Instructional Re-do

[Steve P.]

Hi gang,

I am sure many Home NAS based noobs, like me, are having a very hard time in configuring the system once installed.
No, I am not the brightest lightbulb in the pack when it comes to networking (let alone anything else for that matter). Kind of a jack-of-all-trades, just enough to be dangerous.
Many aspects of the web configuration videos, and Windows side setups just blew over my head. For example setting up a share as "LANNasman" really confused me. Is that a person? Is that the share? Is that the group? Also when setting up users, a selection allows you to set up a "group" at the same time...something to do with user rights. This completely befuddles me!
My basic understanding to the concept of a group...a number of users with specific permissions to do functions within the computer. So a group would more "function" based rather than individuals. I would figure this to being (an) Administrator(s) to a huge corporation.
Can you develop a simpler setup interface for us idiots? Something for home based stuff, either as a preset script or actual entries. May need to redo the video's you have online. That one example given above was confusing.
Thanks for the time you guys have put into this. A little more front end work and some advertisement, this can really take off!

 

[m0nkey_]

The resources section is your friend: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/

Samba (SMB) shares 101: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas-and-samba-smb-permissions-video.8/

 

[Glorious1]

No doubt about it, there is a huge learning curve for the non-computer geek to get a FreeNAS system put together and configured and maintained. You're probably in that struggling, frustrated phase. It will pass. Some people trying to be helpful are not great communicators. In that case, I usually look for other posts or resources or web sites that I can understand better.

Realistically, you have to learn a lot of this stuff to run a NAS of any kind. The way I see it, you only have to learn stuff once, and then you are in a good position to troubleshoot. You're building lifelong skills and knowledge. It's kind of a hobby. If you're not up for that, you could minimize it by getting a mainstream consumer NAS. Maybe not as good and flexible as FreeNAS, but easier to set up.

Each user belongs to one or more groups. Each file or directory is owned by a user and a group. For each file, separate permissions can be assigned to the user and the group (and everyone else).

Let's say you and Bob are using the NAS. You both have your directories and don't want the other mucking around in them. Fine. But there are other directories you want to share, and both have read/write privileges. So you make a group, maybe called steveandbob. Both of you are in the group. The shared directories are owned by that group, and the group has full privileges for items in the shared directories. So you don't have to be a big corporation for groups to be useful.

 

[Steve P.]

Hey M0nkey, where did you find my picture????:)