Why not? Constructive complaints about a product show that you care & want it to improve - they may even bare fruit. I post that I think that the changes to SMART are stupid & the last few versions aren’t worth upgrading to with the flipflop on features, but I still think TrueNAS is a great product & it is worth my time to help other users. I think both options can co-exist.
If you’re tired of someone’s opinion on the forums, you do always have the option to mute.
That’s exactly the issue. You can say whatever you want in whatever tone you choose, but being rude or hostile and then labeling it “constructive criticism” doesn’t make it so. The pattern is obvious, and I don’t think it’s fooling anyone.
There’s a difference between offering feedback and repeatedly showing up to take shots at the same project and people. At some point it stops contributing and starts dragging the conversation down.
I’d much rather see this forum thrive with respectful, substantive discussion than turn into a stage for personal grievances. There’s more to life than winning arguments on a forum.
Thanks for your support. We appreciate constructive criticism without the slander.
We are looking for people to:
In this particular case, its a preview… its not easy to test and it’s not clearly documented. Please avoid jumping to conclusions about how its built. From the video, people can see the scope of the features being provided and the UI… comments on those are welcome.
(My view is the team did an awesome job on the UI and features…it is Enterprise-class)
For the record… this is “a GUI file manager built into TrueNAS” and it does not need any Apps. What is new is that TrueNAS Connect controls it. TrueNAS Connect has a free option and is still maturing. I would urge everyone to carefully review when they have all the necessary information and be very specific on any issues they have.
Is Truenas connect still required if all you want to do is use it locally and not use it externally? Or do you have access to it via http://truenasip/webshare (or something like that)
WebShare today uses Connect features for the setup of hostnames, SSL certs, passkey setup, etc. So to answer your question, Yes, Connect is going to be required, but no you are not talking through Connect on a daily basis while using the functionality. Connect will also be leveraged for future expansion of functionality, I.E. automatic sharing of files via email, sharing to the recipients over the public internet (if enabled). Think Plex discovery/sharing of files outside your network when we begin enabling that functionality.
Example use-case would be: I have a file I want to send to a friend. I don’t want to give them access to my VPN or make a TrueNAS account. But I can click “share”, enter their email, and they get a link to download it directly from my TrueNAS box. Rather than having to download the file locally, send via email, or throw it up on some cloud service to share out. If the friend also has TrueNAS, they can even download the file directly from your TrueNAS → their TrueNAS without needing to download to the local desktop first.
Just to re-iterate. WebShare file services live locally on your TrueNAS. Meaning when you log into it via your web-browser, you are talking point to point directly from your Web-browser to your TrueNAS, not passing through any cloud infrastructure of ours. Just like SMB in that respect. You still need direct routes to the TrueNAS, so either local, or over your own VPNs, Tailscale, etc. At no point will we be passing file traffic around. We just handle discovery, routing and management layers to make it easier for everybody to self-host, access and share their own data, either internally or (eventually) externally.
Must, why?
It’s the same thing with spotlight indexing. The whole point of going through the hassle of setting up my own server is NOT to be dependent on third parties, functioning internet access, etc. and yet here we are, a third party service that isn’t transparent, wants to retain credentials, and is prerequiste for key features.
How are “simultanous users” counted? If I leave a browser open on my desktop, I can’t open it up on my laptop? Or only one user can use the feature, but with multiple sessions?
There’s a few incorrect conclusions here. I’d suggest waiting for the BETA, trying it out and then criticizing it based on facts. Documentation will be available for BETA.
Hi Kris – I know a lot of TrueNAS employees are also Tailscale users. Tailscale offers other ways to enable secure sharing within a group, nice DNS names and automated certificate management, possibly leaving limited incremental functionality for Connect for those users. Similarly in an enterprise context, enterprises have their own ways of making things accessible to staff as desired. It would be nice if Web Sharing was not strictly coupled to Connect where the user/organisation may not want/need the Connect functionality.
Glad you are interested. We’d like to hear about specific use-cases.
For enterprises there will be a set of options.. we’ll make them clear as we get closer to Release. This demo was mostly just introducing the technology.
