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Oh my gosh, you're so paranoid. How's the tin foil flack jacket? (That game can be played both ways. Don't dismiss what I said as if I'm paranoid. I was just stating what is possible, as you just did).

 

 

You don't know what you're talking about, by the way.

Really, my job positions tell me other wise. Ran a hosting company when I was 14 and worked at 3 of the top ISP's in the UK and I'm only 21. I even help the GCHQ set up their scheme for an ISP I worked at, at the time. So please give me points against my argument to make me think otherwise.

 

I'm paranoid? You do realise that the possible threat was confirmed by the GCHQ when the project got announced right? So when you try and discuss a topic, understand it before you make remarks.

Accusations of me being "up-tight" do not help your argument.

Remarks against the nature of which I'm trying to discuss my points doesn't give any more base to your argument. Mine still stands. It was far-right statement, but its relevant.

Really, my job positions tell me other wise. Ran a hosting company when I was 14 and worked at 3 of the top ISP's in the UK and I'm only 21. I even help the GCHQ set up their scheme for an ISP I worked at, at the time. So please give me points against my argument to make me think otherwise.

 

I'm paranoid? You do realise that the possible threat was confirmed by the GCHQ when the project got announced right? So when you try and discuss a topic, understand it before you make remarks.

 

So you've done all of that and you think a simple NAT is going to protect you from the NSA? Especially if they were able to get access to and manipulate proprietary source code at the manufacturer level? Why don't we just secure everything behind a NAT and thwart all of the hackers in the entire world then? No need to keep all of those sensitive networks off the public net anymore, you've figured it out :)

 

Did you read in the parentheses? I was making point there that you missed entirely.

Remarks against the nature of which I'm trying to discuss my points doesn't give any more base to your argument. Mine still stands. It was far-right statement, but its relevant.

My argument?  My argument is that by asking that inane question you have undermined any rationality that you have.  Your arguments before then were fairly sound (I may not agree, but the way you argued was sound).  But that stupid question wholly undermined that.

So you've done all of that and you think a simple NAT is going to protect you from the NSA? Especially if they were able to get access to and manipulate proprietary source code at the manufacturer level? Why don't we just secure everything behind a NAT and thwart all of the hackers in the entire world then? No need to keep all of those sensitive networks off the public net anymore, you've figured it out :)

 

Did you read in the parentheses? I was making point there that you missed entirely.

Are you kidding me? NAT doesn't block incoming by choice, its just technically how it works. I could lecture you for a day about NAT translation tables if you want and all the different types of NAT. The fact of the matter is, NAT only allows incoming connections if they're initialised by the client on the end. There is P2P protocols etc, but then again, initialised by the client.

 

It wouldn't happen, and if it did, it'd get spotted very quickly.

My argument?  My argument is that by asking that inane question you have undermined any rationality that you have.  Your arguments before then were fairly sound (I may not agree, but the way you argued was sound).  But that stupid question wholly undermined that.

Emotion doesn't portray well through text, and its a subject matter I feel very strongly about currently. Its my area of work, and like stated before, I even racked the equipment to do this for the GCHQ. It was a very unrational and far-right statement. The disagreement with a snooping platform like this isn't directly related to the opinion of extremism I know. I just struggle to see how people can condone this when its for the greater good. I honestly pass the motion that a terrorist attack would of happened if it weren't for these platforms.

I just struggle to see how people can condone this when its for the greater good.

 

I'm sorry, but do you know what condone means?  It means to give approval to.  You don't see how someone can give approval to something that's for the greater good?  Have you got your argument confused somewhere?

Are you kidding me? NAT doesn't block incoming by choice, its just technically how it works. I could lecture you for a day about NAT translation tables if you want and all the different types of NAT. The fact of the matter is, NAT only allows incoming connections if they're initialised by the client on the end. There is P2P protocols etc, but then again, initialised by the client.

 

It wouldn't happen, and if it did, it'd get spotted very quickly.

