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I have very poor signal with the 3 network at work. They offer a device called the 3 signal box which they sent out to me and it works flawlessly at home. However, at work, it seems to be blocked by my ISPs firewall. I've asked them and they are happy to open the required ports but they need a destination address. I called 3 but they won't give me the destination address, instead telling me to open my firewall (Something I can't do anyway!) All they gave me was the ports I needed to open:

TCP - 80, 443
UDP - 53
NTP - 123
ISAKMP - 500
ESP - 4500

My question is, is it possible to find out where the box is trying to get to? I tried installing Wireshark at home and at work and isolating the IP address of the box, but I just got lost in the results it spewed out!

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As long as the ports are open to all IP addresses then it doesn't matter where it's going, unless your IT guy at work wants to restrict outbound ports to certain destinations?

 

Yeah, I work at a school and the local firewall is controlled by an external 3rd party. I've been advised that the TCP, UDP and NTP ports are unrestricted, however, the remaining ports are closed and will only be opened to a specific destination. I just wanted to know if there was a way to capture the destination IP as the box tries to contact it.

I had a similar problem at work with 3 too. I didn't want this service to be open for the whole world instead I called them and they didn't gave me the IP's, etc. So I opened for only 3 networks in out F5 and firewalls. Somethingn like 123.456.0.0/12 since this was the range of the phones of our company it worked without problems and it was not open for the whole world to access though it still was open.

 

You can probably do something similar, open for an entire subnet. Give your IT guy the range with the ports and you'd be good. Your IT guy is happy, your ISP who wont give you the destination is happy and you are happy too, problem solved! ;)

Where were you sniffing - you would have to be at the gateway sniffing to see where it was going. Sniffing on your machine wouldn't show you were some other device was going unless you were on a hub network, or span port, etc.

It seems highly unlikely that they not tell you what networks they are on - I would suggest you call back, and say you need the network blocks as well as the ports since your IT guys will not open up those ports to the entire internet.

Even though I would assume 80 and 443 already are, and the dns and ntp shouldn't really be a concern..

Looking at my DNS server log, it attempts to connect to emtosegw.three.co.uk - but there have been lookups for emotseg[a-z].three.co.uk over the past month or so.

 

All of these domains seem to resolve to 92.41.252.3

Thanks for that. I will try that address out.

 

Where were you sniffing - you would have to be at the gateway sniffing to see where it was going. Sniffing on your machine wouldn't show you were some other device was going unless you were on a hub network, or span port, etc.

It seems highly unlikely that they not tell you what networks they are on - I would suggest you call back, and say you need the network blocks as well as the ports since your IT guys will not open up those ports to the entire internet.

Even though I would assume 80 and 443 already are, and the dns and ntp shouldn't really be a concern..

I tried calling several times and speaking to several different people. The only information they would give me is what ports need to be opened. They advised that these ports need to be opened for access to the entire Internet. The destination IP address is not information that they release to customers. :pinch:

 

Do you know of any programs that will allow me to sniff at gateway level? As far as I can see, Wireshark only supports local interfaces. I'll do the sniff at home as I have far fewer devices than at work.

What is your router? Is it running 3rd party firmware? What switch(es) do you have? If they are smart/managed they should support span ports.. Do you have any old hubs, laying around?

What is your router? Is it running 3rd party firmware? What switch(es) do you have? If they are smart/managed they should support span ports.. Do you have any old hubs, laying around?

 

It's a school network, so I doubt he has access to changing them. It's just a case of saying "I need port xxx open on 111.222.333.444" and having them do it.

^ what??

"Do you know of any programs that will allow me to sniff at gateway level?"

"I'll do the sniff at home as I have far fewer devices than at work."

This is what my comment was direct too.. This has nothing to with allowing any specific traffic.

Is this three mobile in the UK? You might have all manor of problems with this as they tend to be using Carrier grade NAT. If you want I can try get proper technical contact within Three so you can ask the questions there. 

 

You could connect it to another device, Go to something like http://www.whatismyip.com/

 

Then enter that here....

 

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/ipnetinfo.html

 

That will give you the block they assign to the Three Mobile. Then ask your Firewall guys to open up firewalls to that range. Its not the best but it might work. You could then tell the firewall guys to put a log on the firewall rule and see what ports its using and tie it down that way. 

