Q:Mounting a openfiler CIFS / SAMBA share to use for built in FTP server rt-n66u

[TWiST]

I am wondering with the merlin firmware if it is possible to add an entry to the fstab that will auto mount to a share on my openfiler NAS (CIFS Samba) and use that as the location for storage for the built in FTP server in the asus rt-n66u?

From what I have read mounting the CIFS samba share shouldn't be an issue but can I add it as the location for the built in FTP server?

Thanks!

 

[RMerlin]

I am wondering with the merlin firmware if it is possible to add an entry to the fstab that will auto mount to a share on my openfiler NAS (CIFS Samba) and use that as the location for storage for the built in FTP server in the asus rt-n66u?

From what I have read mounting the CIFS samba share shouldn't be an issue but can I add it as the location for the built in FTP server?

Thanks!

fstab, it's not actually used by the firmware. You can however add mount commands to the user scripts to automatically remount it every reboot.

Getting it to be accessible to the FTP server might be tricky however, as I think the FTP server is pretty much hardcoded to access only USB disks. Might be possible if you were to manually configure the FTP root over telnet rather than the webui.

CIFS support is still something that's a work-in-progress. I will probably eventually expose it through the webui, at which point I will also look at the possibility of making it easily accessible to the various file sharing services.

Note however that everything related to file sharing will be a whole different ballpark once AiCloud launches. It might make it unnecessary to actually mounting remote shares...

 

[TWiST]

I don't even need it in the webui I can just do it all from the cli, I was also thinking if you got sshd I could actually sftp and it would be much safer and prolly also easier to setup as I wouldn't even need to interface with that built in ftp stuff. I thought of that after I had already posted.

With your firmware with sshd can I add users? I tried to add users the only way I could figure was using the ui and those users cant connect thru telnet, so I am not sure if they could connect thru ssh.

If CIFS works, you mentioned its a work in progress, then I could do it that way.

I have never heard of AiCloud I will have to check that out!

Thanks for the quick response and I will post back and let you know if I get it all working the way I want to.

 

[RMerlin]

I don't even need it in the webui I can just do it all from the cli, I was also thinking if you got sshd I could actually sftp and it would be much safer and prolly also easier to setup as I wouldn't even need to interface with that built in ftp stuff. I thought of that after I had already posted.

With your firmware with sshd can I add users? I tried to add users the only way I could figure was using the ui and those users cant connect thru telnet, so I am not sure if they could connect thru ssh.

You can't directly add additional ssh users with the built-in dropbear, as the router is designed with only one single user in mind (for management). At the limit you could possibly append new users to /etc/passwd through an init script - it's be a bit kludgy, but it might work.

sftp however won't work as there is no sftp server in the firmware. You might be able to add it through Optware perhaps, I haven't checked.

If CIFS works, you mentioned its a work in progress, then I could do it that way.

You can mount remote CIFS shares. Just remember to escape the backslashes if running from the shell (see the README for an example).

I have never heard of AiCloud I will have to check that out!

AiCLoud is a series of features Asus will be adding in the very near future to their top of the line routers. It is essentially a way to remotely access your router and your LAN over https. It is expected to launch in the coming days.