The enterprises I am aware of would be looking for
OAuth authentication against Entra ID — if there are passkeys they will come from Entra, utilising full set of Conditional Access
cross-enterprise sharing by accounts in Entra ID (guest accounts or service principals for example)
Ability to share links to files, not copies of files, but would be at a disadvantage to Office / SharePoint if the file links were not editable / co-editable in Office
File versioning
Transmittals style records providing who downloaded / uploaded file when for legal purposes
Web Connect as a separable component run in a DMZ, not directly on the filer for security separation and ease of independent maintenance, with no inherent privileges to read data from filer (validating client token and then on passing from client), rate limits, alerts
Access via enterprise VPN or authenticating reverse proxy, not via a third party service.
Where I work any third party service would also need to be delivered in-country, so of web connect does not depend on cloud components that is probably better for this use case.
Regarding the free version of Connect, can the comments re simultaneous users in the T3 video be clarified? What counts as a simultaneous user of WebShare? For instance, if someone want to give a family of, say 6, access to files via WebShare with Truenas account credentials for each of them and they all happen to log in at the same time to view something on a single Truenas box - how much will that cost?
Thanks for the “enterprise” list. It is a wide range of complex needs.
TrueNAS Enterprise offerings are focussed on these Enterprise requirements… that’s our bread and butter.
TrueNAS CE will offer a subset more suited to home users and small businesses.
More detailed info and pricing will be available in coming months.
But how would that work in relation to this:
Sounds like the requirement for direct routes doesn’t tackle the above example use-case and I’d still have to give this friend VPN access.
I already have everything in place to access my TrueNAS system from wherever I need to. I see the benefit of a well integrated web interface to browse, search and access files on TrueNAS (so I’d no longer need to deploy Nextcloud etc.). But I don’t see why this would require accessing through a third party domain (TrueNAS Connect)… Would be great of this file browser could truly be integrated in the TrueNAS web interface!
At this stage, yes, There’s a general need for network connectivity while maintaining security.
If your system had a public IP address (perhaps behind a firewall), then there is a path available for your friend to use. However, the system admin has to take responsibility for configuring securely.
There’s a little more detail on TrueNAS WebShare in this blog:
More to come as we make BETA available.
Hi, thanks for this wonderful feature! We love TrueNAS very much. 
But if I’m not misunderstanding the documents and above conversations (sorry if I’ve missed some points), it looks like this feature can’t be enabled on an air-gapped environment, as it depends on TrueNAS Connect, and we can’t have TrueNAS Connect deployed internally, am I correct? In my opinion, maybe if this is THE powerful web file manager that TrueNAS has been waiting for, could it be ran without any external dependencies, and let TrueNAS Connect to be a friendly 1-click setup optional helper for add-on functions like easy public sharing and certificate management, so both local-only users and those who wants to share with friends can find their own comfort zones at the same time? Binding it with TrueNAS Connect service feels like we finally got a delicious biscuit after the devout waiting, but it comes with peanut butter pre-applied on it, and unfortunately I’m allergic to peanuts, so although it’s really appealing, but sadly I can’t enjoy it, which I guess is contrary to the decision of making it available for the Community Edition.
Anyway, thanks for all of your hardworking and sincere contributions to such an excellent project! Hope we can make it better together.
Would be nice to control content user could see per their access but it’s early dev, so we’ll see where it goes.
Took me like 10 minutes to set this up (including TNC for the first time), very impressed with how easy it was!
Maybe not the right forum for this, but noticed that my browser (Firefox) didn’t show any download progress until it was finished and there’s no way to see in-progress downloads… so I didn’t know if it was working or not until several large files started just showing up. Is that a config issue or just a reflection of not the final release?
Are you truly airgapped?.. or just don’t allow external connectivity to your TrueNAS?
Have you tried connecting to Connect? (Its only uses outgoing TCP connections… most sites support this).
If you are a business, we have solutions for fully airgapped. You would need to contact our sales team (software will be released later this year).
It should be blazingly fast over your LAN. Is it a significant issue for you?
If someone is running Chrome… they can confirm its not the browser.
