Synology NAS and DNS Server – An Idiots Guide?

Had my 212+ up and running for a while but am now looking to use an alternative DNS.

I’ve read a fair bit this morning but most assumes a level of understanding a bit further along than mine (not difficult).

Has anyone got DNS Server up and running with, say Google DNS or the like?

Do I need to register a domain name anywhere first and how might setting this up be affected by not having a static IP (Virgin Media)?

I have a basic understanding of DDNS and a working Synology DDNS address, diskstation is accessible from outside of my network, although a bit flakey at times.

Just looking for some basic pointers to help get the ball rolling…

What are you trying to achieve?

VM are restricting access to torrent sites etc, I’m lead to believe that the way to bypass these restrictions may be through an alternative DNS…

To access pirate bay on virgin goto tpblocked.me iirc

You are, of course, only using torrents to download legal material such as game patches, yes?

In which case, should your legitimate sites have been inadvertently blocked by your ISP, you should really be reporting the false positive to them. Whatever you do, don’t look at the TOR project[/url], as that will give you the ability to prevent your ISP from eavesdropping on the sites you visit, which of course would be wrong and immoral of you.

I don’t use Pirate Bay.

My Download Station has been effectively crippled as the search facility returns naff all results since the court order. Irrespective of the legality of what I’m looking for.

I’d also like to learn more about network stuff, there seems to be an ever increasing need for remote access, VPN’s etc. and it would be a shame not to make the most out the NAS’s capabilities.

Google would suggest that it’s possible to install TOR on a Synology machine as they’re basically Linux boxen. Looks a bit hackish though.

I’d be surprised if changing DNS severs makes any difference whatsoever. I’m not privy to what VM are doing, but unless it’s amateur hour in Branson’s office I’d be shocked if their “filtering” is nothing more sophisticated than DNS wrangling. Unless, of course, they’re playing lip service to pressure groups and actually intend for it to be readily sidestepped.

Yeah it’s possible I may be following duff information, it’s something I started looking in to setting up and have since got carried away with getting it to work.

No big deal if it fails, at least I’ll have learnt something…

Using alternative DNS will not bypass the virginmedia blocks. Sorry.

Cheers Simon…

Simply search for something like ‘torrents not blocked by virgin’ and you will get lots of hits. If you have installed the download station on your Synology, and the chrome extension for the browser, simply right click on hte torrent you want and you can add it to the Synology download list.

As for DNS – try OpenDNS, which is free and simple and can automatically track a dynamic IP address for you. You need to tell your router that this is your DNS, but their site talks you through it if you are untechnical

Changing Dns won’t get around virgin blocking tpb

In my experience virgin don’t stop vpns , or ras access to your home pc.

Cough,turn off the firewall on the super hub, cough. They don’t support L2TP and this is the only way I get to VPN into work. Your torrent client will then work to download the patches. You may need to use TOR to supply the download link.

Working off my Nexus I’m downloading into the DSFile folder and opening with Download Station from there. It just means that the search function in Download Station is useless so I need to use my browser.

Can’t say I’m happy enough to turn off the hub firewall, interesting comment regarding L2TP. So I’ll need to use either PPTP or OpenVPN when I set a VPN up?

The search function on the Synology NAS drives has been poor for ages. Creative google fu will normally find the torrent files quick enough and then you can download those in the DS Download app.

Just remember if you do turn your firewall off or start playing with Tor you’re potentially leaving yourself open to lots of nasties.

I find forums and straight downloads from software downloads sites a lot quicker and easier to navigate to get good ones. These are often overlooked by Virgin Media blocks too.

If you did want to try alternate DNS servers just use Googles public DNS.

Cheers Somouk, that pretty much sums it up.

Since the alternate DNS won’t give me what I’m after then I guess I’ll just have to get used to doing it a new way.

Any other benefits to Google DNS that will make all the research worthwhile?

PPTP isn’t worth a candle these days (similar to WEP in its effectiveness) not sure about OpenVPN as I’ve not used it.
I use a software firewall on the laptop when connecting into work (all Mac network). If the hub is used in modem mode with a third party router the VPN thing should go away. The VPN section of the hub interface will show what modes are supported.

IMHO any torrent client built into nas boxes is bull, your a mile better with something such as utorrent on a pc.!

As for remote access to your pc, it’s a mile easier with a service like logmein, unless you want to get down and dirty with VPN protocols. Do you know your key size from your protocol etc?

Probably dh, just trying to get everything working for occasional use with the Synology apps on Nexus tablets. Not really using PC’s so much these days.

Quick search suggests the Superhub is OK with L2TP. Thing I did’t like with VPN last time I played with it was the insistence on PIN lock for android devices, PITA. Not sure if that’s still the case or there’s a way to disable that in the certificate.