Question Direct Connection Between Truenas and Computer

[GypsyAcidQueen]

Hi all,

I just put together a little Truenas build, and I'm wanting to connect it directly to my laptop via ethernet because I'm living in a situation where I can't have permanent ethernet cables run to the router.

As it stands, the server is up and running and I can access the web GUI from my laptop when the NAS is plugged into the router. When I connect the laptop and NAS directly, however, I cannot ping the NAS' static IP, nor can I access the GUI.

As other forum responses suggested, I have set static IPs for both the laptop and the server. That info is as follows:

router: 192.168.0.1
Laptop: 192.168.0.250
NAS: 192.168.0.251

The static IP for the laptop is configured on the 'wifi' network connection in network and sharing centre.

They're on the same subnet, which I gather is also important.

One final thing to mention is that when I connect the NAS to the laptop via ethernet, networking and sharing centre reflects that it detects something, telling me 'unidentified network' under the ethernet.

Would massively appreciate any help, thanks guys!

 

[COLGeek]

What subnet mask do you have setup on your devices?

 

[bill001g]

You likely are going to have issues if you use both the wifi and the ethernet at the same time.

It can be done but you need completely different networks. So you could change he pc and the NAS to 192.168.1.x ip addresses and leave the wifi on the other network. If you plan to move the nas back to the router you will have to change the ip again so you don't want to be moving it back and forth.

 

[GypsyAcidQueen]

What subnet mask do you have setup on your devices?

On my laptop I just set 255.255.0.0 , on the NAS gui where I set the static IP, I could not see a text box to input a subnet mask

 

[GypsyAcidQueen]

You likely are going to have issues if you use both the wifi and the ethernet at the same time.

It can be done but you need completely different networks. So you could change he pc and the NAS to 192.168.1.x ip addresses and leave the wifi on the other network. If you plan to move the nas back to the router you will have to change the ip again so you don't want to be moving it back and forth.

Got it, thanks very much for the input, I'll try this as soon as I get home

 

[FallenKell]

You could also setup a static route rule to tell the laptop to reach that IP address through a specific device. But it is probably just as easy for you to change the TrueNAS to a different subnet and setup your laptop's wired networking card to that same subnet and direct connect them. It is still good to know how to setup a static route, so I would tell you to do a quick search using your favorite internet web search portal for "add static route to YOUR_OPERATING_SYSTEM_NAME_GOES_HERE".

A static route will also require you to setup your laptop's wired network device (which you may or may not have done given the details you listed ) and also make sure you your default route rule goes to your laptop's wifi and not the wired network card (since the wired network is only just your system and the truenas system). Again, better to simply use a different subnet and just ensure your default route to the internet is your wifi card.