Dynamic DNS, or DDNS, is an easy way to maintain an up-to-date address on the internet, even if you do not have a static IP address from your ISP. Synology DSM has the capability to act as a DDNS server, which can automatically update the IP address of a custom google domain name and most other domain registrars. This tutorial covers how to use a Synology NAS to automatically update a domain name registered with google with Synology’s DDNS server.
Overview
Having a constant address on the internet that leads back to your home network is a critical component for many applications, such as hosting a VPN server or hosting your own WordPress site. However, most ISPs force you to pay more each month for a static IP address. Without a static IP address, every time your ISP changes your IP address, you will have to update all of your links or your traffic will be sent to the wrong place. A DDNS server solves this problem by constantly updating a domain name on the internet with the IP address of your home network. Therefore, when your IP address changes, your custom domain name changes, always pointing back to your home network.
In this tutorial we are going to cover setting up a custom domain name through Google’s domain service which will point back to your home network. For example, I own spacerex.co on Google Domains. I could setup sub.spacerex.co in order to point to whatever the IP address of my home network is. I could then use sub.spacerex.co as the server address for a VPN server and always be able to connect back.
For this tutorial you are going to need two things:
- Custom Domain Name (google in this case)
- Synology NAS
How to Setup your DDNS Server:
Step 1: Setup a DDNS hostname through Google
Google makes this process incredibly easy. Simply login to Google Domains and go into the DNS tab on the domain you would like to use. You should see a series of record types that you can choose from. From Synthetic Records select Dynamic DNS as shown below:
From here you will be able to choose whatever subdomain you would like to use to forward to your home network. For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using sub.spacerex.co.
Now that you have created your DDNS subdomain, you will see an expansion arrow which will show you more information. The dropdown it displays contains a username and password that has been randomly generated. Anyone with this username and password will be able to update the IP of this subdomain, and it is also the login information that our Synology NAS is going to use to update Google’s IP records. You will want to leave this tab open.
Step 2: Setting up DDNS Server on Synology NAS
After receiving your DDNS username and password from your domain registrar, you are ready to configure Synology’s DDNS Server. To begin simply login to DSM and open up control panel. From control panel, select External Access where you should see an option to add a new DDNS address.
You will now receive a popup where you can enter the information about your DDNS server. For the username and password fields, you are going to enter the ones which were generated from Google’s Domain Registrar.
Your Synology DDNS server is now setup! You should see your DDNS info updated with the external IP address of your network. Synology will now be constantly updating this address through Google to ensure it will always point back to your home network.
Finally, to check and make sure that everything worked go back to Google Domains and check the IP address for the subdomain you set up. You should now see that the IP address listed is the external IP address of your network. This means the setup was successful!
Conclusion
You are now all setup! Synology DSM will constantly be updating this IP address so you will always be able to connect back to your home network from anywhere in the world!