 

Or just do a traceroute from Three Network box to your network. See what its route is. Maybe post it here. We could have a good guess ;-) 

What is your router? Is it running 3rd party firmware? What switch(es) do you have? If they are smart/managed they should support span ports.. Do you have any old hubs, laying around?

I don't have any switches at home. My router is a Virgin Media Super hub 2.0. Running stock Virgin Media firmware.

Well your out of luck then - there is noway to sniff then.. Does your PC have 2 interfaces, you could bridge them and put the device on the other nic and your pc connected to the router lan ports.

Sorry I completely mis understood what you were asking,

 

However the easiest thing is just go to What is my IP, Get the IP check the IP Block for three. Give the device a IP on your network and open up the firewall from that one IP to the Three IP Block. That would work. It would most likely be load balanced anyway so you have the whole three block covered.

 

Your talking about Femtocells right? 

 

http://www.tubblog.co.uk/blog/2013/05/13/using-a-three-home-signal-femtocell-to-improve-a-mobile-phone-signal-2/

How is checking whats my IP going to tell him what IP(s) this device is going too??

Does your router show you the state table? If so you could find where the device is going in there..

example

post-14624-0-03444300-1412426685.png

If it was me - I would pick up a cheap smart switch that does span ports, return it when done with the sniff ;) Bridge 2 interfaces on your PC, pick up 2nd nic if need be. If your PC has 2 nics -- cheap nics can be had for like $5-10. You could then sniff and know exactly what the device is doing.

Once you have the IPs the thing is going to, then you can see who owns them and give your IT guys the netblocks vs the IP.. So lets pick for example that IP on my state table.

162.220.220.76:5938 <- 192.168.1.100:56861

If I do a whois for 162.220.220.76

NetRange: 162.220.220.0 - 162.220.223.255

CIDR: 162.220.220.0/22

NetName: ANEXIA-US

I would give the IT guys hey need port 5938 tcp to 162.220.220.0/22

If anyone is curious what that connection is, that is teamviewer.

And so and for your other IPs it connects too - they might all be in 1 block, they might be different. The NTP is most likely just uses a pool, which is going to be pretty much impossible to find IPs - because ntp pools change all the time. Pretty much every time you query them. But they could do it the other way around, and vs letting the whole network go to any NTP server on the internet, they could let this devices IP only go to any ntp server.

As mentioned - why can your IT guys not help you.. You plug it in at work/school - wherever your wanting to use this. And they should be able to look at the firewall logs and see exactly where the thing tried to go on the internet.

It routes all the traffic through a Three (Network in the UK) IP address If I am not mistaken. So connect it and check whatismyip on a mobile device.




As mentioned - why can your IT guys not help you.. You plug it in at work/school - wherever your wanting to use this. And they should be able to look at the firewall logs and see exactly where the thing tried to go on the internet.

 

^ This :rolleyes:

"So connect it and check whatismyip on a mobile device."

Doh!!!! ;) Wasn't thinking about the device connected to it, and then going down the tunnel it creates.. But the IP the device uses through the tunnel could be completely different than the IPs used to create the tunnel.

But that might work -- could for sure test to see at home this way. Once you have this IP and block it is one, setup your router at home to only allow access to this network. But with the very limited device he has, your shooting in the dark since doubt his current router lets him filter outbound access to specific IPs, etc.??

:laugh: I should have given more detail! Just connect the mobile device to the femtocell, Visit what is my IP that will give you three block. Ask your IT department to tie the firewall down to your femtocell IP on the network and the IP block. That should at least give you a start. With the femto cell you can authorize devices so you mange it from that point of security anyway.

 

Give this to your IT Guys.....

 

 


inetnum:        188.29.0.0 - 188.29.255.255
netname:        H3GUK-S3
descr:          H3GUK Subscribe Block3
country:        GB
admin-c:        HURA1-RIPE
tech-c:         HURA1-RIPE
status:         ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by:         H3GUK-MNT
changed:        email.pgif?md5=662aeecca792d26a7b8ff5929 20110310
changed:        email.pgif?md5=6837ee0b10e1aa3fed0be583a 20130926
changed:        email.pgif?md5=6837ee0b10e1aa3fed0be583a 20131028
source:         RIPE

