Asustor AS5304T connectivity

[vertexx]

I'm planning to purchase Asustor AS5304T.

It has 2 ethernet ports, but my router has only 1 free port. Since my PC also has a free (secondary) ethernet port, my question is, instead of connecting both ports to the router, is it possible to connect one to the router and the other one to the secondary ethernet port of my PC?

This would mean a loop in the network, since the PC would be connected directly and via the router too. But if it works, my PC would have a direct 2.5 Gbit connection, which is faster than the 1 Gbit connection via my router. And the rest of the devices could still acess the NAS via the router.

Is this kind of setup supported by the NAS? Is the loop causing any problems?

[father.mande]

Hi,

loop cause problems ... so forgot it.
But : it's absolutely possible to create two sub-network (so another address) link PC to NAS must be done using ONLY the I.P. address or by adding entry in lmhost file for Samba and host for preferred access using NAS name.
if you want to use NAS as a router to specific things, use iptables (NAS) and route PC (route cmd.) and NAS (route cmd. or better ip cmd.)
define only ONE gateway to access Internet .

Add trace to NAS to be sure of the link used to access NAS, and use tracroute (tracert on Windows) to verify way used.

take time to prepare what you want to do ... to prevent error.

Philippe.

[vertexx]

Thanks for the answer Philippe,

I have no clue though how to set up another sub-network, or adding a new entry for Samba. Sounds too scientific to me. I'd imagine that there is a wizard kind of software, where I can set up everything for the NAS to make it up and running.

I understand there is a workaround, but if it requires special knowlegde, than I'll probably won't be able to set it up. Will Asus give technical support for this?

Honestly I'm just wondering why my motherboard has 2 ethernet ports if they can't be connected to 2 different devices (router and NAS) without causing problems? I mean they're not even the same brand, so I'm assuming the motherboard can handle them as separate. Connecting two devices with a cable in 2022 should be a plug&play thing, and the network devices should be intelligent enough to recognise what is connected to what to build a map of the network. Shame (of manufacturers) if it's not the case.

[Nazar78]

Honestly I'm just wondering why my motherboard has 2 ethernet ports if they can't be connected to 2 different devices (router and NAS) without causing problems?

There's several specific usage for multi ports, i.e. NIC teaming/load balancing/802.3ad(requires all device support), daisy chaining etc.

Back to your original post, the simplest you can do is to create a separate 2.5G subnet using static IPs. This assuming your router has an IP 192.168.[1].1, set the NAS LAN2 IP to e.g. 192.168.[2].1 and your PC LAN2 IP to 192.168.[2].2. Connect both NAS LAN2 and PC LAN2, you don't need cross cables for modern Auto-MDIX ethernet. You should be able to access your NAS shared SMB folders from the PC using \\192.168.2.1\Home at 2.5G link speed, not just limited to SMB of course.

[vertexx]

Thank you, I might be able to do that. I just wanted to ask all these questions, before I actually purchase the NAS, so I can be sure it will be working.

As for the multi ports, the load balancing is exactly what I want (on top of the higher speed via 2.5G). I'm assuming when I use the secondary PC LAN to secondary NAS LAN for connection, the router is left out of this data flow, so in the meantime I can use it as normal without having a load on it.