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A beginners guide to setting up a Synology router | Network shares
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A beginners guide to setting up a Synology router | Network shares

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synology router network shares

In this video we take a look at how you can create network shares on your Synology router. While not a function available to most models of router. This is a useful feature, if you are looking to add a centralised file share to your home network.

It is worth noting that the current implementation of the file sharing protocol built into a Synology router is SMB 2. SMB or Server Message Block, is the protocol used by most computers to allow you to share files over a network. However as SMB 2 is not the latest version of SMB, it is not as secure as SMB 3.

So while SMB 2 should be secure enough to use on your Synology router to share non-important files over your home network. We do not recommend you use your router as a file server for personal data. Instead if you are looking to centrally save files to your network. We recommend something like a Network Attached Storage device.

Quick reference notes

  • Open Synology Router Manager (SRM) and sign in using your administrators credentials.
  • Now connect an external USB hard drive to the USB port on your router.

Note: While we used a 4TB Wester Digital USB hard drive. You should be able to use most makes and models of external drive. However if you intend to use a hard drive over 2TB. You will not be able to hot swap the drive between your router and a Windows PC. 

  • In the SRM, your router should detect your hard drive and will inform you that “To reduce interference to WiFi, 2.4GHz, your USB 3.0 device was downgraded to USB 2.0.”
  • Open Control Panel in the SRM.
  • From the sidebar choose Storage.
  • In the tab Shared Folder you should see you USB drive. 
  • Select the Add (+) button to create a new shared folder 
  • Using the Create New Shared Folder wizard, give your new share a name.
  • Next enable Recycle Bin.
  • Click on OK.
  • Highlight the folder you just created.
  • Under the heading User Permissions make sure that your administrators account has read/write access to your network share.
  • Choose Apply.
  • Once again from the sidebar, choose File Services.
  • Under the heading Win/Mac enable Windows file service.
  • Click Apply.

Note: As the firewall on your router is enabled by default. You will be prompted to allow CIFS traffic. So in order for file sharing to work you will need to click on OK. 

Create User accounts

In order for users to access the network shares you create. You will need to create individual user accounts. It is always considered bad practise to use your routers administrators account in order to access your network shares. 

  • Click Apply to save your settings.
  • From the sidebar of Control Panel choose User.
  • Select the Add (+) bitten to create a new user account.
  • Create a user name and password.
  • In Shared Folder Permissions assign your new user with the appropriate access permissions to your network share.

Useful resources

Reference materials

View Comments (2)

  1. Question re VLANs and Synology routers. If I set up a VLAN as described in your video, how do I move the IOT devices (IPs) from the original primary net work to the new IOT network?

    Thanks for all good videos – really appreciated!

    Regards
    Anders

    Reply

    1. It will depend on the IoT device.

      For example on an Alexa Smart Speaker, you can use the Alexa App to go into a device’s specific settings and change the wifi network that the device is using.

      However, for other IoT devices, you might find that you have to factory reset the device. Then set it up from scratch in order to move the device to its new VLAN WiFi network.

      If you have a lot of IoT devices, in theory you could leave them on your Primary network, and instead move your main computer devices to your new VLAN network.

      But as this will mean you also have to reconfigure your VLANS to make sure they are correctly isolated. It could be just as time consuming to do, as manually moving your IoT devices to a new WiFi network.

      Regards Rob

      Reply

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