And regarding security, I would definitely use a different port than the standard SSH port, at least externally. Otherwise you’ll get clobbered with traffic from hackers attempting to connect to your server for not so nice reasons.  You may want to consider using a keyfile as well – which makes it less convenient, but much more secure.

For some time now, I have been aware of the rather handy feature that Windows Home Server boasts with a web based file manager (I believe they call it Remote Web Access or some such generic name).  Being a stalwart FreeNAS guy, I was impressed, but didn’t let my jealousy shine through.  How cool is it that you can log into your NAS from outside the network and upload/download any file that is there via a spiffy web interface?  Very cool.  Want.

Sure, you can setup an FTP server, but I really don’t like exposing an FTP to the outside world.  Too many security issues with FTP.  Yes,  I know you can setup an SSH tunnel and do FTP, but that’s kinda boring and not everyone has the patience to setup their own SSH client, etc. Plus I wanted an easy way to allow my friends and/or family to log into the server to grab things like photos or videos or even upload their own files.  I’m certainly not going to get 99% of these folks to setup a secure FTP session via SSH.

Recently, I came across this LifeHacker article about setting up FreeNAS to run SickBeard and SABnzbd to do a sort of Internet PVR.  After reading this, and seeing the techniques they used to get this up and running I was suddenly inspired to work on the above project.  I knew there had to be a way to shoehorn something in.  So I began to look at my options.  I finally stumbled upon a slick PHP/Ajax based Web File Manager front end with decent security that would work for me and decided to give it a shot.  (Ajaxplorer)

If you want to be the master of your domain, and show your Windows Home Server friends up, then this setup is for you.  Enough background, let’s get started.

Get the Necessary Pieces:

• Step 1: Go to the Ajaxplorer website and download the latest zip (http://ajaxplorer.info).  As of the publication of this post, I downloaded Ajaxplorer v3.2.4 and I should also mention that I am using FreeNAS 0.7 in my configuration.  (sorry FreeNAS 8 folks, but I’m guessing these steps will work equally well on your server?)
• Step 2: No step two?  Alright, on with it!

Configure FreeNAS:

• Step 1: Open the admin web interface and navigate to the “Services” tab.
• Step 2: Open “Webserver”
• Step 3: Check the box to “Enable” your LightHTTPd webserver in the upper right hand corner (this doesn’t actually instantly enable anything, just allows you to start configuring)
• Step 4: Choose HTTP from the protocol drop down (at least initially – we’ll talk about securing this before we poke a hole in your router and expose the NAS to the internet)
• Step 5:  Select a port number (i.e. 1234).  (don’t select port 80, try not to conflict with other ports on the server and of course something between 0-64999)
• Step 6: Choose webserver base directory (or document root).  I put mine on my mounted drives, rather than installing directly on the flash drive (OS drive).  For example:  \mnt\sharename\www\ (of course you will need to go and create this directory on your drive first)
• Step 7: Leave Authentication and Directory Listing un-checked.
• Step 8: Click the “Save and Restart” button.  You should get message stating: “The changes have been applied successfully” after a few tense seconds.

Install Ajaxplorer

• Step 1: Unpack the ajaxplorer-3.x.x.zip into a directory off of your webserver base.  For example “. \www\ajxp”.  Confirm that all of the directories and files were created properly and that permissions were set properly (see this page for more details: http://www.ajaxplorer.info/wordpress/documentation-3/chapter-basics/ ).
• Step 2: Point your browser to your FreeNAS IP and new webserver port (i.e. http://192.168.1.101:1234/ajxp) to get started.   A diagnostic tool will be ran once to check that your configuration is ok.  On FreeNAS you’ll get some warnings letting you know that you won’t have image previews due to the lack of PHP5, etc.  Despite these warnings you should have a mostly functional web file manager installed.
• Step 3: Click continue and you should see a warning telling you that the user « admin » has been created with the password « admin » : log in with this id/password, and go the the « Settings » panel to change the admin password.
• Step 4: Configure your users and repositories.  (http://www.ajaxplorer.info/wordpress/documentation-3/chapter-features/gui-overview/ )

Additional Security Concerns

I’m not much of a security expert, however it was absolutely essential to me that this be a decently secure solution.   I really don’t want people hacking around in my NAS from the outside.

