NAS for newbie

[killdozzer]

YEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It works and then some. I needed to dig around quite awhile, but I'm so happy right now to have finally made it work. I'll describe it if someone needs it as an advice and I'll link it here to make it easier to find.

Thank you all! Thank you very much!

 

[killdozzer]

I missed it. Life's too short to get mad with people on Internet forums.

I was explaining what this software does in its back-end. What you are showing above is the web-based front-end of the app. Effectively, the NAS management software is allowing you to see when directly logged into it's web-based management capability, what is going on below the user stack. I also have the same GUI above when logged in to the management console and have had ever since I installed my Synology almost a decade ago. Mine does not have a USB option (current v7) and I don't recall ever seeing it. But that might be because my Synology is old.

Via wired or wireless packet network I can get to my audio files via two principle ways - (1) via CIFS/SMB mounting the generic file Network-Attached Store (NAS) which requires nothing fancy at the NAS end*; and 2) via DLNA/UPNP which is delivered by the Synology Media Server (which is not a generic NAS-type service but an add-on that runs in Synology's host-services environment). Also, the inbuilt indexing services ensures that the Audio and Media Server content lists are up-to-date. My streamer works using the (1) CIFS facility and I can also listen on my smartphone via DLNA using (2) and the Synology DS Audio app for Android.

* I have experience in procuring and analysing data-centre-scale file storage (effectively NAS) and block storage. There are things that a generic NAS must do, and running audio drivers on a USB interface is not one of them. But some domestic products may do so as an added function of their host - this is one of those YMMV things.

What others have said makes a lot of sense: if you roll your own NAS using an old PC/Laptop etc or a Pi, these are rich hosts which can have all sorts of extra benefits. For a direct NAS to DAC with the least number of connectors, there's a lot to be said for this approach rather than an off-the-shelf NAS device where they may not see enough profit from adding in what is quite a niche requirement.

OK, I read it. It was helpful for some additional info, but you know already I managed to get the USB-DAC to work. I've seen your like on my other thread, thanks, so you've seen it. I'll move the topic over there.

Side info; I access my NAS wireless, this was the main reason I got it. As a wireless - (ly) accessible audio mass storage. I can let all my guests pass through and either play music or share something. The whole idea of wireless loses its meaning if you still need to have some sort of cable going from your PC, in my case laptop, to your Stereo. (It's an old Stereo, so no BT, Wi-Fi or any such things) And this is why I came up with the idea to go NAS straight to the amp. It wasn't as easy for all the reasons you've already mentioned. (It's still "in-the-rough" since to play music the way I do now, I have to keep creating profiles on my NAS. Still, I don't have THAT many friends.)

The original idea was also to use this step (between NAS and amp) for room EQ. Otherwise, it's getting messy. I guess you could go PRE OUT > MiniDSP (set it up) > MAINS IN. I'd rather bypass that step as it seems more neat to me to put it between NAS and amp, since that step needs to be there in my way of setting it up, anyway.

And this finally sets me free, I can move around my house with my laptop as I usually do - I work in my living room, I get up to do some cooking, I go to another room for my projector etc. and I can play music from wherever. And I can still play some movies from the NAS over my laptop and on the projector. It runs smooth, it only takes half a second for skipping.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Congratulations! I'm glad you made it work for you.

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

Hey, just read through the thread, and have something to add/ask. Most of the concerns here are about playing files stored on the NAS locally, in your own intranet inside your own house through a streamer and/or usb dac. Tbh I don't even manage to really do that yet, but that's not my point. My issue is quality replay through the net, when outside my intranet (on mobile on the go or on another computer on vacation or at work for example). For some reason, the mobile app DS Audio fails to connect outside my home network (whereas DS File do it without issue), and I can stream music using Audio Station on other computers, but can not bypass the output to get it directly through a dac.
I use Strawberry music player, and so it would (probably) be ideal if I could a) Use Subsonic but I'm on DSM 7.2 and it juste won't install from the packet center ; the docker container manager app won't install either or b) just mount the folder on the NAS as the library source for strawberry but I couldnt manage to do that since on intranet I can't get samba to work for anything and don't know if it's even possible over the internet. So, to sum it up, I guess my questions are : how to simply play the files at their intended rate (inside and outside the intranet but in priority outside) ? Also is there a better working mobile solution than the Synology app ?

