The Best VPN for Synology NAS Was the One That Let Me Reach the NAS’s Own VPN

The OpenVPN window stayed on Connecting while the client’s deadline moved five minutes closer. I was in a conference hotel with a Windows laptop, trying to retrieve a 1.8 GB video master from the Synology NAS in my home office. The NAS was online. Its DDNS address resolved. My phone could reach ordinary websites. I disconnected from the hotel Wi-Fi, joined again and restarted the VPN client. Nothing changed.

I had deliberately made the NAS difficult to reach.

Four months earlier, Synology had published an “Important” DSM security advisory covering vulnerabilities that could allow remote or authenticated attackers to access information, alter files or disrupt the system. Patched DSM versions were released on April 15, 2026.1 I updated immediately, then reviewed how much of the NAS I had exposed to the public internet.

The answer made me uncomfortable.

DSM had been reachable through a forwarded management port. Synology Drive had another public route. It was convenient, but the NAS contained client footage, contracts, tax records and years of family photographs. I closed those public application ports and installed Synology’s VPN Server package instead.

From then on, remote access had one door. I connected to the NAS’s OpenVPN service first, received a private network address and used Synology Drive as though the laptop were back in the office.

At home and on mobile data, it worked cleanly.

In the hotel, that door would not open.

QuickConnect reached the NAS, but not the deadline

My first fallback was QuickConnect.

It was the obvious move. Synology built QuickConnect so owners could reach a NAS without manually exposing each service or configuring complicated routing. It tries a direct connection first and can fall back to Synology’s relay service when that fails.2

I entered the QuickConnect address and reached File Station.

For a few seconds, I thought the problem was solved.

Then I started the download.

The transfer settled below 400 KB/s. At that rate, the video master would arrive long after the client meeting ended. Pausing and restarting changed nothing.

The result made sense. A relayed connection adds another stop between the laptop and the NAS, and Synology notes that the relay path has limited bandwidth and can introduce substantial delay.2

Synology owners describe the practical consequence more simply: QuickConnect can be fine for opening a page or retrieving a small document, then painfully slow when several gigabytes are needed immediately.3

That was enough to change the comparison. QuickConnect proved that the NAS was alive and the file was still there. It also proved that merely reaching the NAS was not the same as retrieving the file in time.

I needed the private connection I had already built.

The hotel could browse the web but not reach my tunnel

Synology’s VPN Server does not operate through QuickConnect. Its setup requires a reachable address and a forwarded VPN port.4 That was exactly how I had configured it: the OpenVPN service was reachable from outside, while DSM and Synology Drive stayed behind the private tunnel.

The design worked everywhere except the network in front of me.

I tried the OpenVPN profile again. The client sent packets, waited and timed out.

I moved from the conference Wi-Fi to the guest-room network. Same result.

Then I tethered the laptop to my phone. OpenVPN connected immediately.

That isolated the failure. The NAS was online and the profile was valid. The hotel network was the difference.

I could have remained on mobile data, but roaming was expensive and the signal in the room fluctuated between one and two bars. The transfer started quickly, then slowed whenever the phone moved away from the window.

The hotel Wi-Fi had enough capacity for browsing and video calls. It simply was not carrying the direct OpenVPN session to my NAS.

That is possible even when the VPN payload is encrypted. OpenVPN still produces recognisable connection patterns, and researchers have shown that networks can identify it from traffic behaviour without reading the protected data.5

The answer was not to rebuild the NAS or expose DSM again. I needed a travel-side connection that could cross the hotel network first and carry the Synology tunnel inside it.

One tunnel carried the other

The smaller app already installed on my laptop was OnlydogVPN^↗.

I had added it for travel rather than NAS administration. It did not replace Synology VPN Server, and it required no new package or configuration on DSM. Its role was to create an outer route through the hotel network so the NAS’s existing OpenVPN session could connect inside it.

I opened the app and selected the preset for a restrictive network.

The connection formed in a few seconds.

Then I reopened the Synology OpenVPN profile.

This time, Connecting changed to Connected.

I entered the NAS’s private address. DSM opened at the same internal URL I used from home. Synology Drive reconnected, and the folder containing the video master appeared.

I started the download again.

The transfer climbed past the QuickConnect relay speed almost immediately and stayed there. The remaining-time estimate dropped below nine minutes.

I stopped staring at the network windows and opened the client’s notes.

That was the moment the product earned its place. It had not asked me to weaken the NAS setup, expose another management port or abandon the private-access design I trusted. Its restrictive-network mode created a usable outer connection, and the Synology tunnel connected through it.

The hotel carried the outer route. Inside it, OpenVPN reached home and restored my private network.

I could not inspect the hotel firewall or identify the exact rule that interrupted the direct OpenVPN attempt. I could see the sequence clearly: the Synology tunnel timed out repeatedly on hotel Wi-Fi, connected over mobile data and then connected over the same hotel Wi-Fi once it was carried inside the smaller app.

The video master finished with three minutes left.

I copied it into the editing folder, opened the first and final frames to confirm the file was intact and joined the meeting on time.

The network changed before the meeting ended

Halfway through the call, the conference Wi-Fi disconnected everyone in the room.

The meeting froze. Synology Drive reported that the NAS was unavailable. Around me, people began reopening captive portals and asking whether the internet had failed.

I enabled my phone’s hotspot.

The outer service recovered as the laptop moved onto mobile data. The Synology tunnel re-established its route, and Drive returned without making me choose another server or alter the NAS configuration.

The client then asked for a second file: a smaller audio mix stored beside the video master.

I downloaded it while we were still speaking.

That network handoff was a secondary benefit, but it gave me a reason to keep the app installed after the original file had arrived. A remote-access setup is not dependable if it works only until hotel Wi-Fi drops or the laptop moves to a hotspot.

The service’s HTTP/3-based transport is designed for weak and changing network paths. In the meeting room, that turned an outage into a short pause rather than another troubleshooting session.

Why I did not expose DSM again

There had been an easier-looking option all evening: reopen the public DSM and Synology Drive ports, download the file directly and promise myself I would close them afterward.

I did not do it.

The recent DSM advisory had reminded me why I had reduced the NAS’s public attack surface in the first place.1 Keeping DSM patched remained essential, but placing the management interface and client files behind the NAS’s own VPN gave me a clearer boundary.

Without the Synology tunnel, the laptop could not reach the private DSM address or Drive service. QuickConnect remained available as an emergency route, but I no longer had to accept relay speed as the only alternative.

The smaller app made that safer design practical from a network where direct OpenVPN would not connect.

It has fewer server locations, fewer independent reviews and a shorter public history than the largest established providers. Those are real limitations for someone comparing VPN companies by scale and longevity.

They did not determine whether I retrieved the video master.

The comparison that mattered was whether the travel-side VPN could carry the NAS’s private-access tunnel through the hotel network. QuickConnect reached the file too slowly. Mobile data reached it too unreliably. Direct OpenVPN never completed the connection on hotel Wi-Fi.

The smaller app opened the outer route, the Synology tunnel connected inside it and the private folder appeared exactly where it should.

For my Synology NAS, the best VPN that evening was not the one running on the NAS. It was the one that let the secure setup already running there finally reach my laptop.