SOLVED Connect FreeNas directly to pc

[tmhw2024]

Hi, I think my problem is very similar to this one https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/pc-to-freenas-nic-to-nic.39423/.

I'd like to connect to my freenas (that has a realtek NIC) directly with an ethernet cable that goes into my pc. I thought could be useful to have a crossover cable too, so I have both cable now but nothing that I tried worked.
Usually my freenas is connected to a router through an ethernet cable and the ip is set on DHCP on the web gui of FreeNas (and in the router I specified which IP it must give to it).

Now to be able to connect directly to the nas from my browser I tried to set the ip in this way:


But visiting that ip with the ethernet cable connected (both crossover and normal) it doesn't find anything and the web gui doesn't want to "magically" appear.
What am I doing wrong here? Thank you very much for your answers, I hope they'll come very soon :(

And this is what I see on windows:

I can't understand why there is that strange IP with that subnet mask...

SOLVED:
Actually I will never understand this. (if you know why this happened, please explain it to me) windows kept telling me that the nas ip was that strange 169.254.88.173 and I was configuring my pc NIC for that subnet (255.255.0.0) and it wasn't working. So after a while I tried to configure my computer ip and subnet in the way I should (ip 192.168.1.5, subnet 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.1), without considering that strange 169.254.88.173 with its damn subnet, and it worked like a charm.

And now it's trasferring files in smb with an incredible high speed of 96mb/s... I was used to transfer files at maximum 15mb/s with the pc and the nas connected both through ethernet to the router. Incredible!!

 

[pirateghost]

Your NAS needs a static IP address. Since you plugged it in directly to your computer it could no longer talk to the dhcp server to get an address. It's not complicated at all.

Set static IP on freenas.

Set static IP on computer.

Plug them into each other. Hint: you don't need a crossover cable.

Everything will just work.

 

[tmhw2024]

Your NAS needs a static IP address. Since you plugged it in directly to your computer it could no longer talk to the dhcp server to get an address. It's not complicated at all.

Set static IP on freenas.

Set static IP on computer.

Plug them into each other. Hint: you don't need a crossover cable.

Everything will just work.

Didn't you read all the post? I was already configuring a static ip... I already solved the problem about 6 hours ago. If you know why windows was display that Ip I'm happy to hear you!

 

[pirateghost]

Didn't you read all the post? I was already configuring a static ip... I already solved the problem about 6 hours ago. If you know why windows was display that Ip I'm happy to hear you!

Yes i read the post.

The IP address presented to you is from windows not having a connection to a dhcp server. Again, if you disconnect from the LAN and cannot connect to a dhcp server, it will assign its own local IP address.

http://www.techrepublic.com/forums/questions/where-did-ip-16925451183-come-from/

Literally the first hit in Google on:
What is 168.254.x.x

This isn't a difficult concept to understand is it? If you can't talk to a dhcp server, how do you expect to get an IP in your normal range?

 

[depasseg]

SOLVED:
Actually I will never understand this. (if you know why this happened, please explain it to me) windows kept telling me that the nas ip was that strange 169.254.88.173 and I was configuring my pc NIC for that subnet (255.255.0.0) and it wasn't working. So after a while I tried to configure my computer ip and subnet in the way I should (ip 192.168.1.5, subnet 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.1), without considering that strange 169.254.88.173 with its damn subnet, and it worked like a charm.

I'm glad you got it sorted. If you ever see an address starting with 169.xxx.xxx.xxx it means that the interface is configured to use DHCP, however no DHCP server was found and it therefore auto assigned itself an address (it isn't static). The other piece you need to understand is that in order for 2 devices to communicate via a switch, they must be in the same broadcast domain network. This means that the IP addresses and subnet masks must align.

 

[tmhw2024]

Yes i read the post.

The IP address presented to you is from windows not having a connection to a dhcp server. Again, if you disconnect from the LAN and cannot connect to a dhcp server, it will assign its own local IP address.

http://www.techrepublic.com/forums/questions/where-did-ip-16925451183-come-from/

Literally the first hit in Google on:
What is 168.254.x.x

This isn't a difficult concept to understand is it? If you can't talk to a dhcp server, how do you expect to get an IP in your normal range?

Thanks to you two I got it now. It wasn't clear from your first answer!

Thank you very much

 

[gpsguy]

Now that you know where the bottleneck is (the router), you might want to buy a gigabit ethernet switch. Connect the pc and server to it, then connect it to the router.

 

[tmhw2024]

Now that you know where the bottleneck is (the router), you might want to buy a gigabit ethernet switch. Connect the pc and server to it, then connect it to the router.

Ahahah thanks for the advice, but first come the hdds, after the router.

Honestly I was so much happy to know that the bottleneck was the router, because I've a mobo of 50$ included the CPU (e350m1 asrock) and everyone were saying to me on this forum that the bottleneck was the realtek nic and the shitty CPU (considering that samba require a lot from the cpu)

 

[gpsguy]

I looked back at some of your earlier posts, looks like I'm part of the "everyone" group. I still stand by my opinion of the Realcrap NIC. Obviously YMMV.

If you still only have 4GB of RAM, upgrading it to a minimum of 8GB, should be your first upgrade on your list. ZFS on FreeNAS, requires a minimum of 8GB of RAM. In the meantime, ensure that you have a good backup for any critical data. There are a number of forum threads, describing data loss due to running a system with insufficient amounts of RAM.

... and everyone were saying to me on this forum that the bottleneck was the realtek nic and the shitty CPU

 

[tmhw2024]

I looked back at some of your earlier posts, looks like I'm part of the "everyone" group. I still stand by my opinion of the Realcrap NIC. Obviously YMMV.

If you still only have 4GB of RAM, upgrading it to a minimum of 8GB, should be your first upgrade on your list. ZFS on FreeNAS, requires a minimum of 8GB of RAM. In the meantime, ensure that you have a good backup for any critical data. There are a number of forum threads, describing data loss due to running a system with insufficient amounts of RAM.

You're absolutely right and I know it... I don't even have right now HDDs to backup my data... In Italy we say in these situation that "I'm in god's hands".
But the very important documents are only a few GB, the rest are just movies.

Right for this reason I was thinking to move to a Linux distro.
Freenas is well known to be pretentious about the hardware

 

[pirateghost]

You're absolutely right and I know it... I don't even have right now HDDs to backup my data... In Italy we say in these situation that "I'm in god's hands".
But the very important documents are only a few GB, the rest are just movies.

Right for this reason I was thinking to move to a Linux distro.
Freenas is well known to be pretentious about the hardware

It might be a good idea to look at other OSes for your data.

 

[tmhw2024]

It might be a good idea to look at other OSes for your data.

Yes, it's a good idea also because I've some problems with plex on my freenas distro that isn't able to download movie covers (it's very important considering that this nas was built with the main reason to have all the movies and TV shows in one place.)

Now I ask you something: one of the great and unique feature of freenas, in my opinion, is the ability to load the entire OS in the ram, so that I'm able to load freenas from a very very slow USB pen drive.
I could use an ssd for a Linux distro to make it fast, but do you know any other distro that loads the entire OS in the ram?

 

[pirateghost]

Yes, it's a good idea also because I've some problems with plex on my freenas distro that isn't able to download movie covers (it's very important considering that this nas was built with the main reason to have all the movies and TV shows in one place.)

Now I ask you something: one of the great and unique feature of freenas, in my opinion, is the ability to load the entire OS in the ram, so that I'm able to load freenas from a very very slow USB pen drive.
I could use an ssd for a Linux distro to make it fast, but do you know any other distro that loads the entire OS in the ram?

Nas4free is one that comes to mind