Setting up SSH & Port Forwarding for Remote Access.

[climb2bhi]

I can't even reach my FreeNAS box remotely using DMZ on both the router and the DSL modem???

 

[ProtoSD]

So just to verify, do you now have DDNS working consistently and feel comfortable setting that up?

The ports you're opening, and using the DMZ are probably not going to help because most ISP's block those ports anyway.

How are you testing your access remotely?
Are you actually connecting from a remote network, or just trying to loop out of your local network and come back in?
If you're actually on a remote network, it also may have a firewall blocking ports. There's ways around that.
What OS and application is your girlfriend going to use to connect?

 

[louisk]

I'd also be surprised if your or anyone's ISP doesn't block those ports too.

I honestly can't imagine an ISP not blocking those.

 

[climb2bhi]

I have DDNS working. I have a sudomain (proliesure.ever-fun.com) on FreeDNS and software that is keeping it updated in case I reboot my DSL router. So yes I'm comfortable keeping that going.

I am just trying to loop out of my local network. When I type in proliesure.ever-fun.com I hit the Main setup menu of my DSL modem. Honestly I'm so uneducated in networking I'm unsure what to put after that. i.e. I have tried proliesure.ever-fun.com/192.168.1.10 and proliesure.ever-fun.com/FREENAS and proliesure.ever-fun.com/username (with the user name actually being a user that works on my LAN with the FreeNAS server)

My girlfriend is running Windows XP on a laptop. I originally thought she would be using something like Filezilla. She is smart and can be trained to use whatever will work best. I just don't know what that is.

Thanks again.

 

[ProtoSD]

Climb,

I've been working on this tutorial and waiting for some feedback before I posted it, but I've waited too long already and too many people are asking for it, including you.

I haven't finished the section for Windows XP, but it might be some good study material for you and your feedback would help others like yourself.

Basically this tutorial explains how to map a Windows drive letter (like your C:\ but a different letter) to a remote share on your FreeNAS system over the Internet using a secure SSH connection.

It's not *exactly* what you were asking for (something like FTP), but once it's setup it shouldn't be too hard to train your smart girlfriend ;)

For now I would just study it and make a list of questions and post them here after you accumulate a few. That'll give me more time to work on the XP instructions.

This won't work by looping out of your local network and then trying to connect back in, at least it didn't for me.

-- Proto

FreeNAS 8 Remote Sharing - Part 1 of 8 (The other parts are linked in this part)

 

[climb2bhi]

Proto,

Thanks so much. This sounds like exactly what I was trying to set up.

My introduction to NAS was shopping for production boxes on the internet. As a consumer one of the features that attracted me to several models was a claim to function as a Cloud server. I really wanted to go with one of these. I have been a avid gamer for years now and have built several gaming computers for myself. As I looked closer I found that the production NAS boxes were way overpriced for the hardware that they contained. And as I read articles on building NAS enclosures it became clear that I could build one with much higher performance than the production models. This seemed important as my movie collection moves to Blu-Ray and I would need 56Mbps stream speeds to watch movies from my NAS. And Blu-Ray's would be filling external hard drives quickly so a larger single storage is appealing.

I decided to take a chance building this myself and hope that FreeNAS as an NAS OS would work well. Thanks to whoever wrote the FreeNAS 8.0.3 guide I was up and running on my LAN as a general consumer and a non network administrator very quickly and with out a lot of head scratching about the terminology.

Then I remember the claim to Cloud features advertised by the production manufacturers. Which led me here where I was immediately lost in a whole new language and area of computers.

Having read the introduction to "FreeNAS 8 Remote Sharing" it looks like the kind of guide that like the FreeNAS 8.0.3 should help lots of us more easily make our FreeNAS servers be as functional and available as possible. I look forward to continued reading and learning about this, new to me, area of computers.

As I said before my NAS is still in "teaching" mode while I wait for the arrival of my big drives. So going through the learning, testing, and experimenting provided by your Remote Sharing guide is something that I will go through with patience, minimal stress due to no fear of data loss, and hopefully providing a feedback perspective that other noobies can benefit from.

My internet computer (separate from my gaming/theater computer) runs Windows XP since it is only used for web browsing/downloading and a fast computer and the latest OS seemed unnecessary. It is what I will use to try to set this all up and is what I use to control my Router, NAS, and DSL modem. Also it is the OS my girlfriend has so I will need to be familiar with setting up remote sharing from a XP point of view for her.

Again I look forward to the learning and providing feedback to make your guide something so many of us need.

First feed back: Tiny typo.
I will update this tutorial when find mistakes and I will also post a set of videos elaborating...
Should be: I will update this tutorial when (I) find mistakes and I will also post a set of videos elaborating...

-- Climb
Aspiring master of networking and paragraphs.

 

[ProtoSD]

First feed back: Tiny typo.
I will update this tutorial when find mistakes and I will also post a set of videos elaborating...
Should be: I will update this tutorial when (I) find mistakes and I will also post a set of videos elaborating...

-- Climb
Aspiring master of networking and paragraphs.

Climb,

Thanks for that great background and excellent use of paragraphs! ;)

From the initiative you've shown on figuring out DDNS I have no doubt you'll be a pro at this in no time!

Thanks for the feedback on the typo, every little detail is helpful. I'm working on the XP part right now, but it'll take me a day or two to setup a test system to verify the details and make sure it's accurate.

Happy Hacking!

 

[climb2bhi]

Proto,

I spoke with a IT guy where I work about my project. He suggusted using Hamachi. It looks like it has a more simple GUI and therefore possibly better for the general public than PuTTY. But maybe there are other issues with it, making it not the ideal choice? Just thought I would pass that on and see if you or others had any thoughts on it vs PuTTY for our type of application.

 

[ProtoSD]

I'd heard of Hamachi before, but I think that was before it was bought and bastardized by Logmein. I just took a look at it and it requires you to create an account with them. Then they want you to create a list of hosts on THEIR website. I don't want any BS corporate entity owning lists of MY stuff on their servers to provide their service for free. Bottom line is I think they suck.

I did find another alternative to Putty, it's FREE and is quite a bit easier to setup and use. I'll be modifying that part of my tutorial to use the other app called "Tunnelier". Tunnelier also has an FTP to SFTP bridge which seems pretty handy for people that have trouble moving on from FTP to more modern methods.

 

[climb2bhi]

Interesting to hear what the issues with Hamachi are. And I agree with you on the drawbacks you described. Also interesting to hear about a possibly more user friendly app than PuTTY.

I'm thinking there will be more user friendly apps and NAS hardware in the future because I'm guessing that Home NAS is going to become very popular as people outgrow their external hard drives.