 

So, what you're saying is... If a network is behind a NAT it's completely safe, and you're some sort of networking wiz kid :) Hardly the case...

 

Just some common vulnerabilities that are well known: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/11840/how-can-someone-hack-my-pc-if-i-am-connecting-to-the-internet-through-nat

 

Maybe the security portions of your education were written in parentheses, and you just happened to completely miss them, like my point above that you failed to acknowledge.

So, what you're saying is... If a network is behind a NAT it's completely safe, and you're some sort of networking wiz kid :) Hardly the case...

 

Just some common vulnerabilities that are well known: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/11840/how-can-someone-hack-my-pc-if-i-am-connecting-to-the-internet-through-nat

 

Maybe the security portions of your education were written in parentheses, and you just happened to completely miss them, like my point above that you failed to acknowledge.

If you studied those attacks, then you'd realise they're all done by making your PC creating a connection out, leaving a port open for incoming traffic through the NAT. All attacks through NAT are done by sending a packet outbound first. I've also worked on the design and installation of CG-NAT for two different ISPs.

 

I've learnt most of my knowledge on the job rather at University. I don't want to sound arrogant but the levels of the curriculum on the course I'm on was far lower than what I already knew since I was already experienced in the work. I only kept studying due to the links with companies the University has. Hence why I have had the jobs I've had. Funnily enough though, our security lecturer was very experienced and was excellent at what he did. He was actually tasked in helping the Government with the hacking groups. Me and him often went through a lot of the topologies ISP's had and discussed security around them, that was fascinating. 

knowing the NSA this is exactly what it's used for; they have full ability to decrypt, and fake encryption as whom ever they want. this means any type of encryption, or password protection in Windows is futile. their master key gives them access to everything. passwords and encryption will not stop them from reading your encrypted or password protected data; furthermore, they can easily control your own keys, and probably more easily reverse engineer keys to allow them to pretend they're you, ie use the master NSA key to generate or gain access to your master certificates. that secure communication or signed data can now be signed by the NSA with your name, allowing them to pretend to someone else that they're you.

 

also, this might mean they could break into Windows both locally and remotely more easier. I am without a doubt, knowing how nefarious the NSA is, that this is going on. they probably run tricks on people, and the scope is quite large.

 

I am always saying. The NSA and US government only makes you think that you're in control or have any privacy at any given time. It's all fake and engineered. They always have full control over everything; they are warrantlessly monitoring and into everything. They do pretend to follow the laws on occasion, but not most of the time. They also have the Electronic Brain Link and Remote Neural Monitoring stuff. Full internet, telephone, and electronic communication, wired and wireless signals, bank, and other systems monitoring capability. It's just like the movies, they monitor everything. and it's not Sci-Fi. AI monitors everything for them, and they have control when they want it.

 

nsa.pdf @ http://www.oregonstatehospital.net/

If you studied those attacks, then you'd realise they're all done by making your PC creating a connection out, leaving a port open for incoming traffic through the NAT. All attacks through NAT are done by sending a packet outbound first.

 

So you've used NAT to give all of these machines internet access, but they can't send any packets without exposing vulnerabilities. Brilliant. As I said, you really just don't know what you're talking about... I guess next you'll proclaim that firewalls can't be hacked.

 

While NAT does have a useful purpose, it is too often incorrectly regarded as a security feature. ITSS and ITCom do not recommend using NAT as a network protection mechanism.

 

Contrary to popular belief, NAT does not necessarily hide the identity of hosts behind it. Using passive analysis of TCP/IP and application-layer protocols, it's possible to gain very detailed information about the internal network. Subtleties in the TCP/IP stack allow anyone who can see external traffic to fingerprint the operating systems of internal hosts. Differences in initial TCP sequence numbers, IP options, and IP IDs are more than enough information to enumerate hosts on the internal network. NAT only superficially hides internal hosts.