In this configuration there are at least 3 caveats with regards to security:

1. When using this interface over the internet, the traffic is unencrypted (as is your login and password).  You’ll want to setup a secure connection to your FreeNAS box and the easiest way to do this is to configure HTTPS on your box.  (http://www.freenaskb.info/kb/?View=entry&EntryID=284 ).  You’ll be self-signing your certificate, which means that your credentials will not be recognized by any reputable certificate authority – and that your browser will likely throw up all kinds of alarm bells when accessing your site.  But since you know you’re trustworthy, you can just ignore those warnings.  Do this step first such that you can generate the credentials, and the configuration file for your webserver – in the next step we’re going to use the newly created configuration as a base for a new webserver.  Just read on…
2. FreeNAS’s LightHTPPd does not support .htaccess files (which are for Apache), which means that you’ll need to go and lock down any sensitive directories (i.e. .\server\conf, etc. ) manually.  Although it seems it may not be necessary after poking around a bit more, better safe than sorry.  More information can be found here: http://redmine.lighttpd.net/wiki/1/Docs:ModAccess.  I found that there are two configuration files under FreeNAS.  One for the WebUI and one for the web server that you just enabled.  You’ll want to edit the configuration file found here: \var\etc\websrv.conf.  Add something like this to the end of the file:
   

   $HTTP["url"] =~ “^/ajxp/server/conf” {
   url.access-deny = (“”)
   }

   Now, to my surprise, if you disable and re-enable the webserver via the web UI or reboot the system you’ll completely blow away any changes you made to the config file (http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freenas/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=1941). This is apparently how FreeNAS is designed. So, here’s how I got around things. I made a copy of the websrv.conf file named mywebsrv.conf and instead of launching the default web server, launched my own via a config script. Do this by adding the following to System > Advanced > Command Scripts:

   /usr/local/sbin/lighttpd -D -f /var/etc/mywebsrv.conf -m /usr/local/lib/lighttpd

   Make this a post-init script meaning it runs after the system boots and initializes.  Ensure to add all of the directories that you would like to deny access to into the configuration file.  After you’re done with this step, make sure you disable the other default webserver via the web gui before you reboot the system. This should do the trick and forbid access to your sensitive directories.

3. Ajaxplorer comes with a standard Admin account creatively named ‘admin’ so you’ll probably want to change that to avoid dictionary attacks.  I created a new account with admin privileges and a strong password and then deleted the admin account.

If you’re reading this and can think of more, please do let me know so that I can plug those holes too.

Poke a Hole in your Router

Because everyone has a different type of router at home, I won’t even attempt to begin to tell you how to do this.  However, you’ll want to make sure that you port-forward whatever port you defined in your LightHTTPd configuration above.  You can use a different outside port if you desire, but I like to keep it simple and use the same port number.

Now you can access your stuff anywhere you have an Internet connection.  If you have a Dynamic DNS service to help you remember your IP, even better!

Final Thoughts

While I’m pretty happy with the results, I’m sure there are improvements that can be made to the installation etc.  Others have used Ajaxplorer in place of the Quixplorer that is currently running on FreeNAS (which can be used on the internal network).  Ajaxplorer can be a bit sluggish, and it doesn’t integrate perfectly with FreeNAS, but it gets the job done.  If you have any suggestions, tweaks or improvements let me know and I’ll include them here!  I hope this helps anyone that has been thinking of doing this.  It’s certainly been a learning experience for me.

Again, if you’re interested in the technical side of things, I decided to give Kdenlive a spin this time, creating the entire clip with that software.  It is yet another outstanding video editor that has come to Linux recently – and I am thoroughly impressed with its capabilities.  It’s definitely got more of a learning curve than OpenShot, but it’s still reasonably intuitive.  I found that it is better at handling Pan & Zoom type effects (Ken Burns style) than OpenShot, with a much smoother result.  However, tiling photos and video is still something that I’ve found difficult to do – and has resulted in several crashes.  I eventually gave up on that effort.  The title generator is not as snazzy as OpenShot either.  But it seems to be snappier, and renders on the fly better than OpenShot.  I’m really torn between the two and may ping pong between them until I can decide which I like best.

