# Adding FreeBSD to my network



## lnnix (May 17, 2011)

Hi all, I am looking to get a FreeBSD system going on my network here. I've used it in the past and really enjoyed it. My home network setup is very simple; I've got a laptop, a desktop and a server. Right now the server is running Debian and I'd like to replace that with FreeBSD, but I am having some trouble seeing how I can fit it in. These are the things it usually runs right now:

-tmux with irssi, finch, ttytter, rtorrent [I'll come back to that]
-LAN FTP
-LAN SMB
-LAN VNC for keeping a specific windows program I run in wine constantly open
-public SSH for when I am using away from home using wifi
-public [chrooted] SFTP for friends

Now, all of these things can be easily done on FreeBSD as well, so no problems there. The problem is that I also download lots of things to this server and then move them to external drives for backups. These drives are ext3-formatted and encrypted with truecrypt. I've come to find out that ext3 support is "okay" but not the best, and truecrypt isn't supported at all. I need to be able to continue my backup rotation, and this is where it looks like I'm stuck with Linux. I've considered offloading some of these services to another system that would be running FreeBSD and just keeping the Linux server for torrents and moving files to the external drive. But then there's really no "point" to adding another server since this one is doing everything I need it to at the same time without breaking a sweat. I'm not having any problems with my setup now, it works fine.. but I really want to be using FreeBSD in some way because I love it so much and it's fun to use. Reformatting all my external drives and using something like geli isn't a practical solution for me.

If anyone has any ideas on what I should change or do, I'd appreciate it.


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## k1piee (May 17, 2011)

Does your external drive need to use Ext3 with TrueCrypt? If not you can encrypt it with something that's supported by FreeBSD. Read here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disks-encrypting.html

The other stuff is pretty basic, ftp,ssh,irssi,smb etc. and would be no problem to setup properly. The configuration is pretty much identical to the ones in linux.


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## AndyUKG (May 17, 2011)

Hi,

  if you have a feature that is only supported on Linux then you are going to need Linux. I guess you could install Linux in a VirtualBox virtual server, not tried it on FreeBSD myself thought...

thanks Andy.


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## lnnix (May 17, 2011)

k1piee said:
			
		

> Does your external drive need to use Ext3 with TrueCrypt? If not you can encrypt it with something that's supported by FreeBSD. Read here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disks-encrypting.html


I have a total of five external backup drives, each one being 1-2TB in size. I realize I could redo them all with a FreeBSD filesystem and geli, but it is not feasible with so many of them.



			
				AndyUKG said:
			
		

> Hi,
> 
> if you have a feature that is only supported on Linux then you are going to need Linux. I guess you could install Linux in a VirtualBox virtual server, not tried it on FreeBSD myself thought...
> 
> thanks Andy.


Thanks for this idea, running Linux in a VM may work, assuming the USB drives are accessible to the VM.


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