 

Beyond gaining information about the operating systems in use behind the NAT device, a savvy attacker can also deduce the internal network architecture. Since NAT only operates at the IP level, an attacker could use low IP time-to-live values to solicit ICMP TTL Exceeded messages and gain detailed information about the internal routing infrastructure. Using these techniques, an attacker can gain almost as much information as if there was no NAT device.

 

The well-known security adage "security through obscurity is no security at all" is certainly applicable to NAT. IPv6, whose biggest initial win is a significant increase of address space, has no concept of NAT since no additional security is gained. In a significantly large network environment, NAT creates more problems than it solves. NAT multiplies the level of complexity to any network. With only one real benefit, it's difficult to justify the return on investment of deploying NAT. Consider the ramifications to the current and potential network architecture when evaluating NAT. 

 

http://safecomputing.umich.edu/tools/download/nat_security.pdf

Don't forget process monitor and network firewalls, And what about all those people on slow wan links wouldn't they notice it ?

 why do you think the Internet is slow? It's The Man ® accessing your computer! you know, for the lulz...

So you've used NAT to give all of these machines internet access, but they can't send any packets without exposing vulnerabilities. Brilliant. As I said, you really just don't know what you're talking about... I guess next you'll proclaim that firewalls can't be hacked.

Of course you can find out information about the internal network. When a packet is sent through NAT, there's still a lot of information left in there. Doesn't mean you can talk to them.

 

That quote of over explained NAT troubleshooting just says that you can logically map the internal network of NAT. NAT was never designed to be a security feature, sorely just a mechanism to save public IP address space. Although with how it works, it provides some basic firewall functionality.

 

In that article does it not once explain how you can communicate with internal clients without an outbound connection first. I don't know what I'm talking about? It's my job, the one I'm currently sat at my desk for now. Also, the fact that I've rolled CG-NAT out nationally for two different ISPs. Ever looked into CG-NAT? On a national infrastructure scale, its a bit more complicated than your home gateways NAT.

 

I love the quote in bold at the end, regarding that it creates more problems than it solves. A large NAT implementation can be very efficient when done well, without it a large network wouldn't be able to access the internet.

 

To go back on topic, there would be no way for the NSA to access your computer without your machine sending an outbound packet first which is very unfeasible as a back-door mechanism. So like said, all this is conspiracy faf.

Of course you can find out information about the internal network. When a packet is sent through NAT, there's still a lot of information left in there. Doesn't mean you can talk to them.

 

That quote of over explained NAT troubleshooting just says that you can logically map the internal network of NAT. NAT was never designed to be a security feature, sorely just a mechanism to save public IP address space. Although with how it works, it provides some basic firewall functionality.

 

In that article does it not once explain how you can communicate with internal clients without an outbound connection first. I don't know what I'm talking about? It's my job, the one I'm currently sat at my desk for now. Also, the fact that I've rolled CG-NAT out nationally for two different ISPs. Ever looked into CG-NAT? On a national infrastructure scale, its a bit more complicated than your home gateways NAT.

 

I love the quote in bold at the end, regarding that it creates more problems than it solves. A large NAT implementation can be very efficient when done well, without it a large network wouldn't be able to access the internet.

 

To go back on topic, there would be no way for the NSA to access your computer without your machine sending an outbound packet first which is very unfeasible as a back-door mechanism. So like said, all this is conspiracy faf.

 

The quote is over explained, and then isn't explanatory enough. Right...

 

So wrong yet so sure :) After this conversation I wouldn't let you setup my media player, let alone a simple home router.

The quote is over explained, and then isn't explanatory enough. Right...

 

So wrong yet so sure :) After this conversation I wouldn't let you setup my media player, let alone a simple home router.

Rather than coming back with something educated, you try and belittle. Shows alot. I'm not even going to raise to your sentence at the end, its just childish.

 

There's just too many factors which make this conspiracy unrealistic and technically not possible.

Rather than coming back with something educated, you try and belittle. Shows alot. I'm not even going to raise to your sentence at the end, its just childish.

