A network-attached storage device (or NAS) is a great way to backup your files or your entire computer. But beyond just storage, a NAS is itself also a computer that can be used for example as a media server to access your photos or watch your movies. This works fine when you are at home, but what’s the best way to access your NAS when you are out and about?

There are some common approaches, but as the table below illustrates, they are cumbersome, insecure, and potentially expensive. We are excited to offer a new simple, secure, and free solution: to share and discuss your experience and projects.

Prerequisites

The rest of this guide assumes that you have a couple components already installed. If not, please following these instructions first:

Sign up for Twingate

Twingate Starter is a new free plan that is designed for home and personal use. If you don’t have an account already, please click . Type in the Network URL that you chose when you signed up and tap “Join Network”. You’ll be automatically asked to log in using the same account you used to sign up. After signing in, you’ll land on the home screen, where you should already see your Synology NAS Resource listed. When you are connected to your Twingate network, a “VPN” icon will appear in the top bar of your screen.

To test it out, stay connected to Twingate, disconnect from your local network (e.g., by disabling WiFi), and navigate to your Synology NAS on your phone’s browser. You should be able to access it just as if you were at home.

Finally, disconnect from Twingate and try accessing it again — you should see that it’s inaccessible.

Congrats! You’ve finished setting up Twingate for Synology NAS. You can now securely access anything that you have running on your Synology NAS, such as:

• Streaming photos, music, or videos stored on your NAS from anywhere
• Monitoring and reviewing camera footage using Surveillance Station
• Using your NAS as a file server that you can use from anywhere

Join us in the community forum to share how things went and what cool use cases you’ve discovered!

Sharing is Caring

Do you want to share access with a family member? You can easily do this from the Twingate web UI. Just go to the Team tab and click “Invite User” to send an email invitation. The recipient would simply follow the same steps to download the Twingate client, join your network, and get access to your Synology NAS, or any other resource you set up!