SOLVED Network Interface Configuaration for GUI IP Address

[nello]

I recently installed an Intel Pro 1000 CT NIC in my FreeNAS and had to wrestle with the Network > Interfaces GUI screens.

I have a few questions:

1. Under what circumstances would a dynamic (DHCP-assigned) IP address be useful?
   The manual says, "… typically the interface used to access the FreeNAS® administrative GUI is configured by DHCP." I don't understand why this would be typical; how would you know what IP address to type into your browser to access the GUI if the address were assigned dynamically? What am I missing?
   
   
2. Why would the IPv4 Mask be anything other than "/1 (128.0.0.0"?
   It seems to me that you'd always want a single IP Address for the FreeNAS GUI. Why would you ever need a range of addresses, as implied by the other choices for the IP Mask?

Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else.

Thank you for your patience and forbearing.

- nello

 

[BigDave]

You are evidently running your freenas headless?

The console (after booting) reads like this pic...

You might try looking in the DHCP section of your router to see the ip freenas has been assigned.

 

[nello]

The console (after booting) reads like this .…

You might try looking in the DHCP section of your router to see the ip freenas has been assigned.

Yes, both these points are correct.

My FreeNAS server is in the basement and the monitor is usually unplugged.

For me, it's easier to remember a static IP address tan to either log int my router and look it up or trot downstairs, plug in the monitor.

Perhaps others access the GUI so rarely that an extra step doesn't matter.

I seem to be fiddling with Jails often. Perhaps I should just SSH into the Jails directly instead of getting to their consoles via the GUI.

Something for me to think about …

 

[BigDave]

Why not go into your router and make the address static, tada ip never changes after that.
You could also use the router to bind to the NIC's MAC address.

 

[depasseg]

Why would the IPv4 Mask be anything other than "/1 (128.0.0.0"?

So I think you are a little confused on the subnet mask. A /1 contains a broadcast network domain of 2,147,483,646 addressible devices. I think you meant /32 which would be 1 address. But in that case you would need routing to get to that device, since it would be the only device in it's broadcast domain.

Think of the subnet mask as a group identifier. It's more complicated than that, but it's a start.
http://www.subnet-calculator.com/cidr.php

 

[pirateghost]

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/routing-information-protocol-rip/13788-3.html

unless you understand subnets, just leave it at a home-standard default of /24. it sounds like you don't have a grasp on what a subnet IS. You are not giving your FreeNAS a RANGE of IP addresses, you are telling it what NETWORK it is in to communicate with OTHER devices.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I use dnsmasq to assign ip to my hosts from my router. So all clients use dhcp and get static ip's from the router based on their mac address.

your understanding of netmask is not correct. as described above a netmask defines what hosts can talk on the same network and which ones require routing through the gateway.

 

[nello]

Why not go into your router and make the address static, tada ip never changes after that.
You could also use the router to bind to the NIC's MAC address.

Yes, I reserve this IP address on my router as well as designating it in the FreeNAS network interface, as recommended in this thread:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/dhcp-to-static-ip.35053/#post-211604

 

[nello]

You are not giving your FreeNAS a RANGE of IP addresses, you are telling it what NETWORK it is in to communicate with OTHER devices.

Yes, I misunderstood and had it backwards. Thank you.

 

[nello]

… just leave it at a home-standard default of /24.

Done!

Thank you.