File streaming and syncing

[slavd]

Hello,
Synology user here, looking for a good network file syncing and streaming solution.

Current set up:
PCs:

• file streaming:
  • Local network - SMB
  • Remote access - WebDAV
• file syncing
  • Synology drive

Mobile:

• DS file/Synology Drive & DS Cloud sync

Currently faced difficulties:

1. Too fragmented - Every machine uses different set up,sometimes more than one depending on the connection type, this requires lots of setup and a lot of hours spent in explaining when and how to use it to family members
2. WebDAV
   1. not ideal for network file streaming - slow and buggy. On Windows it is limited up to 4GB (even shows up as a FAT32 drive). Larger files are not supported. They can only be viewed in explorer but not interacted with.
   2. Maybe not that secure?
3. SMB - Not secure for over internet connections (assuming no VPN or any kind of tunneling). SMB3 is apparently "more secure" than previous versions but every now and then I read about some new attack vector using SMB, so I am not sure if I should trust it for this.
4. *Synology Drive - not officially available for RPM distros anymore. I have to manually repackage every new .deb package that is released from Synology into an .rpm.
5. *DS cloud sync - although it was improved a lot in the past year or so it still has some limitations which can cause minor frustrations at times.
6. DS file
   1. Not really a file streaming solution. Most files need to be downloaded locally before they can be opened.
   2. Not that user friendly and familiar to less experienced users
7. Synology Drive
   1. Not really a file streaming solution. Most files need to be downloaded locally before they can be opened.

* Those ones are not that big of a deal. I can live with them, but they are still causing minor difficulties, so I added them to the list.
Ideal setup:

• 1 setup for both local and remote connections
• Ability to just stream some files on demand and sync others locally (basically like OneDrive or Google Drive File stream lets you do)
• integrated into explorer/nautilus/finder (like SMB and WebDAV)
• Secure enough for over the internet connections

What I have tried:

• Resilio sync - I have more than 5 family members - I don't want to pay monthly fees. But even if I could have fit into 5 people - I prefer not to pay $100 for that.
• Lots of googling

What other options are out there? I know there must be something that I am missing. Rsync? SSH? Any suggestions that would reduce the frustrations described in "Currently faced difficulties" section are welcome.

Thanks!

 

[WST16]

I think you‘ve covered them all!
What about accessing Video Station via the browser?

SSH?

SSH can only be used by administrator group members. I don’t think you want to start giving access to your NAS via SSH. That‘s dangerous!

 

[slavd]

I think you‘ve covered them all!
What about accessing Video Station via the browser?


SSH can only be used by administrator group members. I don’t think you want to start giving access to your NAS via SSH. That‘s dangerous!

I was referring to SSH FTP. I am yet to test it out but it sounds better and more secure than WebDAV. What are your thoughts?

 

[fredbert]

There's SFTP and FTPS. The former uses SSH and the latter is a secured version of FTP. I've opted for SFTP and left FTP/FTPS disabled.

You can assign different TCP ports to DSM's SSH and SFTP services. If you used TCP 22, the default for SSH, then both services would be accessible. But by assigning different ports then you can restrict access (via your firewall and port forwarding rules) to allow only SFTP access. I've tested to confirm that the SFTP port does not permit a SSH session: it doesn't. Plus non-admin users can use SFTP. Places to assign the ports:

SFTP: Control Panel -> File Services -> FTP -> SFTP
SSH: Control Panel -> Terminal & SNMP -> Terminal

I think users still need permission to use SFTP and I think it's covered by the 'FTP application'.

Unlike WebDAV and SMB, SFTP does not natively mount within Windows Explorer/Mac Finder. There are third party apps that do support this on Mac so I suppose there are options for Windows. Mountain Duck??

 

[slavd]

Hello, yes I know the difference between SFTP and FTPS. I just started playing with SFTP. I installed the WinFCP and SSHFS-Win tools to enable windows support for mounting SFTP drives. However, I encountered some weird problem.
Currently I have enabled SFTP service on port 22. The ssh one is disabled (and when I need it I enable it for short periods on different port). The user I am trying to test is not an admin, however, it does have permissions to use FTP (assigned from Control Panel -> Users -> User Name -> Apllications -> FTP -> Allow access). The user also has access to to his home folder and a bunch of other folders. The 22 port is accessible via the internet (checked with nmap)
However, if I try to mount the disk under windows or linux (Fedora) I get access denied error. I also tried mounting it on android via ES File Explorer - which did not display that error message, but said that there are 0 folders in that drive which I know is not true.

Any idea what might be going on?

EDIT: I checked synology firewall - port 22 is enabled there as well
EDIT2: Nevermind I fixed it. The individual user had permissions to use the FTP, but the group permissions were denying it. After I enabled the group permission fro FTP I logged in successfully

 

[fredbert]

If you have a Linux client then you could try connecting using the terminal and the sftp command.

I'm using a non-admin user and see a list of the shared folders as the contents of the SFTP root folder. My SFTP uses a non-standard port and I've included my Mac's LAN IP on the allow list of DSM's Auto-Block.

 

[WST16]

What are your thoughts?

I don’t think SFTP will be as seamless as WebDAV. It will be slower than WebDAV too.

I’ve been using WebDAV for a while with macOS and mainly with iOS. It seemed fine to me. Now I use Drive for iOS/iPadOS access and I like it.