 

You began with a childish and belittling comment. I figured it was fair game. At least I did provide facts backing up what I said. The same can't be said of you, and that indeed shows a lot.

 

To constantly be told you're wrong, have facts posted showing that you're wrong, yet still never have been able to counter with a fact of your own to back up your position, is truly uneducated and childish. You can say that you work where ever you want, and that you know whatever you want. The level of understanding you display in your assertions tells the truth of the story though.

 

I never said that this conspiracy was realistic, yet another of your many misunderstandings... Did you ever go back and read between the parentheses, or are you just too childish to admit when you're wrong?

You began with a childish and belittling comment. I figured it was fair game. At least I did provide facts backing up what I said. The same can't be said of you.

 

To constantly be told you're wrong, have facts posted showing that you're wrong, yet still never have been able to counter with a fact of your own to back up your position, is truly uneducated and childish. You can say that you work where ever you want, and that you know whatever you want. The level of understanding you display in your assertions tells the truth of the story though.

 

I never said that this conspiracy was realistic, yet another of your many misunderstandings... Did you ever go back and read between the parentheses, or are you just too childish to admit when you're wrong?

What? You pulled down one quote which was totally not even on topic to the discussion we was having on NAT.

 

Hang on, correcting you is childish? I have CCNA, CCNP, JCNA accreditations, its my profession, how can I make that anymore clear? Just to brag, I actually got high enough marks in those to become a lecturer/teacher of the accreditation. Do you ask University lecturers to always back their quotes up? I have a technical understanding on this subject. The quote you posted was wrote by a person, so why does that one person automatically gain your trust? Just because its on a website? 

 

Cause I read the parentheses, or I would of never quoted you in the first place. 

 

What am I wrong in exactly? List it very clear, because I honestly don't see it.

What? You pulled down one quote which was totally not even on topic to the discussion we was having on NAT.

 

Hang on, correcting you is childish? I have CCNA, CCNP, JCNA accreditations, its my profession, how can I make that anymore clear? Just to brag, I actually got high enough marks in those to become a lecturer/teacher of the accreditation. Do you ask University lecturers to always back their quotes up? I have a technical understanding on this subject. The quote you posted was wrote by a person, so why does that one person automatically gain your trust? Just because its on a website? 

 

Cause I read the parentheses, or I would of never quoted you in the first place. 

 

What am I wrong in exactly? List it very clear, because I honestly don't see it.

 

So... still no facts. You do have the grammar of a University Lecturer :)

 

 

Hows the tin foil hat?

 

Nice correction... Very mature and educated. You interjected a wise thought there, just like I'd expect from a University Lecturer with such high accolades and accomplishments :)

 

 

Oh my gosh, you're so paranoid. How's the tin foil flack jacket? (That game can be played both ways. Don't dismiss what I said as if I'm paranoid. I was just stating what is possible, as you just did).

 

 

I'm paranoid? You do realise that the possible threat was confirmed by the GCHQ when the project got announced right? So when you try and discuss a topic, understand it before you make remarks.

 

My point here, which I called attention to in multiple subsequent posts, and which I stated unambiguously, was not that I seriously thought you were paranoid, or that a threat to the Olympics was unfounded. I was pointing out through irony and sarcasm, and through a literal explanation (in parentheses), that you had completely misunderstood my post and deemed me a tin foil hat wearing paranoid conspiracy theorist with no basis. Instead of understanding before you made remarks however, you tried to discuss a topic. Twice. You should take your own advice.

 

1 quote, by 1 person, from just a website. Wrong, again. I posted a quote and a link, and not from obscure or questionable sources.

 

The topic was the viability of NAT as used for network security, and each was specifically and only about NAT security, wrong again.

 

The first was from stackexchange, which is very reputable, plus gave links to other information sources from more people on the page, as well as was reviewed, questioned, and explained more thoroughly by many contributors, who voted correct answers up. It's not a person, it's a community of knowledgeable participants.

 

The second was from the security department at the University of Michigan. It was a detailed security summary of NAT by the department.

