It’s possible to connect Astiga to a Synology NAS installed in your own network, and thus stream music anywhere from your home. This guide walks you through the main configuration points, using WebDAV as the storage protool and DDNS (or a static IP) as a way of naming your NAS so Astiga can connect to it.

WebDAV is a technology that allows one computer to manage and list files and folders on another computer. It also allows for transfer of the files. In this case, this means Astiga can use WebDAV to list the music files and folders on your NAS and transfer them to its service so it can stream them to you and perform library synchronisation.

Overview

The setup process involves three main steps:

1. Configure WebDAV and a dedicated user on your Synology NAS
2. Configure port forwarding on your router for external access
3. Add the WebDAV share to Astiga

This guide was created to help Astiga users safely and securely connect their Synology NAS devices for music streaming. The standard way that Synology offers remote access to NASes is via something called QuickConnect. However, WebDAV is not available over QuickConnect, so we have to configure remote access ourselves. Always prioritize security when exposing any device to the Internet. This setup exposes your NAS, and potentially your private data, to the Internet. If you are unsure, please ask a trusted, friendly technologist!

Prerequisites

• A Synology NAS with DSM 7.0 or later
• A Router with port forwarding capabilities
• An Internet connection with either a static IP address or a DDNS host name
• Music files stored in a shared folder on your NAS

What underlies all this is that, when you connect your home to the Internet, your ISP will issue an IP address. This is an address to which other devices on the Internet can send your devices messages.

However, this IP address may change with time. DDNS, mentioned above, provides a way of associating a familiar hostname, such as myname.synology.me with a changing IP address. This works by a service updating the IP address registered against a DDNS hostname. This approach is not required if you have a static IP address, because the IP can be used instead of the hostname as it doesn’t change; thus its optional to those who receive static IP addresses.

Some ISPs do not issue publically-addressable IP addresses. When this is the case, your Internet router’s WAN IP address (the address of the router on your ISP’s network) may be different to your public IP which you may see when going to sites like WhatsMyIP.org. This is called Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT). To check this, in your router (see below for ways to locate your router) look for the WAN or Internet IP Address. If this is different to the IP address identified by WhatsMyIP.org you will not be able to connect Astiga to your Synology. Normally ISPs offer static IP addresses as an alternative, but this may incur an additional cost.

Part 1: Setting up WebDAV on your Synology NAS

First we configure WebDAV so that your NAS can serve files.

Step 1: Install WebDAV Server package

1. In DSM (DiskStation Manager) on your Synology NAS, go to Package Center
2. Search for “WebDAV Server” in the search box
3. Click Install to download and install the WebDAV package

Step 2: Configure WebDAV Server

1. After installation, open the WebDAV Server application by clicking Open where it used to say Install. (Alternatively, click the WebDAV Server icon from the DSM Main Menu)
2. Enable HTTPS only for security:
   • Check “Enable HTTPS”
   • Do NOT enable HTTP - leave this unchecked for security
   • The default HTTPS port is 5006 (you can change this if needed)
3. Click Apply to save the settings

Step 3: Create a dedicated WebDAV user

For security, create a dedicated user account specifically for WebDAV access. This makes it easier to manage permissions on files and lock down access. It’s useful to create one for each user (e.g. Astiga) that is accessing your storage:

1. From the DSM desktop, go to Control Panel > User & Group > User tab
2. Click Create to add a new user
3. Fill in the user details:
   • Name: astiga-webdav (or similar)
   • Password: Create a strong password. Make sure to keep a note of this, as we’ll need it to connect Astiga
   • Confirm Password: Re-enter the password
4. Click Next. In the groups tab, do not assign any groups
5. In the Shared Folders tab:
   • Grant Read access to your music folder(s)
   • Deny access to all other folders

6. In the user quota tab, do not assign any quotas
7. In the Applications tab:
   • Allow access to WebDAV Server only
   • Deny access to all other applications (DSM, File Station, etc.)

8. In the user speed limit page, don’t set any limits
9. In the Confirm settings page click Done

Part 2: Setting up external access

Step 1: Configure DDNS (if you don’t have a static IP) and obtain a SSL certificate (recommended)

1. Ensure you have a Synology Account (create one at account.synology.com)
2. Go to Control Panel > External Access > DDNS
3. Click Add
4. Select Synology as the service provider
5. Enter a unique hostname (e.g., elstensoftware.synology.me)
6. Select a domain from the dropdown (synology.me, diskstation.me, etc.)
7. Check “Get a certificate from Let’s Encrypt”
8. Check “Enable Heartbeat” if you want to receive connection status emails
9. Click Test Connection - it should report “Normal”
10. Click OK

You may get the message Unable to create certificate. Instead, you must create a certificate manually and associate it with the WebDAV server. Make sure to use the Domain name you created above.