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Hey, just read through the thread, and have something to add/ask. Most of the concerns here are about playing files stored on the NAS locally, in your own intranet inside your own house through a streamer and/or usb dac. Tbh I don't even manage to really do that yet, but that's not my point. My issue is quality replay through the net, when outside my intranet (on mobile on the go or on another computer on vacation or at work for example). For some reason, the mobile app DS Audio fails to connect outside my home network (whereas DS File do it without issue), and I can stream music using Audio Station on other computers, but can not bypass the output to get it directly through a dac.
I use Strawberry music player, and so it would (probably) be ideal if I could a) Use Subsonic but I'm on DSM 7.2 and it juste won't install from the packet center ; the docker container manager app won't install either or b) just mount the folder on the NAS as the library source for strawberry but I couldnt manage to do that since on intranet I can't get samba to work for anything and don't know if it's even possible over the internet. So, to sum it up, I guess my questions are : how to simply play the files at their intended rate (inside and outside the intranet but in priority outside) ? Also is there a better working mobile solution than the Synology app ?

Samba based on SMB1 (old and so common) is dangerous and deprecated. You may need to ensure all tech of this nature is off the latest version.

DS Audio and Media Player are both configured with access disabled by default - you need to add the relevant access rights.

Remote access to your NAS through a firewall is generally a very bad idea unless you are using a proper, fully MFA authenticated VPN.

 

[voodooless]

Samba based on SMB1 (old and so common) is dangerous and deprecated

Samba supports SMB3 just fine and has done for almost a decade now…

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

Samba based on SMB1 (old and so common) is dangerous and deprecated. You may need to ensure all tech of this nature is off the latest version.

DS Audio and Media Player are both configured with access disabled by default - you need to add the relevant access rights.

Remote access to your NAS through a firewall is generally a very bad idea unless you are using a proper, fully MFA authenticated VPN.

I haven't ever been able to configure samba properly anyways, and I've tried writing and rewriting .conf files over several machines and linux distributions over the years to no success.

I had already given the relevant access rights to these programs in DSM. I mean, it's the same case to check for DS File (which works) and DS audio (which does not - but has been criticized all over the internet).

My remote access has only been made through the synology apps and through quickconnect. It certainly is not ideal, but the other ways (DDNS, reconfigure ports, etc) looked leagues above my technical ability to dream to apply them.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Samba supports SMB3 just fine and has done for almost a decade now…

Yes I'm aware (check the sig). But there are many setups with non-disabled SMB1 still kicking around despite Ned Pyle's best efforts! I've dealt with tons of "legacy" systems (i e. no budget available for an upgrade) which just "stopped working" when SMB1 is shuttered

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I mean, it's the same case to check for DS File (which works) and DS audio (which does not - but has been criticized all over the internet).

It is not the same. You need to configure all the Media Server stuff as well.

It certainly is not ideal, but the other ways (DDNS, reconfigure ports, etc) looked leagues above my technical ability to dream to apply them.

Yes, unfortunately securing connections is difficult.

If it helps, as a person who has worked in media and cyber security, I never access my Synology NAS from outside my property. That doesn't necessarily make it secure, but it helps a bit.

 

[Nutul]

I never access my Synology NAS from outside my property.

The whole internet is based upon "sharing content". Securing your connection is key to being able to access your NAS from wherever.
It's not magic; just requires knowledge. And the right tools. Properly configured.

 

[Berwhale]

The whole internet is based upon "sharing content". Securing your connection is key to being able to access your NAS from wherever.
It's not magic; just requires knowledge. And the right tools. Properly configured.

Even properly configured systems are still subject to zero-day exploits. What's properly configured one day, may not be the next (due to software updates, or other apparently unrelated configuration changes).

It's not magic, but it does require vigilance and regular updating of your knowledge and reviews of your configuration and tooling. This is all part of my job, so I do it anyway, but I wouldn't expect the 'average audiophile' to go through all this just to share some FLACs.

It's far safer to sync your music to your mobile device and keep your NAS relatively safely behind your firewall. This is even more important if the NAS holds other files and documents that are important to you.

Personally, I have no need to access NAS content outside my home, so I don't expose either of my Synology NAS to the internet . If I did want to access them, I'd use a VPN connection to my pfSense router, rather than rely on Synology's services.

For mobile music, I use MusicBee to transcode and synchronize my entire FLAC collection (~1.1TB) to my phone in the highest quality Opus codec (278GB on my phone).

