Setting Up a Home NAS for MiSTer Think About Using RetroNAS

[elvis]

Is there a guide on how to setup a a private network for RetroNAS?
It says to make sure it’s behind a router but also separate from rest of the network. Does that mean I need two routers?

Sorry for the delay in reply, I don't check these forums as often as I should.

I don't have a guide for that yet, I'm afraid.

I've got an action item on my list to build a firewall system into RetroNAS in order to provide some extra security for users who are concerned by legacy protocols. There's some skeleton stuff built currently, but we need to do a lot more work and testing. When it's done I hope to be able to offer

• An optional "standalone" mode, where RetroNAS can work entirely offline for people who want it air-gapped, and/or need to take RetroNAS with MiSTer while travelling, including providing DHCP to your retro network.
• A segregated router/NAT mode, where RetroNAS can act like a second firewall in between your home and retro network, and your choice of whether or not the retro network can get to the Internet or not
• Within router/NAT mode, several profiles of varying security/paranoia that optionally allow only secure protocols through, or completely lock down the network depending on what individual users want.
• Within router/NAT mode, the option to have RetroNAS connect to your home WiFi as a client, and then to your retro network via wired connection, to ensure retro systems get a low-latency connection (useful for MiSTer PSX games loading over SMB3, for example), but then still give you the ability to connect to RetroNAS wirelessly for maintenance or file uploads.

Still loads of work to do though, and no ETA (work and health issues combined are dominating my free time lately). But we've at least started.

All of that is also the building blocks for various network/PXE boot tools that I want to offer for retro computing enthusiasts. But I have to walk before I can run.

On the security front, I personally don't have any issues running RetroNAS directly on my home network. I do this with several RetroNAS installs for both development/testing as well as my own personal usage. A lot of people get freaked out about things like SMB1 existing on their network at all, but it's worth remembering that the vulnerabilities found in SMB1 on old Windows installs don't apply to Linux/Samba. Your home network won't spontaneously catch on fire and evil outsiders won't break in just because you installed the service. All the same, people have asked for the extra firewalling options, so I'm happy to build it if it brings them peace of mind. That, and the extra features I'm planning can build off it, so it's useful for a few upcoming purposes.

[larvanoir]

For anyone interested in setting up RetroNAS in an Unraid server, there is now a script by Spaceinvader One that gets you a RetroNAS VM running in a couple of minutes. Link -- https://github.com/SpaceinvaderOne/RetroNASinabox

[allyourbasekris]

I’ve got this running on unraid now. I can’t get over how well it works. I heartily recommend it, especially if they already have a server in place, it runs really well in a VM.

[seastalker]

Anyone else having connection drop outs from their RetroNAS? It's not RetroNAS itself that's the problem. I have mine running on a RaspPI3 right now and WHEN it works, it's good. Unfortunately, quite often, from doing nothing other than coming back to it days later, the PI isn't showing up on the router's GUI (using DD-WRT), can't login using \\Retronas nor the ip address with :9090. Can't update access files on the HDD, and MiSTer can't connect to it with CIFS Mounting.

Sometimes, powering the pi off and on to reboot it fixes the issue. Many times, even that doesn't work until I let it sit powered off longer. It's a real PITA after I set up everything so nicely. It is great to boot PSX games especially where I wouldn't fit them on SD. I found other's having this networking issue as described here:
https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=218167

Maybe that will help others with the issue, but it hasn't worked yet for me. I'm ok with Linux and the command line, so I am open to anyone's ideas. This has bugged me to where I may skip upgrading to a Pi4 (when available again) and just install it on a old media center PC. Thank you to anyone that might help.

[seastalker]

UPDATE: I swapped out the Pi3 for an old laptop. I've also installed a Plex server on it and set up two more large external HDDs for Samba share. I can add and delete media files now which is great. All was working fine and oddly today, I loaded the CIFS script for Mister and it failed... I can access my Samba shares on the external drives, access retronas on PC using \\retrosmb, but not the Mister nor in a web browser using the STATIC ip + :9090

It is so frustrating when I finally get time to actually play something and what WAS working, stops working just from... time? I manually have to reboot everything until it works again (until days later when something fails when I come back to it).

Anyone?

EDIT: 2023-06-17
SOLUTION: In Debian, the firewall gui called GUFW was set to ON (the main on/off switch). Turning it off allowed for Mister to connect, and a PC can enter cockpit with [static ip] + :9090. So, problem mostly solved. Still, wanting gufw to be ON for security, I have it on but must now look into exceptions to be set in it for Mister and a PC. Hopefully someone else with this problem one day will find this and now know the fix.