 

Yes, I trust the community of stackexchange and the IT security department of the University of Michigan. Especially over some guy in a forum with a guitar for his picture instead of his real face.

 

I don't want to sound arrogant

 

I don't think you can help it... As I said, you can say you work anywhere you want, and that you've got whatever accolades you wish.

 

I worked as a butler for Queen Elizabeth, and ran the NSA and GCHQ, and taught IT security as a professor at MIT all at the same time when I was 13. A firewall is absolute security that can't be hacked by anyone. What, you say I'm wrong, but just believe me because I told you that I know what I'm talking about. (That's sarcasm by the way, it seems that you need that explained. Probably won't do any good though).

 

That you can't be bothered to back up your own nonsense with facts is because you are arrogant, and none exist to back you up. A NAT can be hacked, and is not the end all be all of network security.

 

You know, what really makes me question your validity is that you can't even have a simple conversation without so many errors, misunderstandings, and wild assertions. This conversation is in writing too. That should make it easier. I can't imagine what it would've been like verbally.

 

It's funny you mock the idea of taking some person's word on some website and trusting it, yet that's exactly what you're asking to be done for you with all of your "bragging" as you put it.

So... still no facts. You do have the grammar of a University Lecturer :)

 

 

 

Nice correction... Very mature and educated. You interjected a wise thought there, just like I'd expect from a University Lecturer with such high accolades and accomplishments :)

 

 

 

 

 

My point here, which I called attention to in multiple subsequent posts, and which I stated unambiguously, was not that I seriously thought you were paranoid, or that a threat to the Olympics was unfounded. I was pointing out through irony and sarcasm, and through a literal explanation (in parentheses), that you had completely misunderstood my post and deemed me a tin foil hat wearing paranoid conspiracy theorist with no basis. Instead of understanding before you made remarks however, you tried to discuss a topic. Twice. You should take your own advice.

 

1 quote, by 1 person, from just a website. Wrong, again. I posted a quote and a link, and not from obscure or questionable sources.

 

The topic was the viability of NAT as used for network security, and each was specifically and only about NAT security, wrong again.

 

The first was from stackexchange, which is very reputable, plus gave links to other information sources from more people on the page, as well as was reviewed, questioned, and explained more thoroughly by many contributors, who voted correct answers up. It's not a person, it's a community of knowledgeable participants.

 

The second was from the security department at the University of Michigan. It was detailed security summary of NAT by the department.

 

Yes, I trust the community of stackexchange and the IT security department of the University of Michigan. Especially over some guy in a forum with a guitar for his picture instead of his real face.

 

 

I don't think you can help it... As I said, you can say you work anywhere you want, and that you've got whatever accolades you wish.

 

I worked as a butler for Queen Elizabeth, and ran the NSA and GCHQ, and taught IT security as a professor at MIT all at the same time when I was 13. A firewall is absolute security that can't be hacked by anyone. What, you say I'm wrong, but just believe me because I told you that I know what I'm talking about. (That's sarcasm by the way, it seems that you need that explained. Probably won't do any good though).

 

That you can't be bothered to back up your own nonsense with facts is because you are arrogant, and none exist to back you up. A NAT can be hacked, and is not the end all be all of network security.

 

You know, what really makes me question your validity is that you can't even have a simple conversation without so many errors, misunderstandings, and wild assertions. This conversation is in writing too. That should make it easier. I can't imagine what it would've been like verbally.

 

It's funny you mock the idea of taking some person's word on some website and trusting it, yet that's exactly what you're asking to be done for you with all of your "bragging" as you put it.

You still haven't mentioned technically how I'm wrong. I don't give a toss about the structure of the argument. 

 

The matter of the fact is, you still haven't laid down the evidence disproving what I've said. I'm not on about NAT as a security mechanism, I'm on about how it disproves the conspiracy in the OP. Your evidence proves my point not yours. All the evidence and hacking techniques to poke someone through a NAT works on creating an outbound connection first, there's no doubt about that. YOUR sources back me up.