role:           H3G UK RIPE Admin
address:        Hutchison 3G UK Ltd
address:        Star House
address:        20 Grenfell Road
address:        Maidenhead,
address:        SL6 1EH
address:        United Kingdom
e-mail:         email.pgif?md5=a5b60b2161b52630619aa8974
mnt-by:         H3GUK-MNT
admin-c:        TM7656-RIPE
admin-c:        DV3702-RIPE
tech-c:         TM7656-RIPE
tech-c:         NA527-RIPE
tech-c:         GM16969-RIPE
abuse-mailbox:  email.pgif?md5=41735a3371959b4a86d808ba0
nic-hdl:        HURa1-RIPE
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changed:        email.pgif?md5=d8bbd8c36e42874427736c2a6 20081125
changed:        email.pgif?md5=662aeecca792d26a7b8ff5929 20090324
changed:        email.pgif?md5=8b578d7bc4410611a1c718c47 20130220
changed:        email.pgif?md5=6837ee0b10e1aa3fed0be583a 20130926
changed:        email.pgif?md5=8b578d7bc4410611a1c718c47 20140410
source:         RIPE

% Information related to '188.28.0.0/15AS21327'

route:          188.28.0.0/15
descr:          Aggregate /15 route from 188.28.0.0/14 (H3GUK-S3)
origin:         AS21327
mnt-by:         H3GUK-MNT
mnt-routes:     H3GUK-MNT
changed:        email.pgif?md5=662aeecca792d26a7b8ff5929 20100409
changed:        email.pgif?md5=662aeecca792d26a7b8ff5929 20110329
notify:         email.pgif?md5=662aeecca792d26a7b8ff5929
source:         RIPE

% Information related to '188.28.0.0/15AS60339'

route:          188.28.0.0/15
descr:          H3G UK IPv4 address space
origin:         AS60339
mnt-by:         H3GUK-MNT
changed:        email.pgif?md5=6837ee0b10e1aa3fed0be583a 20131022
source:         RIPE

 

As mentioned - why can your IT guys not help you.. You plug it in at work/school - wherever your wanting to use this. And they should be able to look at the firewall logs and see exactly where the thing tried to go on the internet.

At this point I should clarify that I am the IT guy at school! We have a firewall onsite that is controlled directly by the ISP. So I don't have access to the firewall to check any logs. I could maybe ask the ISP to check the logs, I will try that on Monday.

 

I have the new version of the Three Home Signal Box, it's this one here:

 

 

ChuckFinley: Is 188.28.0.0/15 the correct IP block that I need to unblock the ports on?

 

I've done a whatismyip scan and I get a 92.40.x.x address.

  • 3 weeks later...

It uses an IPsec tunnel to 92.41.252.174.

 

You may need to also allow protocol 50 and 51 to be used by the internal IP of the three box. This one usually catches people out with IPsec.

So - assign the Three box a Static IP and ask the ISP to allow the following FROM that IP TO 0.0.0.0/0 (or 92.41.252.174/32 if they are picky):

 

UDP/500

UDP/4500

Protocol 50

Protocol 51

 

TonyJr

It uses an IPsec tunnel to 92.41.252.174.

 

You may need to also allow protocol 50 and 51 to be used by the internal IP of the three box. This one usually catches people out with IPsec.

So - assign the Three box a Static IP and ask the ISP to allow the following FROM that IP TO 0.0.0.0/0 (or 92.41.252.174/32 if they are picky):

 

UDP/500

UDP/4500

Protocol 50

Protocol 51

 

TonyJr

 

 

Good answer!!

 

That resolves to 92.41.252.174.sub.mbb.three.co.uk .....

 

% This is the RIPE Database query service.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% The RIPE Database is subject to Terms and Conditions.
 
% Information related to '92.40.0.0 - 92.41.255.255'
 
% Abuse contact for '92.40.0.0 - 92.41.255.255' is '[email protected]'
 
inetnum:        92.40.0.0 - 92.41.255.255
org:            ORG-HUL1-RIPE
admin-c:        HURa1-RIPE
netname:        UK-H3G-20071121
descr:          Hutchison 3G UK Limited
country:        GB
tech-c:         HURa1-RIPE
status:         ALLOCATED PA
remarks:        ** Please send all queries regarding spams or abuse
remarks:        ** to [email protected]
mnt-by:         RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-lower:      H3GUK-MNT
mnt-routes:     H3GUK-MNT
changed:        [email protected] 20071121
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changed:        [email protected] 20071207
changed:        [email protected] 20091015
changed:        [email protected] 20130930
source:         RIPE
 
