FreeNAS… So what is FreeNAS?

FreeNAS refers to an Operating System designed by it’s developers to act as a location on your network to store files (File Server). The letters NAS in “FreeNAS” refer to a acronym known in networking, as Network Attached Storage. In simple form, This indicates that it (NAS) is a form of storage that is attached to your network. FreeNAS, therefore, provides you with this functionality, and can provide a location for storing just about any file(s) such as music, images/pictures, documents, etc. Although it can act as a fileserver, FreeNAS is very versatile and can act as an FTP server, provide Rsync capabilities, as well as many other useful functions. In this entry, I will discuss setting it up to act as a file-server for your local network.

The FreeNAS Operating System can be found at the following developer website: www.freenas.org

Choosing your hardware:

Note: FreeNAS is a very streamlined Operating System and requires minimal hardware for installation and functionality. When installing FreeNAS, your application requirement will determine what hardware you will need to perform to your requirements specifically.

1. A PC with 96MB of RAM.

2. A bootable CD drive.

3. A bootable hard drive (I recommend 100MB of free space for the OS specifically) which will act as a location for the Operating System (FreeNAS) and will also act as a location for storing your files.

Installing FreeNAS on your Computer’s HDD [(Hard Disk Drive)/Hard Drive]:

Note: You must first download FreeNAS and burn it (the ISO) to a CD to perform this installation, (you must select “burn an image to CD” or similar option in your cd burning software) .

1. Make sure you have power plugged into the PC you are installing the OS on and make sure you have at least a keyboard plugged in (mouse also recommended for beginners).

2. Power on your computer and insert the CD containing FreeNAS into the drive.

3. Make sure that the CD Drive is boot-able, and that the option to boot from it is activated in the computer’s BIOS (you may have to restart after changing these settings to boot from the CD Drive successfully).

4. After the computer has booted successfully from the CD drive, you will be presented with a list of options that you can perform from the CD. One of the options is, installing to a local hard-drive (currently option 9). This step is pretty straight-forward, you simply select the option to install to the hard drive using part of it for the OS and the other section for storage by selecting the corresponding number:

“Console setup”
“*********************”
1) Assign Interface
2) Set LAN IP address
3) Reset WebGUI password
4) Reset to factory defaults
5) Ping host
6) Shell
7) Reboot system PowerOff system
9) Install to a hard drive/memory drive/USB Pen, etc.

You will be presented with the options to configure your hard drive:

“Install”
“*********************”
1) Install on HD, CF or USB key: Create 1 UFS partition
2) Install on HD: Create 2 UFS partitions (OS and DATA)
3) Upgrade existing installed version from CDROM
4) Return to main menu

If you have a single hard drive in your computer, the best option for a new installation is to simply select the “Install on HD: Create 2 UFS partitions (OS and DATA)” option (number 2). You will be prompted to select the source CD which is typically “acd0″ or whichever drive you inserted the CD in. You will also be prompted to select the Hard Drive to install the OS, this is typically “ad0″ if you are installing it to the master on the primary controller.

5. Once the installation is complete follow the instructions and remove the CD prior to rebooting the computer. You may select option four (4 ) to exit the main menu, and then option seven (7 ) to restart the system. After the system has been restarted, check the number of options that are available in your menu. If you have an option number nine (9), then you are still booting from the CD.

Full FreeNAS Installation Instructions (0.684)

Tablet On-Screen Keyboard Frustrations

Today I came across a very interesting and frustrating situation with a Tablet PC running Windows XP Tablet editon. The issue specifically was related to the on-screen keyboard. The on-screen keyboard would show up each time I tried to log-in to the tablet using one of its user accounts. Although this is not a critical issue, it proved to be a nuisance. You will find that disabling the use of the on-screen keyboard in control panel or by pressing the “Windows Key”+U and un-checking the “start automatically when I log in” in “utility manager” will not remove it from the log-in screen. The quick fix for this issue is to type the following command into your run box, followed by a restart: regsvr32 /u “c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\ink\loginkey.dll”. This should take care of the issue permanetly and does no damage to your system files.

Your TrueStar Technology Expert

Setting up E-Mail in Windows Vista. Like most people, I depend heavily on email, and it is one of the first things I tend to configure after purchasing a new OS.

Lets get started:

The New Client:

As you all might know… Microsoft has changed the name of the Windows Vista’s mail client (compared to the XP mail client) to “Windows Mail”. This seems to be kind-of a knock-off of Apple’s “Mail” client. Nevertheless, in order to configure your mail client in Windows Vista, you will need to find the “Windows Mail” Icon on your desktop, or in your newly designed “Start” menu. Once you have located that icon, you may proceed as follows to setup your POP email accounts:

1. Click on the “Windows Mail” Icon.

2. *Click on the “Tools” option in your menu bar.

3. Click on “Accounts” (A dialog box containing the necessary options will appear).

4. Click on the “Add” button.

5. Select “Email Account” (This should be selected by default).

6. Click on “Next”.

7. Type in your Name, Title, or whatever you would like to be displayed as your identity when others receive your emails.

8. Click on “Next” to continue.

9. Type in the email address you would like to send and receive emails from.

10. Click on “Next” to continue.

11. Make sure “POP3″ is selected in the “Incoming e-mail server type” combo-box.

12. Type in your POP and SMTP server in the following text boxes provided (These are typically [POP.whatever your ISP's domain name is. top-level-domain], and [SMTP.whatever your ISP's domain is. top-level-domain]).

13. Click on “Next”.

14. Type in your e-mail username in the “E-mail username:” text box. (This is commonly the first part of your email address and not the entire email address. For instance in the email address “test@test.com” “test” (the letters and numbers [characters] before the @ symbol) are your username.

15. Type in your password for your email account in the “Password:” text box.

16. Click on “Next” to continue.

17. If you do not wish to download your emails at this time, put a check-mark in the “Do not download my emial at this time” check box. (You should do this if you need to configure your email account setting to leave a copy of your email on the server etc.).

18. Click on “Finish”.

19. This will complete the setup of your email in the new client.

Note: If you did not put a check-mark in the “Do not download my emails at this time” check-box, your emails will be downloaded after setup.

* At this point, if you have not yet configured a default mail client on your machine, you may be automatically prompted to setup your account… simply jump to the matching number (typically number 7) in the above list for help configuring that specific option.

Your TrueStar Technology Expert.

  Welcome to TrueStar Computer Solutions… “TrueBlog”!

In this blog, we will discuss most anything technologically related… whether it be the latest computer Operating System technology (Linux, Apple, Windows based), computer hardware, third-party software, or whether it be as simple as the latest gadgetry. Drop by and take a peek at what’s going on, and hey, pop us a quick question or pass us a comment! Thanks, and… Enjoy!

Your TrueStar Technology Expert