 

I've played guitar throughout my life and that's a picture of my guitar, problem? Tell that to the majority of members on here.

 

Also, if you're referring to my grammar being awful, I know. Literature has never been my strong point. In addition, I'm from Yorkshire in the UK, so you'll probably detest the way I would put the point across.

I love this, so the NSA came up with all these security problems yet one guy in the UK managed to get into all the NASA computers? XD!
OK so the NSA and NASA aren't linked but you'd think they'd have some security in place to stop years of R&D and billions of $ getting nicked.

 

It's pretty obvious that Windows has had a back door for use by government organisations, i wouldn't be surprised if MacOSX had it too. Oh course they are not going to be using it all the time, however i can imagine some kind of remote execution ability. Linux and Open source in general i would be more surprised about as it would be a lot easier to discover this through open source.

 

No wonder they hate open source so much. :D

You still haven't mentioned technically how I'm wrong. I don't give a toss about the structure of the argument. 

 

The matter of the fact is, you still haven't laid down the evidence disproving what I've said. I'm not on about NAT as a security mechanism, I'm on about how it disproves the conspiracy in the OP.

 

So you're not on about NAT as a security mechanism... That's so disingenuous. Especially since you're now claiming that it's in relation to a cryptographic backdoor as described in OP. Laughable.

 

To protect National Security? Do you condone events like Boston or a possible terrorist threat on the Olympics? 

 

The people which create these programs are normal people, they're doing it to protect national security not to see what porn people are watching. If there was a backdoor to any software system, it would of been found by now. You'd be able to spot it a mile off. Another point is, who's computer here actually has a public IP address? If not, you're sitting behind a NAT which will not let any un-prompted connections incoming unless the client initialized it. So a backdoor wouldn't even work in todays Internet.

 

So once again, hows the tinfoil hat?

 

 

Are you kidding me? NAT doesn't block incoming by choice, its just technically how it works. I could lecture you for a day about NAT translation tables if you want and all the different types of NAT. The fact of the matter is, NAT only allows incoming connections if they're initialised by the client on the end. There is P2P protocols etc, but then again, initialised by the client.

 

It wouldn't happen, and if it did, it'd get spotted very quickly.

 

 

If you studied those attacks, then you'd realise they're all done by making your PC creating a connection out, leaving a port open for incoming traffic through the NAT. All attacks through NAT are done by sending a packet outbound first. I've also worked on the design and installation of CG-NAT for two different ISPs.

 

I've learnt most of my knowledge on the job rather at University. I don't want to sound arrogant but the levels of the curriculum on the course I'm on was far lower than what I already knew since I was already experienced in the work. I only kept studying due to the links with companies the University has. Hence why I have had the jobs I've had. Funnily enough though, our security lecturer was very experienced and was excellent at what he did. He was actually tasked in helping the Government with the hacking groups. Me and him often went through a lot of the topologies ISP's had and discussed security around them, that was fascinating. 

 

You have not laid down any technical evidence of why you're correct, or evidence that calls that quote or link into question. All you've done is brag and say trust me.

So you're not on about NAT as a security mechanism... That's so disingenuous. Especially since you're now claiming that it's in relation to a cryptographic backdoor as described in OP. Laughable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have not laid down any technical explanation of why you're correct, or evidence that calls that quote or link into question. All you've done is brag and say trust me.

Dude, your sources back me up. NAT Pinning, an attack I looked into while designed CG-NAT is prompted by calling a service on a port which then is open to communicate with that client. That's what your sources say, so why should I find more sources when you don't understand yours to begin with.

 

It doesn't need much explaining. Even if there was a "backdoor" in Windows, they wouldn't be able to remotely call most computers around the world because they sit behind a NAT. Simple.

Dude, your sources back me up. NAT Pinning, an attack I looked into while designed CG-NAT is prompted by calling a service on a port which then is open to communicate with that client. That's what your sources say, so why should I find more sources when you don't understand yours to begin with.