organisation:   ORG-HUL1-RIPE
org-name:       Hutchison 3G UK Limited
org-type:       LIR
address:        Hutchison 3G UK Limited
address:        Star House
                20 Grenfell Rd
address:        SL6 1EH
address:        Maidenhead
address:        UNITED KINGDOM
phone:          +441628765000
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admin-c:        PANO1-RIPE
admin-c:        HURa1-RIPE
admin-c:        NA527-RIPE
admin-c:        JC6695-RIPE
admin-c:        HURa1-RIPE
mnt-ref:        H3GUK-MNT
mnt-ref:        RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
tech-c:         HURa1-RIPE
mnt-by:         RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
abuse-c:        HURa1-RIPE
source:         RIPE
e-mail:         [email protected]
changed:        [email protected] 20140415
 
role:           H3G UK RIPE Admin
address:        Hutchison 3G UK Ltd
address:        Star House
address:        20 Grenfell Road
address:        Maidenhead,
address:        SL6 1EH
address:        United Kingdom
e-mail:         [email protected]
mnt-by:         H3GUK-MNT
admin-c:        TM7656-RIPE
admin-c:        DV3702-RIPE
tech-c:         TM7656-RIPE
tech-c:         NA527-RIPE
tech-c:         GM16969-RIPE
abuse-mailbox:  [email protected]
nic-hdl:        HURa1-RIPE
changed:        [email protected] 20080617
changed:        [email protected] 20130514
changed:        [email protected] 20081125
changed:        [email protected] 20090324
changed:        [email protected] 20130220
changed:        [email protected] 20130926
changed:        [email protected] 20140410
source:         RIPE
 
% Information related to '92.40.0.0/15AS21327'
 
route:          92.40.0.0/15
descr:          Aggregate Route
origin:         AS21327
mnt-by:         H3GUK-MNT
changed:        [email protected] 20071121
changed:        [email protected] 20081125
changed:        [email protected] 20081211
changed:        [email protected] 20130926
source:         RIPE
 
% Information related to '92.40.0.0/15AS60339'
 
route:          92.40.0.0/15
descr:          H3G UK IPv4 address space
origin:         AS60339
mnt-by:         H3GUK-MNT
changed:        [email protected] 20131022
source:         RIPE
 
% This query was served by the RIPE Database Query Service version 1.75 (DB-3)
 
 

 

I have done a packet sniff to the new three home signal box, through a reboot. It will do the usual DHCP, NTP, ping of Gateway and one DNS lookup for beta-recover.ubiquisys.com which returns 212.111.60.5. The device never connects to that address. It does a few multicast group leaves and two joins, then begins the tunnel setup. This is to one many different addresses in the 92.40.0.0/7 range - it appears to change on reboot randomly.

 

I am going to do a factory reset on it and see what extra information I can gather from a sniff on that data. I will have to do that tomorrow though, as I can't get in the loft where the box is at the moment.

 

There is some kind of web interface on port 8082, but it asks for an unknown username and password...

 