July is going to be a much bigger video.  Until next time…

I am currently running the v0.7 (legacy) variant of FreeNAS (in my opinion v0.8 is still a bit young) which I recently “turned-on” the bittorrent capability.  This is a good thing, because, I can simply fire-up a torrent on the machine and let it download right onto my server (which is up 24 hours a day), instead of my desktop machine which may or may not be on all the time – and which may get updated with a new OS from time to time, blowing away all my seeding torrents.

While setting up bittorrent on FreeNAS is on the surface, really easy, I found some quirks that needed to be ironed out.  I decided to capture the information in one place in the hopes it can help someone else out there.  Here are the resources that I used to get this going:

1. Setting up the Transmission client on FreeNAS v0.7. A great tutorial can be found at LifeHacker, and even has a nifty video to help you set it up. (http://lifehacker.com/5822590/turn-an-old-computer-into-a-networked-backup-streaming-or-torrenting-machine-with-freenas).  Don’t forget to setup the DNS (this is critical for bittorrent to work at all).  Update (11/2011):  I found that permissions can be quirky with the standard setup – meaning if you’re trying to delete files via SMB/CIFS, you might get denied.  To avoid this issue, set the user mask to ’0000′ in the Transmission setup page via the WebUI which will write your downloads as read/write/execute for all groups. 

2. Adding an IP block-list to Transmission under FreeNAS. Because I’m paranoid, I definitely want a block-list running on Transmission.  For some reason, this functionality is turned off by default in FreeNAS.  This helpful site, gives you the easiest method by which to turn it on and keep it updated.  (http://code.google.com/p/freenas-rss-extension/wiki/MyTweaks)  Update (11/2011):  You’ll want to update your blocklist URL to something more current as the bluetack URL does not seem to work anymore. (http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freenas/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=11473)

3. Using a remote GUI to control Transmission, monitor/start torrents. While some folks may find it perfectly acceptable to use the WebUI and a watch directory, as described in the LifeHacker article, I find that process kind of clunky.  I prefer to send the torrent files to a remote transmission client directly from my browser.  (for example, when I click on a torrent link, the browser downloads the torrent and launches the remote Transmission client automatically – no need to open up remote directories and pass files around).  Because I’m using Ubuntu on my home computer, I simply installed Transmission Remote GUI.  When clicking a torrent, simply point your browser at “/usr/bin/transgui” to start that software up.

That’s it folks. Have fun torrenting on your FreeNAS server!

Once again, I’m writing a really, really nerdy post as a public service to those out there who want to do the same and haven’t gotten enough guidance elsewhere on the internet.  Also this will serve as a persistent memory for my inevitable re-install later.  I’m sure most of my regular readers will want to stop reading at this point.

Before starting, it’s really important that you have enough space on your FreeNAS OS partition to hold Subsonic.  In the Subsonic forum it’s suggested that you carve out at least 150MB for all of the files.  I’d suggest allocating at least twice that if possible.  I’ve found that after a fair amount of use, the log file will start to grow pretty large, you may want to add codecs for transcoding, etc.  Personally this was the most painful part of the process since I had an “embedded” installation of FreeNAS on a USB flash drive which was fairly small.  During this process I used the capability within FreeNAS to backup the configuration before I re-installed.  Make sure when you re-install (if you need to) that do not choose the “embedded” option.  I installed from the CD-ROM image and chose the “full” install option onto a Hard Drive w/Data Partition (even though I will not actually use a hard drive or data partition).

The information and steps below are lovingly borrowed from the following two links, however I have mashed them up together, and added steps/made some changes that I found helpful during my experience installing the software.

• Subsonic Forum: Sindre provided some helpful instructions to get your started on the install with FreeNAS.
• Ozziks Blog: Huge thanks to this blog for helping with the finer points of the installation process.

Step 1: Prepare your server for the installation.

