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Remote access to your NAS
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How to use QuickConnect on a Synology NAS
If you own a NAS, you probably already know how useful it can be. I recently built one from an old PC and am already using it to host a media server, a Minecraft Server and a Pi-Hole DNS filter for my home. Some of these things (like the media server) you might want to access from outside your home, but it's not immediately clear how you would do that.
Depending on how comfortable you are with your NAS's services being exposed to the internet, there are a few options to consider. You could port all of these services on your router so that they are accessible via your IP address. Or you could get a little more complicated and create a VPN on the NAS so you can access everything. That's the more secure option.
Remote access to your NAS
If you run a NAS, there are several reasons why you might want to access it remotely. The first and most important reason is to be able to easily access your files. Since NAS stands for Network Attached Storage, it is assumed that you have some important files stored on it, such as photos, documents or videos.
However, another reason you might want to connect remotely might be if you want to stream the content stored on it. I have quite a few movies and TV shows that I've transferred from DVDs over the last 15 years or so, and I keep them on multiple drives. If I migrate them to my NAS, I can access them from anywhere, as long as I can connect remotely.
Finally, you can also use your NAS as a VPN. If you are traveling but want to access your country's Netflix or Disney+ catalog, for example, you can create a VPN connection to your NAS and then use these services as usual. In any case, being able to access our NAS remotely can be very useful.
How to use QuickConnect on a Synology NAS
If you have a Synology NAS, it's actually quite easy to access your NAS from outside your home network.
- Open the Control panel on your NAS and go to External access > Quick connection.
- Contact your Synology NAS.
- Check the Activate QuickConnect Crate.
- Enter your preferred ID in the QuickConnect ID Crate.
- Make sure that the Create port forwarding rules automatically check box is selected.
- Check the box agree to the Terms of Service as well as.
- Click Apply.
You don't need to set up port forwarding rules and it should work fine. However, if it doesn't work, you can set up port forwarding rules for ports 5000 and 5001 for the DSM service and port 6690 for Synology Drive. Synology has further documentation you can follow to configure based on your network.
There are a lot of Synology applications you can download and install online to allow you to access your NAS remotely once it's configured. Many of them are available on the Google Play Store, for example. And if you're looking for a new Synology NAS, the Synology DiskStation DS224+ is a solid two-bay enclosure at a good price.
Synology DiskStation DS224+
The Synology DiskStation DS224+ is the direct successor to the popular DS220+, which was praised for its value for money among consumers looking to purchase their first enclosure. The DS224+ features an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB DDR4 RAM, and supports Synology's excellent DSM operating system and app catalog.
WireGuard VPN tunnel
A quick and easy solution would be to set up WireGuard. On a TrueNAS setup, I used wg-easy from the TrueCharts catalog and it literally only took five minutes. Of course, you need to add the TrueCharts catalog to your NAS first. To do this, go to Apps > Manage Catalogs > Add Catalog and enter the following information:
- Name: TrueCharts
- Storage location: https://github.com/truecharts/catalog
- Trains: Enterprise, Stable, Operators (the individual options you should select are separated by commas)
- branch: Primarily
Once you've done that, you can browse the catalog to install wg-easy and set up WireGuard. This turns your NAS into a VPN that you can connect to from anywhere as long as you forward your router's WireGuard port, and it works very well.
WireGuard's web UI allows you to create new profiles and export them to a .conf file. This file (or QR code) can then be imported into any WireGuard client. I've created one for my laptop, one for my phone, and even one for my dad so he can access Irish Netflix while on the go. From there, I can access all the services on my network, just like I would if I were physically there. Creating a new configuration looks like what you see below. You just need to give it a name and click create.
This will create a configuration file that you can download and save anywhere, or it will generate a QR code that you can scan on your mobile device. This .conf file can be easily imported to desktop and mobile clients using the WireGuard app, which is available for Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone, as well as some Linux distributions.
You will also need to forward the port to your router to ensure the connection is established. The default port for this is 51820. Make sure the port is the same and also make sure you do not share your configuration files with anyone. These files allow anyone to access your network as if they were part of it.
Port forwarding is available through your router's settings, which you can usually access through a specific URL or by using an app. Consult your router's manual for instructions on how to access the configuration options.
It's a fairly simple solution that doesn't require much setup, but it's secure thanks to the use of client certificates instead of credentials. While you'll still need to remember all your different port numbers for different services, your TrueNAS UI (or whatever service you're using) will be accessible to check what port numbers are required to navigate to them.
Another alternative is OpenVPN, but WireGuard is considered more secure due to the use of more modern cryptographic standards. WireGuard is also generally faster.
A reverse proxy
If you want to access your NAS from outside the network, a reverse proxy is also a good way to do this. Not only can you access all of your services from anywhere, but you can also configure them to be accessible via custom domain names. A popular software for this is nginx, and something like Traefik is often used on TrueNAS. It allows you to create a reverse proxy that you can connect to from anywhere, which in turn gives you access to the rest of your network.
It requires a bit of setup and isn't as secure as a VPN tunnel, but the results can be very rewarding. You could create custom domains that allow you to access your Jellyfin server using the address “jf.lan,” for example, and it would work instead of typing a sequence of numbers and a port sequence at the end. It's not the biggest inconvenience, so if you're looking for further optimizations for your NAS and access to it, it's worth checking out.
This allows you to easily connect to your NAS from anywhere
If you want to connect to your NAS from anywhere, these are some of the most popular ways. It's not really possible to write a tutorial on how to configure each of these methods, as the process for other methods aside from Synology will look very different depending on your particular configuration. However, if you usually search for the name of the program and a tutorial for your chosen operating system, you will get results on how to set it up for your exact configuration.
For example, configuring a reverse proxy on TrueNAS will likely be quite different than on OpenMediaVault. Likewise, WireGuard setup can vary from machine to machine, with wg-easy doing most of the work for me on a TrueNAS setup. It's a Docker image that you can set up on any machine that supports Docker and WireGuard, but that may not be possible depending on your setup.
If you want to connect to your NAS remotely, there are many ways to do so. Be sure to research what works best for your device.