 

It doesn't need much explaining. Even if there was a "backdoor" in Windows, they wouldn't be able to remotely call most computers around the world because they sit behind a NAT. Simple.

 

You can't even remember what you said on page 2 by the time you got to page 3, and it's in writing for you.Then you claimed you just didn't give a toss what the content of your posts were, (as you explain how intelligent and educated you are). Then you claim that this convo isn't about NAT security, but rather about NAT security, relating to cryptographic backdoors. My sources were all bunk, but now they back you up.

NATs can't be hacked from the outside... Sure, sure. Whatever you say Jonny :) I won't hold you back from your very important job anymore.

Really, my job positions tell me other wise. Ran a hosting company when I was 14 and worked at 3 of the top ISP's in the UK and I'm only 21.

 

Dude, I know you think this statement is making you look knowledgeable, but all I see is you've had 4 jobs in 7 years.

 

Without any background as to why you quit running your hosting company or why you worked at 3 different ISPs, all this tells us is you have trouble holding a job.

 

If you behave at work like you have in this thread then I can see why you've changed jobs so much.

Well from my experience, running a hosting company was something anyone could do a few years ago. leaving him with 3 real jobs probably in a lot less than 7 years, and those jobs could be anything, based on age and experience probably support...

 

On that note, everyone in this thread is wrong and correct though...but everyone is to stubborn to change ;)

You can't even remember what you said on page 2 by the time you got to page 3, and it's in writing for you.Then you claimed you just didn't give a toss what the content of your posts were, (as you explain how intelligent and educated you are). Then you claim that this convo isn't about NAT security, but rather about NAT security, relating to cryptographic backdoors. My sources were all bunk, but now they back you up.

NATs can't be hacked from the outside... Sure, sure. Whatever you say Jonny :) I won't hold you back from your very important job anymore.

Still haven't gave any evidence to prove me wrong. I never said your sources were wrong, just over explaining a simple fact.

 

Dude, I know you think this statement is making you look knowledgeable, but all I see is you've had 4 jobs in 7 years.

 

Without any background as to why you quit running your hosting company or why you worked at 3 different ISPs, all this tells us is you have trouble holding a job.

 

If you behave at work like you have in this thread then I can see why you've changed jobs so much.

It gives my statements more weight because its knowledge I use on a daily basis in my profession. The first two jobs were temporary contracts on which I moved away from my place of study during summer. Those places of work were interested in keeping me on after my place of study, which is something I have to think about. The position I'm currently at now is my year placement in which I was offered a permanent place in my position with a pay rise. I'll be returning back to study but working part-time at my current position, which is a first for the company. I've also received 2 pay rises and 2 substantial bonuses in 6 months for the money I've saved them.

 

If you've worked in IT and engineering places, you'd realise there's plenty of temporary contract positions and contractors. Here we see a mostly new engineering department every 6 months. 

 

Well from my experience, running a hosting company was something anyone could do a few years ago. leaving him with 3 real jobs probably in a lot less than 7 years, and those jobs could be anything, based on age and experience probably support...

 

On that note, everyone in this thread is wrong and correct though...but everyone is to stubborn to change ;)

When I did hosting, it was a free hosting service. The hosting company was something very small to begin with but it gained a lot of credit and I ended up selling it on for quite a nice fee when I couldn't give enough time to pursue it. When I finished with it, it was spread across 3 dedicated servers in which I owned at 16. This experience gave me a lot to talk about during interviews and a lot to go with. 

 

I even created my own client management system dedicated for free-hosting which is still used widely to this day across the free hosting market. 

http://thehostingtool.com. I launched that website in 2008 when I was 16. 

 

Sorry for being a professional giving my own experience to add to a discussion regarding something quite sensitive. I love how I have to defend myself on some information regarding NAT which is quite frankly, simple knowledge. The integrity of my whole past comes into question by some bafoon who knows how to put "NAT Attacks" in google to get his source. Yes, its the first result on the page. Yet someone who has rolled out two CG-NAT implementations nationally in the UK for ISP's, implemented a new traffic management system and looked at IPv6 deployment for all customers doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

I'm going to put it in the easiest simplest statement possible.