Before getting started, enable SSH access to your FreeNAS server.  You’ll find this under the web UI:  “Services >SSH”.  Set this to enable, and allow root.  You can log into your FreeNAS server by using any SSH terminal client.  Under Ubuntu (with SSH client installed) type “ssh x.x.x.x@root” (where the x.x.x.x is the IP address of your FreeNAS server).   If you have Windows use Putty.  Just remember that you must login as “root”, and not “admin”.

Setup FreeNAS’s Gateway IP.  This was something that I got hung up on for hours while trying to run the pkg_add command later in the process.  Well, maybe not hours, but it was an ah-ha moment when I finally stumbled upon the answer.  Under the FreeNAS web interface go to Network > LAN Management > Gateway = 192.168.1.1 (set this to your router’s IP address, mine happens to be 192.168.1.1).

Step 2: Download Java JRE (or JDK) package from:

http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/downloads/java.shtml

You should choose the JRE package according to your CPU architecture and FreeBSD version (if you have FreeNAS 0.7.x then you will want to download the FreeBSD 7 package, and of course based on your release, either AMD(64-bit) and i386(32-bit)).  I chose diablo-jre-freebsd7.i386.1.6.0.07.02.tbz, having FreeNas 0.7.2 and i386.  I then put this file onto my FreeNAS share drive so that you can access it directly from the shell (i.e. /mnt/share-name/path-to/file-name) later when you want to add the package.

Step 3: Install dependent packages (included the transcoders here as well, but may not be desired in your config):

$ pkg_add -v -r xtrans
$ pkg_add -v -r xproto
$ pkg_add -v -r xextproto
$ pkg_add -v -r javavmwrapper
$ pkg_add -v -r lame
$ pkg_add -v -r flac
$ pkg_add -v -r ffmpeg

UPDATE 1/10/2012:  If you run into issues with the latest versions of FreeNAS failing the pkg_add command like I did recently, the follow these instructions prior to the pkg_add commands.

Before installing the packages, if you are using FreeNAS 7.2 (based on FreeBSD 7.3), you’ll need to enter the following command:

setenv PACKAGESITE ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-7.3-release/Latest/

(substitute amd64 for i386 if 64-bit).

(May also work for other versions – if the version of FreeBSD is no longer considered the current release, the main mirror will no longer contain the package files, therefore the above is necessary to tell pkg_add where to find the .tbz files. You may set it permanently in ~/.cshrc if you wish it to remain sticky.)

If you have issues installing the lame codec you may also try the following.  I can’t recall if I ran into this issue or not.

$ pkg_add -r -v http://ftp.urc.ac.ru/pub/OS/FreeBSD/packages-7/Latest/lame.tbz

Step 4: Install the JRE (the .tbz file is the one you downloaded in step 2)

$ pkg_add -v /mnt/share-drive/diablo-jre-freebsd7.i386.1.6.0.07.02.tbz

Of course your version of the file and location may be different, so don’t copy/paste this portion.

Step 5: Download Subsonic standalone version and install it in /var/subsonic/standalone on your FreeNAS, as described here.  Just like with the Java package, I put the Subsonic Tarball on the share drive somewhere (i.e. In SSH:

$ mkdir /var/subsonic
$ mkdir /var/subsonic/standalone
$ cd /var/subsonic/standalone
$ tar xvzf /mnt/share-name/path-to/subsonic-x.x-standalone.tar.gz

Some folks suggest changing the permissions of all of the files at this point.  Technically it will probably work just fine untouched.  But if you want:

$ chmod 777 *.*

Step 6: Modify the subsonic.sh file.

/var/subsonic/standalone/subsonic.sh

If you are editing under Windows, do yourself a favor and save the file in ASCII format so as not to cause issues.  The fist time around I made changes in my Windows text editor and it introduced all kinds of invisible line breaks and null characters which caused the script to fail under BSD.   Just… don’t.

I also found an issue with the subsonic.h file, as shipped, under my FreeNAS implementation and am not quite sure why it doesn’t work.  It may work out of the box for you, but for some reason it was broken for me.  If you run into the same issue, you can make the following changes.

