4200 and the USB Port

BxD

I have been "playing" with my new 4200 and I cannot seem to figure out if one can or cannot use the USB port for a large-ish hard drive for storage that can be shared across the network. (The USB port on the side, not the console port). Is this possible? If so, is there a pointer to the area in the documentation for setting this up? I found some information on how to do this in the GUI, but it was inaccurate. Thanks !!

bmeeks

pfSense will not have any "network share" software loaded. It is generally accepted as bad practice to put extra "stuff" on a firewall as that increases the potental attack surface (more things to have bugs and thus be potentially exploitable).

BxD

Ok... Thanks... It was really odd to see instructions pointing to things in the GUI that simply did not exist. Not that it matters really, but did this info used to be there and has since been removed for the reasons you mentioned (i.e. not a good practice)?

bmeeks

@BxD said in 4200 and the USB Port:

It was really odd to see instructions pointing to things in the GUI that simply did not exist.

Can you give some examples? What are you looking for specifically?

BxD

Numbers 4, 5 and 6 don't seem to exist.

Sorry for the crap formatting, as it was copied and pasted -- tried to clean it up a bit...

Searched with the following text: How can one set up a Netgate 4200 Appliance to use the USB port for a hard drive to use as network shared storage?

Answer received was this:
Certainly! To set up a Netgate 4200 Appliance to use the USB port for network shared storage, follow these steps:

Connect to the Console Port:
Use a terminal program (such as PuTTY on Windows or SecureCRT) to connect to the system console port via USB.
Configure the terminal program with the appropriate settings.
Initial Configuration:
Plug the power cable into the power port to turn on the Netgate Firewall.
Allow 4-5 minutes for the appliance to boot up completely.
Access the Web Interface (GUI):
Open a web browser and navigate to the Netgate appliance’s IP address (usually https://192.168.1.1).
Log in using the default credentials (username: admin, password: pfsense).
Navigate to Storage Settings:
In the pfSense web interface, go to System > Advanced > Miscellaneous.
Scroll down to the Filesystem and Disk Devices section.
Mount the USB Drive:
Insert your USB hard drive into the Netgate 4200’s USB port.
Click the Mount button next to the USB drive listed in the Available Disks section.
The drive should now be mounted and accessible.
Configure Network Shared Storage:
Go to Services > CIFS/SMB (or Services > NFS if you prefer NFS).
Enable the service and configure the shared storage settings.
Specify the path to the mounted USB drive (e.g., /mnt/usbdrive).
Set Permissions and Access:
Adjust permissions as needed to allow network clients to read and write to the shared storage.
Create user accounts and assign appropriate permissions.
Test the Setup:
Access the shared storage from other devices on your network using the Netgate appliance’s IP address and the configured share path.

Remember to secure your setup by changing default passwords and ensuring proper firewall rules. For more detailed instructions, refer to the Netgate 4200 Security Gateway Manual and explore the pfSense Documentation for additional resources.

Edit: removed spurious numbers that were note links in original but look like random numbers in pasted text.

bmeeks

@BxD said in 4200 and the USB Port:

CIFS/SMB (or Services > NFS if you prefer NFS).

Those are someone's third-party instructions. Neither of these software packages are installed on pfSense by default due to the reason I mentioned in my earlier post: CIFS/SMB or NFS.

There is a lot of "wrong" information to be found on the web usually written by someone with only about 50% or less actual knowledge compared to what they think they know . Or sometimes they just give a really incomplete answer/tutorial.

BxD

@bmeeks Ok. Again, thanks... The output of the reply gave me the impression that it was clipped from original documentation. ((Reason # 538 why I hate AI in web browsers. In this case, CoPilot in MSFT Edge browser.))

bmeeks

@BxD said in 4200 and the USB Port:

@bmeeks Ok. Again, thanks... The output of the reply gave me the impression that it was clipped from original documentation. ((Reason # 538 why I hate AI in web browsers. In this case, CoPilot in MSFT Edge browser.))

No, I just checked and neither CIFS/SMB nor NFS are available as installable packages in the approved pfSense packages repository. You could install those from unapproved third-party repos, but you risk substantially breaking your pfSense installation doing that because of shared library dependencies.

BxD

@bmeeks said in 4200 and the USB Port:

You could install those from unapproved third-party repos, but you risk substantially breaking your pfSense installation doing that because of shared library dependencies.

Nope... I prefer riding with my training wheels firmly attached. Not gonna go down the path of "self harm, due to stupidity or excessive risk taking"

SteveITS

@BxD AI as a search engine isn’t there yet.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

SteveITS

@BxD BTW Netgate’s docs are very good.
https://docs.netgate.com/

stephenw10

Yup, that looks like it pulled instructions from several places, probably some other device using the name '4200'.

pfSense does not, and has never, included network file sharing like that.

In a pinch you could ssh to the firewall and mount the drive. Then have scp access to that mount from something else to access files on it. But there are security implications in doing so.