, as for the soldering iron its a cheaply made Chinese iron with no settings or whatsoever, i bought many years ago to hold a loose playstation 2 power jack in place, since then i never took it out of my tool box, probably i'll never do it again lol

You could have used that ribbon cable to pass all your signals and just cut the traces on the board and run wires there to keep it nice and clean looking. Stuff like that will come with experience. I personally think you are doing one hell of a good job with this conversion, just awesome.

Spirit lifting as usual Mr. Schmuck :) like your new photo

 

[joeschmuck]

Yea, though I'd try a happier look. Maybe it's the tequila in me

 

[Fraoch]

the wire refused to stick to the pcb surface.

This might also help if you find yourself in this situation again:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_(metallurgy)#Rosin_fluxes

It helps the solder flow. The solder will settle into the joint rather than balling up on top of it.

Glad that it works!

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

This might also help if you find yourself in this situation again:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_(metallurgy)#Rosin_fluxes

It helps the solder flow. The solder will settle into the joint rather than balling up on top of it.

Glad that it works!

Thanx for the heads-up, I paused the process in progress and i watched some video tutorials on youtube, but nothing compares to the real thing :) you need some training to get this done properly... I'm happy it worked so i don't have to go through this again hahahah

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

Yea, though I'd try a happier look. Maybe it's the tequila in me

tequila! :D I shouldn't be seeking waldorf's advices on Saturday nights then, enjoy your weekend

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

Whats up dudes, been a long time :) i'm currently holding my horses waiting for the Holiday's discounts, wishing you all happy holidays.
Also you all probably know how crazy it gets at work before holidays so i'm kinda busy too.
meantime i was thinking of rebuilding my SOHO network, preparing for my newborn PowerNAS.

Things you need to know:
- I live on a newly developed area on the outskirts of Cairo, ADSL and cable internet are expected within 1 year.
- Currently I use a ZTE MF667 3G USB Modem to connect to the internet with a Remotek R17 Repeater.
- I share my internet connections with other devices at home via TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Dual Band Wireless N900 PCI Express Adapter installed on my Dual Boot (Win/OSX) Hackintosh.
- I have an old D-link DSL-2640T ADSL modem, 4 port, wireless (very slow) router which is still considered functional as a DSL modem in case ADSL has arrived (DSL expected speed is around 24 Mbps)

What I need to have on my network:
- 3G USB Modem (internet connection).
- ADSL/Cable Modem (internet connection).
- 2 desktop.
- 2 Laptop. (Wireless/Wired)
- PowerNAS G4.
- Lenovo IX2 2-Bay 6TB JBOD NAS
for IP surveillance, 24/7 ON, as I'm sure the long lived G4 PSU will fail within a month if i kept it on all the time,
Ease of use by other family members
and as a third backup option beside my original backup disks & PowerNAS.
- 2 IP Cameras.
- 2 USB Printers.
- PS3 and Xbox Consoles.
- 3x USB external HDD enclosures.
- Smart TV.
- A/V Home-theater Receiver.
- Smart Phones and Tablets. (Wireless)

What I'm thinking:

Switches:
- 2x 8 port Gigabit Switches
I have the D-link DGS-1008D , ZyXEL GS-108S and Linksys SE2800-EU available locally
and the TP-LINK TL-SG108E and TP-LINK TL-SG1008D very reasonably priced online (Amazon)

Router:
I need an All-in-One: ADSL2+ Modem, Router, 4-Gigabit-Port Switch and Wireless N/AC Access Point that supports 3G/4G modems via USB
I have these models available locally.. but each has something missing
- TP-Link TD-W8968 300Mbps Wireless N USB ADSL2+ 3G Modem Router. (but it lacks the fast wireless capabilities and 5GHz)
- TP-Link TD-W8970. 300Mbps Wireless N Gigabit ADSL2+ 3G Modem Router (but it lacks the fast wireless capabilities)
- TP-Link TL-WDR4300 N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (where my old D-link could work with as a ADSL modem). but it lacks the 3g/4g USB support.
- TP-Link Archer D7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit ADSL2+ Modem Router. (Super fast wireless, built in ADSL but it lacks the 3G support)

Questions:
Do I need smart or managed switchers?
Any recommendations for Switchers, Routers and IP Cameras?
In my scenario what would you sacrifice? wireless N/AC capabilities or 3G? or should i get the best of both worlds by buying 2 devices?! leaving no chance of survival :) to my good old D-link DSL-2640T?
Can a 3G USB modem like the ZTE MF667 connected to a 3G router like the TP-Link TD-W8968 provide internet connection to the network without the use of PC/software?
I guess I'll be able to achieve gigabit speeds between devices using gigabit switchers even if my router/modem is 10/100, if all my devices are connected to the switchers and all of them having gigabit NICs including game consoles, am I right?
How to hook up my USB printers and External HDDs to the network? to the Lenovo LX2 NAS or PowerNAS or Router? What would be my best option?