From:

cd $(dirname $0)
if [ -L $0 ] && ([ -e /bin/readlink ] || [ -e /usr/bin/readlink ]); then
cd $(dirname $(readlink $0))
fi

To:

cd /var/subsonic/standalone
#if [ -L $0 ] && ([ -e /bin/readlink ] || [ -e /usr/bin/readlink ]); then
#cd $(dirname $(readlink $0))
#fi

Step 7: Copy codecs into the Subsonic transcode directory:

mkdir /var/subsonic/transcode
cp /usr/local/bin/lame /var/subsonic/transcode/
cp /usr/local/bin/flac /var/subsonic/transcode/
cp /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg /var/subsonic/transcode/

There is one more step to get codecs to function properly that we’ll cover later.  If you installed some other codecs in step 3, then you’ll want to copy those to the transcode directory as well.

Step 7: In the FreeNAS web interface, go to System > Advanced > Command script and add the following “PostInit” script:

/var/subsonic/standalone/subsonic.sh

Step 8: Reboot FreeNAS, and go to http://<your-freenas-server>:4040 to start using Subsonic.

Step 9: Configure your transcoder settings.  In the Subsonic web interface go to “Settings > Transcoding”.

In this example, I’ve set up FLAC to transcode to WAV, then to MP3.   On the line reads “flac > mp3″ modify the following:

Step 1 = flac -c -s -d %s
Step 2 = lame -b 320 – -

NOTE: This hard-codes the bitrate to 320kbps, which is presumptuous.  But hey, that’s what FLAC is all about right?  High quality.

My FreeNAS server is an under-powered system (mostly because it never needed to be powerful), so transcoding FLAC to MP3 basically consumes 100% of the processor bandwidth.  Listening to FLAC’s is something I will probably do sparingly.  Your mileage may vary.

Summary: It looks hard, but I’ve made all the mistakes for you, so this guide should save you some serious time.  If you run into any issues, Google is always your friend.

And in closing, if you haven’t yet donated to the project, I urge you to do so.  Sindre (the developer of Subsonic) obviously put a lot of hard work into this and it is just flat-out great software.  He deserves a little scratch for bringing this to the masses for free.  So do your part and support the community.  It’s an investment in your personal enjoyment of music and an investment in the future development of this software.

BONUS:  How to UPDATE/UPGRADE your Subsonic to the latest version on FreeNAS

From time to time, Subsonic has bug fixes and/or feature additions that may be compelling enough to make you want to upgrade your installation.  I could not find a single shred of information on the internet about how to update the “standalone” version of Subsonic on FreeNAS without completely re-installing.  I did some experimenting and came up with the below solution.  This is not endorsed and certainly should be done at your own risk.  Back-up your Subsonic installation before you try this.

Step 1: Shutdown Subsonic.  In the FreeNAS web interface go to System > Advanced > Command script and then delete following “PostInit” script:

/var/subsonic/standalone/subsonic.sh

Reboot the system.  Subsonic will not automatically run on restart and it will be safe to make changes.

Step 2: Back up your Subsonic installation by copying all files under /var/subsonic to another safe location.  If you for some reason run into an issue during the install, you should be able to simply copy all of these files back and be back in business.

Step 3: Download the latest standalone package here.  Put the new tarball on my FreeNAS share drive so that you can access it via the terminal (i.e. under the /mnt/share-name/path-to/ directory)

Step 4: Unpack subsonic-x.x-standalone.tar.gz to “var/subsonic/standalone”.  Using SSH:

$ cd /var/subsonic/standalone
$ tar xvzf /mnt/share-drive/path-to/subsonic-x.x-standalone.tar.gz

This will unpack the new files right over the top of the old files.  Edit permissions on the new files if desired.

Step 5: Edit the subsonic.sh file as necessary.  (see step 6 above)

Step 6: In the FreeNAS web interface, go to System > Advanced > Command script and add the following “PostInit” script:

sh /var/subsonic/standalone/subsonic.sh

Step 7: Reboot FreeNAS, and go to http://<your-freenas-server>:4040, login and confirm your settings.

Step 8: Enjoy.

I would love to hear your successes or failures to make this tutorial just a bit more useful.  Feedback is always welcome.

