Remote access for freenas and transmission

[Smokie]

Hey everyone,

I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can answer.

First of all my external Ip is dynamic so I would want to set up remote access via tzo dns or some other service provider. My question is regarding accessing transmission remotely, would my remote access to my freenas server allow me to access transmission? Or would I need setup a separate one for my transmission jail?

I do a lot of downloading remotely and would love some pointers or setup details that anyone has previous done.

Thanks in advance

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

this is not specific to freenas plugins. but yes, dyanmicdns provider + port forwarding would allow remote management.

 

[Smokie]

Thanks for the reply.

Hopefully someone might point me towards a transmission guide using other plugins ect..

 

[danb35]

dyanmicdns provider + port forwarding would allow remote management.

...but dyndns + openvpn connection would be vastly more secure.

 

[Smokie]

...but dyndns + openvpn connection would be vastly more secure.

Would that be the kind of setup you would have? How would the openvpn fit in to it all?

 

[pirateghost]

Would that be the kind of setup you would have? How would the openvpn fit in to it all?

VPN is used to securely connect into your private LAN. It is the most secure method of accessing your NAS and any services you may run in jails.

It limits access to the network by only requiring one port, and authentication to your openvpn server. Rather than blindly opening ports for transmission gui or even more stupidly, your Freenas Web gui.

 

[danb35]

Would that be the kind of setup you would have? How would the openvpn fit in to it all?

Yes, pretty much. I have a static IP address, so I don't need to mess with dynamic DNS. The only case where I'd use port forwarding would be if I needed to give the outside world access to something inside my network, which I don't usually want to do (though it is required for Plex to work remotely). For anything where I want to be able to remotely access something on my LAN, I use a VPN connection. That provides a secure, authenticated, encrypted connection from wherever I am to my LAN. Odds are your router doesn't support OpenVPN by default, but if it's compatible with dd-wrt or Tomato, you should be able to use OpenVPN. Other VPN technologies are available--heck, even PPTP is better than nothing (though perhaps not by much).

OpenVPN has clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD, Android, iOS, and no doubt others I don't know about, so you should be able to use it from any device you want.

 

[Smokie]

Yes, pretty much. I have a static IP address, so I don't need to mess with dynamic DNS. The only case where I'd use port forwarding would be if I needed to give the outside world access to something inside my network, which I don't usually want to do (though it is required for Plex to work remotely). For anything where I want to be able to remotely access something on my LAN, I use a VPN connection. That provides a secure, authenticated, encrypted connection from wherever I am to my LAN. Odds are your router doesn't support OpenVPN by default, but if it's compatible with dd-wrt or Tomato, you should be able to use OpenVPN. Other VPN technologies are available--heck, even PPTP is better than nothing (though perhaps not by much).

OpenVPN has clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD, Android, iOS, and no doubt others I don't know about, so you should be able to use it from any device you want.

Cheers for the info.
One more thing, is there a monthly cost for openvpn? Like there is with dynamic dns

 

[pirateghost]

Cheers for the info.
One more thing, is there a monthly cost for openvpn? Like there is with dynamic dns

Dynamic DNS can be free if you pick the right provider and openvpn is something you install on your own network. It is free.

 

[danb35]

OpenVPN is a protocol, not a service. There are plenty of paid VPN services on the market, but they're generally designed to allow you to pretend to be somewhere you aren't. Those services involve you connecting, as a client, to one or more of their servers. In this application, you'd run the OpenVPN server locally--ideally on your router, possibly in a jail on your FreeNAS server. The software (both server and client) is free, and you're not using anyone else's services, so there's no recurring cost.

 

[Smokie]

OpenVPN is a protocol, not a service. There are plenty of paid VPN services on the market, but they're generally designed to allow you to pretend to be somewhere you aren't. Those services involve you connecting, as a client, to one or more of their servers. In this application, you'd run the OpenVPN server locally--ideally on your router, possibly in a jail on your FreeNAS server. The software (both server and client) is free, and you're not using anyone else's services, so there's no recurring cost.

That sounds great, but surely me having a dynamic external Ip would cause issues??
Has anyone any experience with setting this up with a dynamic ip?

My current setup is my cable modem is bridged and my netgear wndr3700 handles the routing. I could flash it with dd-wrt or Tomato and see how I get on.

