I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 4 purchased in early 2013. I have been away for 2+ years (in the UK) and came back to find that I can not communicate with the NAS. Security issue I think. When I left it was working well. I have had a technician recover all the data.
Any suggestions for what I can do with the unit? Sell, dismantle and sell the HD, use it somehow? Or throw it in the bin?
I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 4 purchased in early 2013. I have been away for 2+ years (in the UK) and came back to find that I can not communicate with the NAS. Security issue I think.
Likely you were running 4.2.x firmware. The security issues can easily be worked around - generally by enabling SMB 1.0/CIFS in Windows, and by installing an add-on to add TLS 1.2 support (eliminating the SSL protocol version/Cipher mismatch browser error).
Though a better option is to convert the NAS to run OS-6 firmware, which doesn't have either problem. Part of that process is to upgrade the RAM to 2 GB (from the stock 1 GB), which is inexpensive and easy to do. If you want more specific instructions on conversion, we can provide them here.
I recommend increasing the RAM before you begin. Shipping OS-6 NAS have at least 2 GB of RAM, your ReadyNAS only has 1 GB. It might work, but there have been folks who have run into out-of-memory issues after converting. The upgrade is inexpensive, and is simple to do. If you aren't sure what to purchase, you can open the chassis and examine the RAM that's already installed in order to find something compatible.
Also, if you have the skills, you should probably back up the VPD before conversion. There are some cases where users have needed to restore the VPD post-conversion. More information on this is here:
(Optionally) make sure the latest BIOS is installed before you do the conversion. To do this you install http://www.readynas.com/download/addons/x86/4.2/BIOS_Update_Package_0.5-x86.bin as an add-on and reboot the NAS. Do this after you backup the NAS. This isn't necessary, but if you do want to update the BIOS it is easiest to do it prior to conversion.
Basic instructions for the conversion itself are
BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP
Upload PREPR4TOR6_0.1-x86.bin as an add-on using the ReadyNAS web gui, but do not reboot afterwards (avoids the need to do manual factory resets)
Upload R4toR6_6.9.5.bin using the ReadyNAS web gui firmware update
After you upload the addon+firmware and reboot, it will update the firmware and start a factory default.
Go through the setup process on the converted NAS
Update the NAS to the current OS 6 (check for updates will work).
Restore files from the backup.
There is a small risk that the process could fail, and if that were to happen it might not be possible to get the NAS running again.
Note that if you ever need to do a USB recovery later on, you will need to use the procedure for 4.2 systems - substituting an OS-6 image for the 4.2.31 one.
I have factory default reset the Ultra4. Raidar has found the unit, I can locate and browse (backup, c:, home, media). I can place files in backup and media, but cannot access c or home. I get the box "enter network credentials", but it comes up with the warning "access is denied" even before I enter credentials. I have input "admin" with "password" and "netgear1", but cannot access.
When I hit admin page, my browser comes up with:
"Secure connection failed
An error occured.......Peer using unspupported version of security protocol...
This website might not support TLS 1.2 protocol"
I have tried with 3 browsers (Chrome, Edge and Firefox). I am running Windows 11, software up to date.
Any ideas on how to access the Ultra4 to install what you recommend?
Any ideas on how to access the Ultra4 to install what you recommend?
The first step is to make a temporary change to the FireFox settings so you can access Frontview. That change is to set security.tls.version.min to 1 (browse to about:config and search for the setting).
Once you can get into Frontview, you have two options:
The first option is to keep using 4.2.x firmware. If you do that, then you should first update the firmware to 4.2.31 (if it is running something older), and then install this add-on:
Thanks so much. I am ignorant of a lot of security stuff (TLS 1.0 etc), but was able to get to Frontview (the NAS was on 4.2.31 already) and install the add-on. Doing this has taught me some things. Agree that this is temporary and that the best solution is to move to OS6.
Thanks again for all your help.
Btw, why can't I access folders "c" and "home" and what is in them?
Btw, why can't I access folders "c" and "home" and what is in them?
"C" is the entire data volume. You actually can browse it if you
set the admin password to something other than the default netgear1
use the NAS admin credentials in file explorer
If you do that, you'll see all the shares (and home). These aren't duplicates, it's just another path to get to the same folders. Using admin credentials to access NAS shares is discouraged. but there are some times when it is useful.
"Home" is where the private "home" folders for each NAS account are placed. These are folders that only that account (and the NAS admin) can access. While the "home" folder feature makes sense for businesses, I think home users are better off not using it. Those folders can be challenging to back up/restore.
I've gone ahead and installed Debian12/OpenMediaVault but currently troubleshooting the same poor ethernet performance no different than what is observed when running ReadyNAS4/6. Anyone have thoughts on how to achieve gig speeds?
I've gone ahead and installed Debian12/OpenMediaVault but currently troubleshooting the same poor ethernet performance no different than what is observed when running ReadyNAS4/6. Anyone have thoughts on how to achieve gig speeds?
What speeds are you seeing?
Do you have an Ultra 4? If not, what model do you have?
@StephenB: yes, this is an Ultra4 running the latest Debian12+OpenMediaVault. Here are some stats from the system. the OS is installed to a usb stick (64gb), 4GB of memory as well.
XXXXXXXXXX@readynas01:~$ ./speedtest-cli Retrieving speedtest.net configuration... Testing from AT&T Internet Services (X.X.X.X)... Retrieving speedtest.net server list... Selecting best server based on ping... Hosted by Nitel (Atlanta, GA) [8.85 km]: 7.848 ms Testing download speed................................................................................ Download: 311.67 Mbit/s Testing upload speed...................................................................................................... Upload: 231.25 Mbit/s
internal network transfers are just as slow.
[ 18.646931] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex, flow control rx
not sure if my previous post was deleted. but let me try again.
System: ReadyNAS Ultra4 , 4GB memory, 64gb USB install drive seeing slow network speeds. running debian12 and OpenMediaVault. these speeds seem the same as when running ReadyOS
xxxxxxx@plexk8s01:~$ iperf3 -c ip.of.readynas Connecting to host x.x.x.x, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.x.x port 45924 connected to 192.168.x.x port 5201
xxxxxxx@plexk8s01:~$ iperf3 -c ip.of.readynas Connecting to host x.x.x.x, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.x.x port 45924 connected to 192.168.x.x port 5201