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Even properly configured systems are still subject to zero-day exploits. What's properly configured one day, may not be the next (due to software updates, or other apparently unrelated configuration changes).

It's not magic, but it does require vigilance and regular updating of your knowledge and reviews of your configuration and tooling. This is all part of my job, so I do it anyway, but I wouldn't expect the 'average audiophile' to go through all this just to share some FLACs.

It's far safer to sync your music to your mobile device and keep your NAS relatively safely behind your firewall. This is even more important if the NAS holds other files and documents that are important to you.

Personally, I have no need to access NAS content outside my home, so I don't expose either of my Synology NAS to the internet . If I did want to access them, I'd use a VPN connection to my pfSense router, rather than rely on Synology's services.

For mobile music, I use MusicBee to transcode and synchronize my entire FLAC collection (~1.1TB) to my phone in the highest quality Opus codec (278GB on my phone).

I agree 100% This, in my opinion is the best approach.

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

It is not the same. You need to configure all the Media Server stuff as well.

I'll look into that then, ty. As well as the VPN setup, even if I fear I'd painfully struggle to make it work.

I never access my Synology NAS from outside my property.

Too bad, since it's the main (and not sole but almost) reason why I got one in the first place.

It doesn't hold private documents or sensitive data, and most of what's on it is also saved on external hard drives that are only plugged in for occasional backups. So it's not exactly expendable, but data loss wouldn't be a catastrophe either.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

It doesn't hold private documents or sensitive data, and most of what's on it is also saved on external hard drives that are only plugged in for occasional backups. So it's not exactly expendable, but data loss wouldn't be a catastrophe either

The Synology NAS are pretty well designed, but all devices visible from outside can be used as gateways and then traversed from to other devices. TVs, STBs, IP cameras are often terribly insecure. Unless you know what you are doing, don't access your home infrastructure from outside. If you know what you are doing, you probably still wouldn't access your home infrastructure from outside.

Too bad, since it's the main (and not sole but almost) reason why I got one in the first place

That's what modern phones and DAPs are for.

Alternatively, outbound-only-sync to a paid (not free) properly authenticated and access-logged share on Google Drive or MSFT One Drive. But be aware that you lack privacy via this approach.

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

The Synology NAS are pretty well designed, but all devices visible from outside can be used as gateways and then traversed from to other devices. TVs, STBs, IP cameras are often terribly insecure. Unless you know what you are doing, don't access your home infrastructure from outside. If you know what you are doing, you probably still wouldn't access your home infrastructure from outside.

Alternatively, outbound-only-sync to a paid (not free) properly authenticated and access-logged share on Google Drive or MSFT One Drive. But be aware that you lack privacy via this approach.

I really want to say I hold absolutely no contempt for what you are trying to explain. I do believe that it makes total sense and is essentialy right. I am still going to access it from outside, because of a large mixture of reasons (that's my usecase ; I don't want to have bought it for nothing and have not invested in this to pay for other services ; my threat level makes me conclude that my risk/reward ratio is justified ; we have no smart tv or camera or smart anything connected to the routeur, only phones and computers ; setup basic security measures like blocking repeated login attempts and will try to improve those once I'm more familiar with the system) and focus on what I'm trying to achieve : best quality music playing, which I'm really started to come close to thanks to Navidrome which is compatible with subsonic interfaces in media players.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I really want to say I hold absolutely no contempt for what you are trying to explain. I do believe that it makes total sense and is essentialy right

Understood and no offence taken. I worked in cyber security for more than a decade. Security incidents are like accidents, no-one thinks they will have one, until they do.

 

[Berwhale]

I really want to say I hold absolutely no contempt for what you are trying to explain. I do believe that it makes total sense and is essentialy right. I am still going to access it from outside, because of a large mixture of reasons (that's my usecase ; I don't want to have bought it for nothing and have not invested in this to pay for other services ; my threat level makes me conclude that my risk/reward ratio is justified ; we have no smart tv or camera or smart anything connected to the routeur, only phones and computers ; setup basic security measures like blocking repeated login attempts and will try to improve those once I'm more familiar with the system) and focus on what I'm trying to achieve : best quality music playing, which I'm really started to come close to thanks to Navidrome which is compatible with subsonic interfaces in media players.

Have a look at https://www.twingate.com/blog/synology-nas or https://tailscale.com/kb/1131/synology.