 

[Smokie]

OpenVPN is a protocol, not a service. There are plenty of paid VPN services on the market, but they're generally designed to allow you to pretend to be somewhere you aren't. Those services involve you connecting, as a client, to one or more of their servers. In this application, you'd run the OpenVPN server locally--ideally on your router, possibly in a jail on your FreeNAS server. The software (both server and client) is free, and you're not using anyone else's services, so there's no recurring cost.

That sounds great, but surely me having a dynamic external Ip would cause issues??
Has anyone any experience with setting this up with a dynamic ip?

My current setup is my cable modem is bridged and my netgear wndr3700 handles the routing. I could flash it with dd-wrt or Tomato and see how I get on.

 

[danb35]

That sounds great, but surely me having a dynamic external Ip would cause issues??

There's no reason a dynamic external IP should cause a problem. You'd set up your OpenVPN profile using your hostname, not your IP address.

 

[Smokie]

Brilliant, so I would

There's no reason a dynamic external IP should cause a problem. You'd set up your OpenVPN profile using your hostname, not your IP address.

Brilliant so I would need the two? Dynamic dns and openvpn

Thanks again for the info guys

 

[danb35]

That's correct.

 

[enemy85]

Yes, pretty much. I have a static IP address, so I don't need to mess with dynamic DNS. The only case where I'd use port forwarding would be if I needed to give the outside world access to something inside my network, which I don't usually want to do (though it is required for Plex to work remotely). For anything where I want to be able to remotely access something on my LAN, I use a VPN connection. That provides a secure, authenticated, encrypted connection from wherever I am to my LAN. Odds are your router doesn't support OpenVPN by default, but if it's compatible with dd-wrt or Tomato, you should be able to use OpenVPN. Other VPN technologies are available--heck, even PPTP is better than nothing (though perhaps not by much).

May I ask you if you use OpenVPN through you router or if it is installed in a FreeNas jail?
What are your speed performances compared to the not VPN connection?
I'm asking these information because i almost finish to install openvpn in a freenas jail, but the performances are not that great as i expected...

 

[danb35]

IMO, OpenVPN should be a function of the router/firewall--it doesn't make any sense to me to punch a hole through your firewall to reach a VPN server running behind your firewall. In my case, the router/firewall is a Linux server that is the router/gateway for my LAN to the Internet, as well as a public-facing web/mail/OpenVPN server.

In the application for which I use the VPN, performance isn't much of an issue--I'm using it to admin stuff inside my LAN, from outside my LAN. As long as I can get a few tens of kb/sec, it's plenty. If you wanting to use the VPN outbound from your LAN, for example to hide your torrent traffic, or to circumvent GeoIP-based blocking, that's a different scenario. I'd still tend to think that should be done on the router, but it's not a use case I've had a need for, so I haven't thought much about it.

 

[Smokie]

Just another question regading dynamic dns. I have managed to find a couple of providers that offer this service for free.
Is there something I have to run on the freenas server? I have an old iomega ix200 and it came with free tzodns I thought hat it linked the device to the hostname ect.

Thanks again

 

[pirateghost]

Just another question regading dynamic dns. I have managed to find a couple of providers that offer this service for free.
Is there something I have to run on the freenas server? I have an old iomega ix200 and it came with free tzodns I thought hat it linked the device to the hostname ect.

Thanks again

Dynamic DNS updates your dynamic dns host name with your dynamic IP address. It is not tied to a device. You only need one DNS host name to get back to your IP.


As long as you have one device/computer on your network updating a dynamic dns host name that is all you need. That host name can resolve back to your home IP. If your router supports it, use that. If not, you can use Freenas built in dynamic dns to update.

 

[Smokie]

That's w

Dynamic DNS updates your dynamic dns host name with your dynamic IP address. It is not tied to a device. You only need one DNS host name to get back to your IP.


As long as you have one device/computer on your network updating a dynamic dns host name that is all you need. That host name can resolve back to your home IP. If your router supports it, use that. If not, you can use Freenas built in dynamic dns to update.

That's what I was hoping, that freenas had a built in way of updating my external Ip changing.

In regards to adding the transmission plugins, does the ip address that the jail be dynamic or static? Just for the port forwarding side of things

Thanks again for the help