Getting started with Synology DSM

On a fresh Synology DiskStation install, there are always a few things that I need set up ASAP. I don't often do a hard factory reset, but sometimes it is nice starting with a clean slate - at least, I experiment so much with mine that after a few months a lot of digital crap accumulates.

Synology Assistant is your gateway to get started; it is downloadable, though should also be included as a CD with your Synology NAS. Doing a "Network Search" using this tool will show a list of networked units. In my case, I only performed a reset, so some fields may already contain info versus an out-of-the-box unit:

Hit the "Connect" button, and your browser will open a page to your server in the format of http://[local ip address]:5000/web_index.html. Port 5000 is the default for accessing the DSM software.

You are greeted with the above screen, and just follow the simple instructions. You can install DSM from internet or a local file, which I opted to do. The latest DSM can be downloaded at http://www.synology.com/en-us/support/download/

I like Transformers, and all our home computers are named accordingly, so I decided to name it "AllSpark" (this becomes both the server's network name, and a clean URL with which it can be accessed). This can always be changed at Control Panel -> Network -> General tab -> Server Name field.

After some initial setup, you can log in with the admin user and password!

DSM5.0 will prompt you to set up a QuickConnect ID, which is convenient to make your NAS accessible outside your home network. You can either register for the first time, or use an already existing MyDS account (the same one used to manage https://myds.synology.com/. I already have one, so I opted to just use it again:

Congrats, you are now able to start using DSM!

A couple of good practices would include checking out how to set up proper users and permissions, but right off the bat, we can do a couple of things in Control Panel -> Security:

Set a logout timer. I lowered my auto-logout time from 15 to 5 mins:

Enable Denial-of-Service (DoS) protection (not sure why this isn't on by default):

Set auto-block options for botched login attempts; this is just another safeguard against brute-force login hacks:

These are just some quick and dirty ways to add a touch of protection to your NAS, especially if you plan on being able to access it outside your home network.