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ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

Glenn3193
Aspirant

ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

HI,

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?

Appreciate suggestions.

Thanks,

Glenn

Message 1 of 17
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?


@Glenn3193 wrote:

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.

Message 2 of 17
Glenn3193
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

Hi StephenB,

" If you want more specific instructions on conversion, we can provide them here."

 

Yes, I would like that.

Thanks,

Glenn

Message 3 of 17
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

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:

 

The conversion steps are:

 

(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

  1. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP
  2. 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)
  3. Upload R4toR6_6.9.5.bin using the ReadyNAS web gui firmware update
  4. After you upload the addon+firmware and reboot, it will update the firmware and start a factory default.
  5. Go through the setup process on the converted NAS 
  6. Update the NAS to the current OS 6 (check for updates will work).
  7. 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.

Message 4 of 17
Glenn3193
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

Thanks Stephen,

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?

 

Appreciate your time on this, and your reply.

 

Best,

 

Glenn

Message 5 of 17
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?


@Glenn3193 wrote:

 

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:

The second (and IMO better) option is to convert the NAS to run OS-6, using the instructions in the the 4th post of this discussion thread.

Message 6 of 17
Glenn3193
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

Hi Stephen,

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?

 

Best,

 

Glenn

Message 7 of 17
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?


@Glenn3193 wrote:

 

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 

  1. set the admin password to something other than the default netgear1
  2. 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.

Message 8 of 17
jkalinaftw
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

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?

Message 9 of 17
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?


@jkalinaftw wrote:

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?

Message 10 of 17
jkalinaftw
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

@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

enp1s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet X.X.X.X netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast X.X.X.X
ether a0:21:b7:c1:63:32 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 331219 bytes 413887589 (394.7 MiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 59159 bytes 156263111 (149.0 MiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
device interrupt 16

------------memory-----------------------------------

XXXXXXXXX@readynas01:~$ free -m
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 3905 580 3072 172 644 3324
Swap: 975 0 975

 

----------additional network information---------------------

 

XXXXXX@readynas01:~$ sudo lshw -class network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
logical name: enp1s0
version: 10
serial: a0:21:b7:c1:63:32
size: 1Gbit/s
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.30 duplex=full ip=192.168.2.20 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
resources: irq:26 memory:feadc000-feadffff ioport:d800(size=256) memory:feae0000-feafffff
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
product: 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: enp2s0
version: 10
serial: a0:21:b7:c1:63:33
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.30 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:27 memory:febdc000-febdffff ioport:e800(size=256) memory:febe0000-febfffff

Message 11 of 17
jkalinaftw
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

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@readynas01:~$ sudo lshw -class network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
logical name: enp1s0
version: 10
serial: a0:21:b7:c1:63:32
size: 1Gbit/s
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.30 duplex=full ip=X.X.X.X latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
resources: irq:26 memory:feadc000-feadffff ioport:d800(size=256) memory:feae0000-feafffff
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
product: 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: enp2s0
version: 10
serial: a0:21:b7:c1:63:33
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.30 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:27 memory:febdc000-febdffff ioport:e800(size=256) memory:febe0000-febfffff

Message 12 of 17
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

Can you measure internal network speeds with iperf3?

What speedtest result do you get on a PC?

Message 13 of 17
jkalinaftw
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

ok. I am using two systems in this scenario for the iperf3 -  readynas01 (the readynas) and plexk8s01 (vm)

 

xxxxxxxxx@readynas01:~$ iperf3 -c ip.of.vm
Connecting to host ip.of.vm, port 5201
[ 5] local 192.168.x.x port 56748 connected to 192.168.x.x port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 115 MBytes 961 Mbits/sec 0 450 KBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 112 MBytes 943 Mbits/sec 0 518 KBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 112 MBytes 937 Mbits/sec 0 518 KBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 113 MBytes 947 Mbits/sec 13 434 KBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 112 MBytes 943 Mbits/sec 13 413 KBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 111 MBytes 934 Mbits/sec 0 450 KBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 112 MBytes 943 Mbits/sec 0 468 KBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 110 MBytes 921 Mbits/sec 0 488 KBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 111 MBytes 929 Mbits/sec 0 491 KBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 491 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.09 GBytes 940 Mbits/sec 26 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 1.09 GBytes 938 Mbits/sec receiver

iperf Done.

 

 

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

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 116 MBytes 970 Mbits/sec 0 3.99 MBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 541 2.80 MBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 0 3.05 MBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.27 MBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.45 MBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.59 MBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 0 3.71 MBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.80 MBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.85 MBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 75 2.79 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.10 GBytes 942 Mbits/sec 616 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.02 sec 1.10 GBytes 940 Mbits/sec receiver

iperf Done.

 

test from VM to another VM

xxxxxxxx@plexk8s01:~$ iperf3 -c ip.of.other.vm
Connecting to host 192.168.X.X, port 5201
[ 5] local 192.168.X.X port 40112 connected to 192.168.X.X port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 115 MBytes 964 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.15 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.10 GBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.03 sec 1.10 GBytes 941 Mbits/sec receiver

iperf Done.

 

 

Message 14 of 17
jkalinaftw
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

and forgot to add these messages which were in syslog.

 

[71444.451681] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71444.452837] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71664.010459] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71664.011681] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71666.432110] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71666.433435] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71755.367047] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71755.368292] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71755.394729] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71755.396113] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71758.311831] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71758.313278] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71762.421319] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71762.422826] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71929.470124] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71929.471553] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[71937.104242] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[71937.105503] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[72105.168733] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[72105.169993] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996
[72112.722609] sky2 0000:01:00.0: error interrupt status=0x40000008
[72112.724123] sky2 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0: rx error, status 0x7ffc0001 length 996

Message 15 of 17
jkalinaftw
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?

one more note. I also downloaded the cmdline version of fast.com and see these results

 

------------------------------------------------readynas ultra 4-----------------------------------------------------

 

xxxxxxx@readynas01:~$ ./fast
-> 199.32 Mbps

 

-----------------another vm/system on same network and switch-------------------------------

 

sysadm@single-malt:~$ ./fast
-> 796.71 Mbps

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

root@readynas01:~# dmidecode --type 1
# dmidecode 3.4
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
Manufacturer: NETGEAR
Product Name: ReadyNAS
Version: 08/23/2011 ReadyNAS-NVX-V2 V1.10
Serial Number:
UUID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
SKU Number:
Family:

Message 16 of 17
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNAS Ultra4 - what can I do with it?


@jkalinaftw wrote:

 

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

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 116 MBytes 970 Mbits/sec 0 3.99 MBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 541 2.80 MBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 0 3.05 MBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.27 MBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.45 MBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.59 MBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 0 3.71 MBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.80 MBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 112 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec 0 3.85 MBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec 75 2.79 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.10 GBytes 942 Mbits/sec 616 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.02 sec 1.10 GBytes 940 Mbits/sec receiver

iperf Done.

This looks like normal gigabit performance to me (~940 mbits/sec).

 

So I don't understand what problem you are trying to solve.  Is the issue really about file transfer speed?

Message 17 of 17
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