I routinely use my NAS to stream media and music on numerous gadgets in my home, and it really works notably nicely for this use case. Distant entry is a bit more tough; I need to have the ability to entry my media library from wherever, however port forwarding on the router is inherently dangerous, and I did not wish to try this.
Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all issues regarding {hardware}, providers, and the broader tech ecosystem.
Fortunately, Synology has a built-in service referred to as QuickConnect that permits you to entry your NAS from wherever. Whereas I used this extensively up to now, I wished to modify to an exterior service that does not depend on servers hosted by Synology, and that is how I got here throughout Tailscale. At a really excessive stage, Tailscale is a peer-to-peer mesh community that permits you to securely entry your gadgets from wherever on the earth.
Tailscale gives end-to-end encryption, and is constructed on the WireGuard protocol. Tailscale basically permits you to create a mesh VPN, however the one distinction is that it’s for the gadgets in your house — consider it’s a non-public web. The largest promoting level of Tailscale is its ease of use; you will get began with the service in beneath 10 minutes, and there is not something to configure or handle — all of that’s dealt with mechanically by Tailscale. All you must do is log in through an single sign-on (SSO) id supplier (like Google), set up Tailscale in your gadgets, and that is it.
Greater than the rest, it is this ease of use that makes Tailscale such an attractive choice. And since the service is constructed on a zero belief structure, it does not retailer any authentication knowledge — you log in to it utilizing your Google, Apple, or Microsoft account. Mainly, it handles all of the boring stuff — key rotation, relay servers, and NAT traversal — so you do not have to configure or tweak something; simply set it up in your gadgets, and also you’re good to go.
I arrange Tailscale on a Raspberry Pi 4 almost two years in the past, and I put in it on the NAS — a package deal is obtainable for one of the best NAS servers, together with Synology and QNAP — in addition to all my telephones. Tailscale assigns a novel IP to all of the gadgets in your community, so if you’re outdoors your private home, you possibly can simply connect with that system through the use of that IP — it is as simple as that.
With Tailscale, I can entry my DiskStation DS1019+ and DS1522+ once I’m away from house, and it really works simply as seamlessly as Synology’s answer. I can use DS Video and DS Audio to stream video and audio, and I can log in to my Plex occasion on the NAS with out having to offer the service distant entry. Mainly, Tailscale is the best method to entry your NAS from wherever, and the inherent safety mixed with the convenience of use makes it a no brainer suggestion.
What’s additionally attention-grabbing is that Tailscale has a file sharing utility that permits you to simply switch knowledge between your telephone, Home windows machine, and NAS. I used Pushbullet up to now to do the identical factor, however in recent times, I simply switched to utilizing my NAS as a method to transfer knowledge between gadgets. If I have to get a file onto my telephone from my Home windows machine, I simply put it in a shared folder on the NAS, and I then obtain that on my telephone. Tailscale makes {that a} smidgen simpler, and whereas the function continues to be in early testing, there’s quite a lot of potential.
One other use case I wish to spotlight is advert blocking. I exploit Pi-hole on my house community, and it does an excellent job blocking any intrusive advertisements on the router stage. However I haven’t got entry to it once I’m outdoors my house community, and that is the place Tailscale involves the rescue once more. You’ll be able to configure Tailscale to make use of Pi-hole because the DNS, after which it routes all visitors by way of that — even if you’re outdoors your private home community. That is genuinely an enormous differentiator, and one of many foremost causes I depend on Tailscale a lot.
One of the best half about all of that is that Tailscale is completely free to make use of — you do not have to pay something. You’ll be able to even invite as much as three customers to make use of the service, and the free plan permits you to use Tailscale on as much as 100 gadgets. Do you have to exceed that quantity or wish to use Tailscale with a big crew, it prices $6 a month per consumer. However in case you simply wish to use Tailscale in your house, the free plan is greater than ample.
What I like about Tailscale is that it does not hobble options within the free tier; you get full entry to SSH, all the foremost SSO suppliers, and quite a lot of superior options. Tailscale talks about the way it is ready to present these options in its free plan, and it is value a learn to get a greater understanding as to how the service is ready up — the high-level overview is that it turns to companies for income, so it does not want to limit options in its free plan.
Finally, Tailscale is likely one of the greatest networking-related providers I ever used, and the truth that it combines an intensive feature-set with inherent ease-of-use makes it an important alternative if you’d like a seamless method to entry your NAS and another system from wherever on the earth.