Step 2: If you used a static IP, create a certificate

If you didn’t follow Step 1 because you are using a static IP, create a certificate and associate it with the WebDAV Server.

The instructions to do that are here.

If you’re using DDNS then, when you specify a Domain name, be sure to specify the fully qualified name you specified when setting up DDNS (in the example above, elstensoftware.synology.me). Otherwise, use your IP address.

Once issued, click Settings to assign the new certificate to the WebDAV Server.

Step 3: Configure router port forwarding

You need to forward external traffic to your NAS’s WebDAV service. This is trickier to demonstrate, because it depends on the router you have. The overall process is:

1. Choose an external port: Select a non-standard port number (e.g., 8443, 9443) instead of 5006 for security through obscurity
2. Locate the router: You can find the router’s IP address using this approach.. This should give you an IP address. Note that this is not the same as your public IP address discussed elsewhere.
3. Access the router: Copy and paste the router’s IP address into your browser. You’ll typically be given a login prompt. This is where you start frantically searching all your old notes or, if you’re lucky, the password is printed on the router
4. Forward the port: This may appear under “Network” or “Static Routing” settings. Configure your router to forward your chosen external port to your NAS’s internal IP address on port 5006
5. Restrict access by IP: This is crucial for security (although not foolproof) - configure your router’s firewall to only allow connections from Astiga’s IP addresses

Router configuration steps

The exact steps vary by router manufacturer, but generally:

1. Access your router’s admin interface (usually via http://192.168.1.1 or similar)
2. Look for “Port Forwarding” or “Virtual Servers” settings
3. Create a new rule:
   • External Port: Your chosen port (e.g., 8443)
   • Internal IP: Your NAS’s IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.100)
   • Internal Port: 5006
   • Protocol: TCP

For router-specific instructions, search for “[your router model] port forwarding setup”.

Router firewall setup

It’s strongly advised to also add a firewall rule to only allow Astiga to access the new port you have configured. Again, this is router dependent.

Astiga provides a list of IP addresses that need access to your WebDAV server. You can find the current list at: https://play.asti.ga/public/ip-list.json.

Testing your setup

To test if port forwarding is working:

1. From outside your network, try accessing: https://your-ddns-hostname:your-external-port e.g. https://elstensoftware.synology.me:9443
2. You should see a 404 Not Found message

This is a sign the setup is working, because the NAS responded that your request for the file “/” failed; there is no “/” file.

However, if you try entering the full path of a file that exists, you’ll get a login prompt:

If you login successfully using the username above the file should be downloaded.

Part 3: Adding the WebDAV share to Astiga

With your NAS configured to serve WebDAV and accessible from the Internet, you can now add it to Astiga.

Step 1: Create the WebDAV connection in Astiga

1. Log into your Astiga account
2. Click your user profile at the top-right then Settings > Storage accounts
3. Click Add storage account and select WebDAV
4. Fill in the connection details:
   • Name: Assign a descriptive name, e.g. “Synology”
   • Preset: Feel free to select Synology but this is just a helper for this page
   • Base URL: https://your-ddns-hostname-or-ip-address:your-external-port or
     • Example with DDNS: https://elstensoftware.synology.me:9443
     • Example with static IP: https://106.51.223.87:9443
   • Username: Your dedicated WebDAV user (e.g., astiga-webdav)
   • Password: The password for your WebDAV user
   • Self-signed: You should be able to keep this deselected
   • Initial Folder: The path to your music folder (e.g., /music). Note that this is case-sensitive

Step 2: Test and verify

1. Click Connect in Astiga to verify the connection works.
2. Your Synology storage should be shown. Browse the folders and try playing a track
3. If successful, click Save WebDAV connection to add the storage

You can now browse the folder and play more music (Storage > Synology storage name) or synchronise your library, which populates your albums, artists, genres and more.

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That’s the process to connect Astiga to your Synology NAS. Please get in touch to let us know how you get on, and if you need any help; this helps us improve this article further.