 

When your home gateway receives a packet which hasn't had an outbound packet from your LAN, it drops it. This is due to the fact that when your client sends a packet, your router stores the information of who and what type of information it sent. When it receives a reply back, your router knows which computer to send the packet to because its remembered the information from when your machine sent it out. Without that information, it hasn't got a clue where to send it, so it drops it. The only technical way for your router to get round that is by broadcasting the reply it receives to the whole LAN. This is a huge security risk and a traffic hogger, hence why its not done and its not specified in the RFC.

 

If you ran a minecraft server and you wanted people to connect to it and your behind a NAT, you have to port forward. This means when your gateway ever receives minecraft traffic, it always sends it to that machine you specified in the port-forward. Its the EXACT same principle. 

 

Source: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4787

 

That is basic NAT knowledge, its very simple CCNA NAT information.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
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Processor E-cores L3-cache Turbo clock GPU GPU-clock TDP Intel N355 8 6 MB 3.9 GHz 32 EUs 1.35 GHz 9 W Intel Core 3 N350 3.9 GHz 1.35 GHz 7 W Intel Core i3-N305 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 9 W Intel Core i3-N300 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz Intel N250 4 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 6 W Intel Processor N200 3.7 GHz 0.75 GHz Intel N150 3.6 GHz 24 EUs 1 GHz Intel N97 1.2 GHz 12 W Intel Processor N100 3.4 GHz 0.75 GHz 6 W The CPU is part of the Alder Lake-N series that sits just below the top N355 offering, albeit with an impressive TDP (less than the N355 and N305) for the features it offers. It is designed for low- powered systems and entry-level laptops. As before, we are seeing another NAS with an acceptable, if not great, amount of RAM. It should be noted that the F4-425 Pro only has one SODIMM slot, so if you are planning to upgrade the already 16GB included in this NAS, it will have to be on one module of Single Rank DDR5. 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Before we dive in, you can view the different SKUs released so far since the 2025 series launched for Home and SMB users, with the most important specifications listed along with the MSRP listed below: SKU CPU Cores Memory Link Price F2-425 Intel N5095 4 4 GB DDR4 2.5 GbE x1 $249.99 F4-425 Intel N5095 4 4 GB DDR4 2.5 GbE x1 $369.99 F2-425 Plus Intel Core N150 4 8 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $399.99 F4-425 Plus Intel Core N150 4 16 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $569.99 F4-425 Pro Intel Core N305 8 8 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $699.99 F4-425 Pro Intel Core N350 8 16 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $799.99 The F2 in the product name means two 3.5-inch HDD bays, where F4 is four 2.5-inch bays. First impressions Like with the F8 SSD Plus packaging, the F4-425 Pro is using the upgraded box materials, which certainly look better than a plain cream colored box with TERRAMASTER stamped on the sides. The box gives off a premium feel and certainly adds a positive vibe to first impressions. In the box F4-425 Pro TNAS device Power adapter LAN cable (CAT 6) Quick guide [full online guide] Limited warranty notice Screws (for HDD bays) Stickers 2x rubber feet (spares) Design As has become kind of common with TerraMaster, certainly in the last three years, the 2025 F2- and F4-series have received a makeover that really adds to the premium feel of the NAS. Gone are the plastic shells, now replaced with an aluminum outer shell, with the front and back retaining the textured black plastic we saw on the 2024 models. Some key differences from the 2024 series include placing the power button back on the front, along with the addition of a Type A USB port. It's not much bigger or heavier either; in fact, it weighs 500 grams less than the F4-424 Pro. It's slightly shorter in height and depth (length), but only by a few millimeters. The front and back do retain a similar style to the 2024 series. 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However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • well you can add a GPU for around $500, that's still around the price of Steam Machine but overall significantly better in performance.
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