Things I’ve been doing lately:

• Celebrated Suzy’s Birthday, Twice (Once at Ruby Tuesday – Shameful, Once at The Melting Pot – Delicious)
• Brewed an Oatmeal Stout for annual competition with one of my co-workers
• Purchased a PlayStation 3 (Mostly for Blu-Ray support, but also for games and media center)
• Got the Santa Fe fixed
• Read “Happiest baby on the Block”
• Visited like-minded friends on the Central Coast of California, made friends with their dog Parker

• Saw this drooling bird on the pier at the beach

• Went to a good old fashioned Melodrama (my first time… and a great experience)
• Visited Taipei, Taiwan for work

• Read “Baby Wise”
• Ate great Asian food in Taipei, Taiwan
• Worked in Taipei, Taiwan
• Took pictures in bathrooms in Taipei, Taiwan (“Keeping a Clean and Pleasant Environment Makes Everyone Delighted Thank You”)

• Played Beatles RockBand (Thanks Chris!)
• Traveled to Oregon for work, visited my parents
• Met Nico Edan Ferguson for the very first time.

• Said goodbye to my long time friends Pat & Cynthia – Have a great time in Taiwan my friends… see you in two years!
• Baby Shower plus BBQ with the family in Stockton
• Obtained a flash for my fancy camera – subsequently super impressed with results
• Took second place at the Oktoberfest for our Oatmeal Stout (See Above)

• Brewed Scottish Ale from a kit (I know… I was too lazy to do my own all-grain recipe)
• Toyed with the idea of brewing a blueberry wheat beer for my second keg
• Spent time with the fellas at one of my best buds houses while Suzy had another baby shower in Sacramento – More Rock Band
• Worked A Bunch

And that folks, is just a tiny portion, of the things that I’ve been up to lately.  More to come…

I have to say I never expected the kind of emotional response that this experience elicited from me.  It’s as if I got to meet my daughter for the first time.  And I’ll be darned if that didn’t bring a tear to my eye.  I may be a little biased, but even looking at these distorted yellow images, I think she’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.

Without further delay, click here, to go straight to the gallery.

Personally, I think she is a spitting image of Suzy.  Her eyes and nose for sure.  Suzy seems to think she resembles me from the lower lip down.  You be the judge:

I’ll post the video’s later when I can get them compressed and posted to YouTube.  Instead of the lullaby’s that were recorded with the original, I’m thinking of re-dubbing it (like a Kung-Fu movie).  I’ll taking requests for potential tunes.

Until next time, I love you all.

It’s official, I am back on the bleeding edge of the internet.  Yes indeed.  I have officially signed up for a twitter account.  You’ve been hearing about it for a while.  Everyone is doing it… apparently.  Tweeting.  I’ve resisted for a good long time.  But I’ve finally succumb to the big’ol internet and it’s new-fangled technology.

I have a plan though, so it’s not without good reason that I have signed up.  You see, I have it in the plan to ‘Live-Blog’ the birth of my child.  Come November, prior to Suzy going into labor, I plan to start the countdown on this very blog.  And when we get to the actual event, the day (or days) of actual labor, I really want to post real-time updates replete with pictures to the internet so that friends and family can share in the experience from afar.

Here comes the technical rub.  I’ve looked into the ‘live-blogging’ plug-ins for WordPress (the software that this blog runs on) and I was a bit overwhelmed with the complexity that I’d face setting up such a system.  And, with people re-loading the page frequently, the site might actually buckle under the bandwidth pressure (that might be an overstatement, but it’s possible!).  So instead, I’ve come up with another third-party and entirely free solution.  Twitter.

Twitter allows me to update the world, very easily, in real-time, from my iphone in chunks of 140 characters or less.  It allows me to post pictures directly from my iPhone.  It’s nearly perfect for my plans.  It’s not quite as fancy as the Live-Blogging that Gizmodo or Engadget does for big tech announcements (like WWDC).   But it’ll do the trick.

So folks, come November, when we hit the big day, look for my link to twitter where I will be giving the blow-by-blow updates of what’s going on in our delivery room.  I am soooo bleeding edge.