Thanx

 

[Fraoch]

Do I need smart or managed switchers?

Probably not, but it depends what features you need. Features that are nice to have which can only be implemented by the switch design (i.e. at the time of purchase):

- VLAN tagging or pass-through
- LACP

Even if you don't need those features now, if you don't have them when you buy the switch, you won't be able to use them.

VLAN pass-through is supported by some unmanaged switches. However other VLAN operations like tagging and segregation (where it only directs packets destined for certain VLANs to certain ports, thereby freeing traffic on other ports and the rest of the network) needs some sort of user interface, and this can only be accomplished by a smart switch.

LACP always needs a user interface only a smart switch can offer, but it may not be that useful in home situations (the whole "OMG-I-can-has-2-gigabit!" idea doesn't actually work).

I left out Jumbo Frame capability, which is supported by many unmanaged switches and probably all managed switches because this is an outdated idea that may or may not offer any advantages with more modern networking equipment.

Any recommendations for Switchers, Routers and IP Cameras?

You may want to look at pfSense. It turns an older computer into a powerful, configurable router and firewall. At first I didn't think it can handle 3G USB modems, but it can:

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Known_Working_3G-4G_Modems

You can build a pfSense box out of an older computer, although it uses FreeBSD like FreeNAS it doesn't have the same high hardware requirements. You can use some neat new equipment though, I'm building this as a firewall/UTM but it would work equally well for pfSense:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Fraoch/saved/Q9Pv6h

Amazingly if you have enough USB ports and are willing to put in some work you can also attach all USB print and storage devices to pfSense and have it share them over the network as well:

https://www.all4os.com/router/installing-the-cups-print-server-to-pfsense-2-1-and-2-x.html

https://code.google.com/p/pfsense-cacheboy/wiki/Pfsense_Samba

In my scenario what would you sacrifice? wireless N/AC capabilities or 3G? or should i get the best of both worlds by buying 2 devices?! leaving no chance of survival :) to my good old D-link DSL-2640T?

It's usually better to use separate devices as all-in-ones are "Jack of all trades, master of none" and include compromises as you note. This way you can get the best wireless device and use it as an AP, leaving routing, firewall, USB modem, USB print server and USB file server to some other device more suited to these tasks.

Can a 3G USB modem like the ZTE MF667 connected to a 3G router like the TP-Link TD-W8968 provide internet connection to the network without the use of PC/software?

Yes, that's what they're designed to do, they use the USB modem as the WAN (Internet) source and act as any other router would after that.

I guess I'll be able to achieve gigabit speeds between devices using gigabit switchers even if my router/modem is 10/100, if all my devices are connected to the switchers and all of them having gigabit NICs including game consoles, am I right?

Yes, that's right. Packets destined for the gateway (router/modem) will be directed there by the switch, but the switch knows which ports internal gigabit LAN devices are connected to and directs the packets there, across the gigabit connection at gigabit speeds.

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

Probably not, but it depends what features you need. Features that are nice to have which can only be implemented by the switch design (i.e. at the time of purchase):
- VLAN tagging or pass-through
- LACP
Even if you don't need those features now, if you don't have them when you buy the switch, you won't be able to use them.
VLAN pass-through is supported by some unmanaged switches. However other VLAN operations like tagging and segregation (where it only directs packets destined for certain VLANs to certain ports, thereby freeing traffic on other ports and the rest of the network) needs some sort of user interface, and this can only be accomplished by a smart switch.
LACP always needs a user interface only a smart switch can offer, but it may not be that useful in home situations (the whole "OMG-I-can-has-2-gigabit!" idea doesn't actually work).
I left out Jumbo Frame capability, which is supported by many unmanaged switches and probably all managed switches because this is an outdated idea that may or may not offer any advantages with more modern networking equipment.

First, I'd like to thank you for your great efforts and detailed post, I found your post very educational.
I've been reading a lot in networking lately but there are times after excessive reading you feel everything is mixed up in your head lol

Luckily jumbo frame and VLAN is a standard options now in most of TP-Link smart switches like the one I mentioned in my post TP-LINK TL-SG108E
but in this case I should upgrade my router to a gigabit router as the packets will travel through the router too (please correct me if i'm wrong)

As you said, I guess I won't be needing LACP as all of my devices has a single ethernet port at the moment.
probably I'll go with the EASY SMART, its looks also SOLID and CHEAP, the 4 magical words you should be looking after when buying a piece of equipment :)

You may want to look at pfSense. It turns an older computer into a powerful, configurable router and firewall. At first I didn't think it can handle 3G USB modems, but it can:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Known_Working_3G-4G_Modems
You can build a pfSense box out of an older computer, although it uses FreeBSD like FreeNAS it doesn't have the same high hardware requirements. You can use some neat new equipment though, I'm building this as a firewall/UTM but it would work equally well for pfSense:
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Fraoch/saved/Q9Pv6h
Amazingly if you have enough USB ports and are willing to put in some work you can also attach all USB print and storage devices to pfSense and have it share them over the network as well:
https://www.all4os.com/router/installing-the-cups-print-server-to-pfsense-2-1-and-2-x.html
https://code.google.com/p/pfsense-cacheboy/wiki/Pfsense_Samba

I watched some vids about the pfSense, it looks like a very interesting cool project, specially the package manager part, its similar to the plugins on FreeNAS
unfortunately my 3G modem is not on the compatibility list but this shouldn't be a problem, Luckily i still have 2 other old macs waiting to be transformed into something useful :)
I was also reading about dd-WRT but my old D-Link router is not supported.