Tony

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    • TerraMaster F2-425 Pro review: a low-powered Intel NAS that ships with AI (OpenClaw) by Steven Parker It has been a while since I reviewed a TerraMaster NAS, but the company reached out to me asking if I was willing to test the F4-425 Pro, which goes on sale today. It is an upgrade on the F4-425 Plus, which I reviewed back in October 2025 What you need to know is that it basically follows the design principles of the four-bay F4-425 series, with its all-metal exterior. Here are the most important specifications: TerraMaster F4-425 Pro CPU Intel Core N350 (8x E Cores/Threads, Max burst up to 3.9 GHz) Intel Core N305 (4x E Cores/Threads, Max burst up to 3.8 GHz) TDP: 7W / 9W (Base) Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 32 EUs (1.35 GHz) Intel UHD Graphics 24 EUs (1.25 GHz) Memory 1x slot 16 GB DDR5 4800MT/s non ECC SODIMM (Max 32 GB) 1x slot 8 GB DDR5 4800MT/s non ECC SODIMM (Max 32 GB) Disk Capacity 120 TB (30 TB x 4) Supported RAID Types TRAID, TRAID +, RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID 6, RAID 10 Network 2x RJ-45 5 GbE Internal storage 3x M.2 2280 NVMe Slot (PCIe 3.0 x1) Bootloader 2Gbit 256 GB NAND Flash card (MX30LF2G28AD) USB port (internal) USB Ports 1x Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) 3x Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) HDMI 1x (HDMI) Hardware Transcoding Engine H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, VC-1 Maximum resolution: 4K (4096 x 2160); Maximum FPS: 60 Size (H/W/D) 219 x 181 x 150 mm Weight 2.9 kg System Fan 150 x181 x 219 mm Power 90W, 100V - 240V AC, 50/60 Hz, Single frequency Power consumption (HDDs) 45W (4x 4TB ST4000VN008 in read/write state) 14W (4x 4TB ST4000VN008 in hibernation) Noise Level: 20.9 dB(A) Using 4 SATA HDDs/SSDs in standby mode; Test environment noise: 17.3dB(A); Test distance: 1m Warranty 2 Years OS TOS 7.0.0706 (Beta) MSRP £639.99, $699.99, €739.99 / £739.99, $799.99, €839.99 As you can see above, there are two variants of the F4-425 Pro releasing today. The lesser variant has the slightly weaker N305 CPU and iGP, and 8 GB less RAM, although it also costs $100 less than the top variant we are testing today. In addition, these new F4-425 Pros are shipped with the as-yet-unreleased TOS 7 beta. So what is TOS 7 exactly? During the device initialization, you are warned not to use it in a production environment, which we'll get into later. My contact told me that TOS 7 exits beta today, June 23. The clear difference with the F4-425 Plus is that it contains the more powerful N350 Intel CPU released in the first quarter of 2025, with support for DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, LPDDR5 (4800), DDR5 and DDR4, and a max TDP of just 7W. It also supports AV1 decoding, as well as H.264, VP8, VP9, H.265 (8 bit), and H.265 (10 bit). The different capabilities in the Alder Lake-N (and Twin Lake) series are listed below. 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. As a reminder, up until a couple of years ago, it was commonplace to only get 2 or 4GB max on a flagship Synology or QNAP home NAS. Ever since the likes of TerraMaster and more have entered the market with ample RAM sizes included in their NAS offerings, it has gone a long way in forcing the hands of the traditional makers to up their game a bit. 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. On the front, you just have your four bays along with LED indicators for the HDDs and power. The welcomed change is having a USB port on the front for quick access, should you need to back up a USB drive, for example. Around the back, from top to bottom, you have a reset pin hole, an HDMI port, two 5 GbE Ethernet ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type A ports with a Type-C port below them, and a connector for the barrel port power source. Again, there's no Kensington Security Slot present, which is a bit of a shame considering it's a data storage device. Left side Right side On the left and right of the F4-425 Plus, it is completely smooth aluminum with a TERRAMASTER logo printed on both sides. On the bottom, there are some holes to assist ventilation. Unlike with the F4-425 Plus, the rubber feet did come unstuck during the teardown, which was also an issue on the 2023 series. It seems like other customers have lodged complaints about them, as TerraMaster now includes two spare rubber feet in the box, in case any of the preinstalled ones are lost; however, this seems more like a papering over the cracks solution rather than actually fixing the issue with better quality rubber stand-offs. There are also four screws that must be removed in order to access the internals. Teardown Upon removing the four screws, you can slide the device out of its shell to reveal the three NVMe M.2 slots (PCIe 3.0 X1) and single SODIMM slot connector, which is populated with a single 16GB DDR5 4800MT/s module. I added a couple of MP44Q M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs (2 x 4TB) that can be availed on Amazon for $492.99 that TEAMGROUP supplied us with, along with a 250GB 970 Evo Plus that my colleague Chris White sent me by accident and let me keep a few years ago. As I have said in previous reviews, TerraMaster support staff actually encourage installing whatever you want on their devices, and happily, the USB port for the bootloader is now easily accessible should you want to use it for your own flavor of NAS OS, such as TrueNAS, Unraid, or maybe Xpenology. Yes, because TerraMaster has now switched to a 256 GB NAND Flash card (3rd photo above) for the TOS bootloader. This is also replaceable, but you can also simply add a USB bootloader, access the BIOS, and tell the F4-425 Pro to boot from that instead of the Flash card. Unlike earlier iterations of TerraMaster NAS, you don't have to tear this down any further than the four screws on the outer shell in order to be able to access and manage the memory, NVMe slots, and USB bootloader. 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 the Control Panel, initially I did not 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 Control 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.
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