I’ve just created my account and I’m just looking for some help before I set up my TrueNas. Currently, I just have a modem and a router but, to manage my network (manage and secure) and port all required data to my NAS, I need to replace my router with a gateway (I’m going to use OPNsense), and I’m told I’ll need a switch after that, and a wifi access point. Can my gateway not provide wifi? Can I not connect my router after my gateway/switch, and that provide wifi? Can my gateway not act as a switch? Do I really need all this extra hardware?
I think you need to research on what each item does to understand what you require. Multiple features can be combined into hardware. There are cable modems with router and switch functions and includes Wifi.
Maybe start with posting your current network hardware and model numbers. The items are usually broken out into separate items at the enterprise level but home and SMB can combine them.
I have been researching and I do understand mostly what these components do but, even for the most simple research (Does a switch use IP or MAC addresses for routing) I can’t get a straight answer from anyone. Instead of looking at what the hardware does, I think I’ll actually research the hardware itself and look at features.
A router would use both IP and MAC for routing as inside the routing table. The MAC is supposed to be unique, should not change is tied to hardware.. The IP is assigned either statically or dynamically (DHCP) and linked to a MAC
Post your current networking hardware. Describe how you think you will use your TrueNAS setup. Most setups share data only on a private network. The TrueNAS appliance itself does connect to the internet for OS updates and app updates but, otherwise, doesn’t require internet access. The OS can be updated with manual downloads.
My current setup is a cable modem, wifi router / switch and a separate switch. The cable mode is assigned an IP from my cable provider. That IP is associated to a MAC address. The cable modem provides a single IP internally to the wif router / switch. That device routes all traffic between the internal private network and the outside (internet). It provides DNS services for the entire, internal network. It also acts as a DHCP server for the internal network. Since it only has a single port, I connect it to a switch and all the computers (devices) can talk to the router and get assigned IP address through DHCP, look up addresses through DNS and do the routing between the private network and the internet.
Right now I have a common modem and router but, I’m buying a gateway (firewall router) and a smart switch, and I’m planning on looking up to see if my router can be configured as an access point. I want to install ubuntu on my order desktop and install a bay of hard drives (right now I just need one ~500GB hard drive). I also want to host like game servers, possible website, and maybe some more depending on what the future entails.
SIDE NOTE - why doesn’t the switch just use the MAC address to communicate to the device. Why does it even need to assign a IP address? Dynamic IP’s make a little more sense but a static IP is BASICALLY just a MAC address no?
It really sounds like you’re making this much more complicated than you need to. I mean, I wouldn’t want to discourage you from building up an OPNsense router, but it certainly isn’t necessary, and frankly your questions here suggest that effectively configuring and managing one might be beyond your current skills.
Get a small unmanaged switch, plug that into your router, plug your NAS and any other wired devices into it. Done. If you then want to learn more about networking, go for it, but the level of knowledge you need to run TrueNAS really isn’t that great.
Hey, yeah I’m currently working on a networking cert. so this stuff is coming up linearly which is very nice. I’ll do more research on an OSI model though. Thanks for the response
Yo dan, yeah networking is a lot so, sometimes overcomplicating things is just nature BUT, I totally disagree. I could connect my NAS to my routers LAN however, the firewall on my router just says firewall and doesn’t let me configure it. OPNsense here is required because I need total control of my firewall in case I expand my NAS in the future and have more client access (I need deep packet inspection, per network firewall rules, load balancing, live traffic monitoring, per device bandwidth, etc).
Secondly, because my budget is tight, my gateway only has one or two LANs so, this is why I need a switch. I did get a smart switch so I can make sure I have server isolation (VLAN, I don’t want everything on my network to be able to communicate to my server and, if they do, I can add firewall rules between my VLANs)
I am currently enrolled in some education programs, so I would not classify my understanding and management of the system “beyond my current skills” I just need to learn more about networking and apply my current skills.