Good luck with your build, out of curiosity why you choose what i consider very powerful components for your pfSense ?
what kind of issues you can have if you install Samba on pfSense? I rarely use Windows, can i share files with Macs?

Yes, that's what they're designed to do, they use the USB modem as the WAN (Internet) source and act as any other router would after that.

So if i have a 3G router It will operate the 3G USB modem software instead of the pc, and my wireless devices can get wireless internet connection with my Hackintosh turned off!?

 

[DaNilePharaoh]

HAPPY THANKS GIVING EVERYBODY :)

 

[Fraoch]

First, I'd like to thank you for your great efforts and detailed post, I found your post very educational.
I've been reading a lot in networking lately but there are times after excessive reading you feel everything is mixed up in your head lol

You're welcome! Yes, networking can be very complicated. They sure like their acronyms!

Luckily jumbo frame and VLAN is a standard options now in most of TP-Link smart switches like the one I mentioned in my post TP-LINK TL-SG108E
but in this case I should upgrade my router to a gigabit router as the packets will travel through the router too (please correct me if i'm wrong)

No, anything upstream of your gigabit switch only needs to handle your Internet connection, so that's 24 Mbps as you indicated. 10/100 equipment will work just fine.

You would connect it like so:

Outside line -> ADSL modem -> Router -> Gigabit switch

A switch knows which devices are connected on which ports. When a gigabit device (say a desktop on port 2) sends packets to another gigabit device, say your Power NAS on port 5, the switch says "the PowerNAS is on port 5" and directs the packets from port 2 to port 5. This is a gigabit switch, and provided each device has a gigabit NIC and you're using Cat5e or better cabling, the transfer will be at gigabit speeds. Note your router is not involved at all. In fact you could even disconnect your router and this transfer will still happen.

Now let's say your (gigabit) desktop on port 3 needs data from the Internet - you want to write a forum post saying how awesome FreeNAS is. The networking software in the desktop directs the packets to your router by addressing them with your router's IP address. The switch receives the data from port 3 and says "oh the router is on port 1" and directs those packets to port 1. The router receives those packets and sends them out to the modem and from there it goes out to the Internet. Past the switch, it doesn't matter that it's not gigabit, the fastest data will flow back is 24 Mbps and the fastest data will flow up/out to the Internet is likely slower than that. So your router and modem do not need to be gigabit.

I was also reading about dd-WRT but my old D-Link router is not supported.

Many new ones are, but unfortunately not many TP-Link devices though. DD-WRT is very old-school and I hear rumours that it's past its prime - 5 GHz networking is spotty and it just isn't as cutting-edge as it used to be. OpenWRT and Tomato seem to be the ones to go to now.

Good luck with your build, out of curiosity why you choose what i consider very powerful components for your pfSense ?

I won't be installing pfSense on that, although it would make a kicka$$ pfSense box. I have a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite and I doubt that I could make a pfSense box that powerful, that small and that power-efficient. But I find the ERL's firewalling capabilities quite basic and I'd like to do more advanced things like network-wide ad blocking and advanced intrusion detection. I will probably be using Sophos for this, or possibly Untangle. Both use Snort intrusion detection, which likes its GHz, so I needed a CPU that's fast single-threaded.

what kind of issues you can have if you install Samba on pfSense?

I don't use pfSense so I'm not sure. However I imagine it's identical to samba (CIFS) on FreeNAS. The main problem you'll have is permissions.

I rarely use Windows, can i share files with Macs?

Of course. In my mind the best protocol you can use is NFS. It's faster than CIFS and it's multi-threaded. It's seamless on Mac, Linux and BSD. Mac can also use CIFS just as seamlessly but it can be a bit slower. Best to do away with CIFS entirely if you don't use Windows.

Macs can also use AFP (Apple Filesharing Protocol) and I found that AFP is required if you want to back up the Mac using Time Machine. I found I couldn't direct Time Machine to store its backups in anything but an AFP share.

So if i have a 3G router It will operate the 3G USB modem software instead of the pc, and my wireless devices can get wireless internet connection with my Hackintosh turned off!?

Yes, but note your router won't be using the software that came with the 3G modem - it's a more basic, primitive level than that but it means you don't have to install anything. What it does mean is that your 3G modem has to support that specific 3G USB device though.