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Forum Discussion
When do I need SMB2 in a ReadyNAS Ultra2?
I have a couple of READYNAS ULtra2 in operation, and generally have no problems, but ocassionaly I've been asked by Windows to use SMB2, but have been able to ignore it.
Will this become a problem? That is, when is it an issue? We've been using these devices from W10 for a long time, just phasing out W7 clients now.
3 Replies
JohnDownUnder wrote:
I have a couple of READYNAS ULtra2 in operation, and generally have no problems, but ocassionaly I've been asked by Windows to use SMB2, but have been able to ignore it.
Will this become a problem? That is, when is it an issue? We've been using these devices from W10 for a long time, just phasing out W7 clients now.
Hard to say when it will become a problem - that depends on when Microsoft totally drops SMB1. So far they haven't (including Windows 11). Of course SMB1 isn't considered secure, so you do need to be willing to live with that risk.
One option is to convert the Ultras to run OS-6, which supports SMB3. If you do that, you should also upgrade the ram to 2 GB.
The very old 4.2.x firmware does have experimental support for SMB 2, which can be turned on with ssh if you like. You could try adding the following lines to the [global] section of the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and rebooting the NAS:
min protocol = SMB2
max protocol = SMB2
Personally I'd switch to OS-6, even though there is more work involved.
StephenB wrote:
Of course SMB1 isn't considered secure, so you do need to be willing to live with that risk.
Within the specs it's what it is - the security vulnerabilities allowing a non-authenticated access were fixed yers ago already.
Of course, SMB 1 does not offer fliexible frame size support (so it does not perform perfect over VPNs or very different on LANs with Jumbo Frames.
Microsoft does often push the "need" for using SMB 3.x because it does offer _optional_ enhanced security features like packet signing or even packet encryption. Without these, it's as "insecure" as SMB1.
Thanks for the overview folks. I guess I'd like the extra security, so it's OS-6 or replace the boxes. Maybe upgrade to a ReadyNAS RN42200.
Thanks again.
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