Sync your files remotely to a QNAP drive, wherever you are.
I work a lot with QNAP NAS drives and I enjoy the stable remote access that they provide, be it remote administration and management, or data access.
Here I will be talking about setting up your very own cloud service on your QNAP NAS drive, that will function just like Google Drive or MS Onedrive. It does take some major setting up to do, but after that - things should run smoothly.
In this scenario user data has to be available at all times and synced whenever there's an internet connection available, all data goes to the QNAP drive remotely (this provides backup and data administration by others).
We need our remote folders to be able to let us use Offline Files. So we need to set up a VPN service on the QNAP. If not the use of Offline Files (and the whole point of syncing files that are always available) - it would have been easier to simply run an FTP service from the QNAP drive, which requires less effort. But the Offline Files feature would demand that the QNAP folders be available as if we're accessing them through a LAN - hence the VPN service.
Official QNAP VPN setup instructions are found HERE.
QNAP server-side settings:
- Inside the QNAP web console, head over to Applications > VPN Service.
- You should first forward the necessary VPN ports using the Auto Router Configuration.
- QNAP provides a kind of DDNS called MyQnapCloud which gives you a free dynamic DNS if your server's public IP isn't static. You can also configure the VPN in an easy way using the myQNAPcloud feature inside the Qsync under Network Services.
- Inside Applications>VPN Service> VPN Server Settings - Check the "Enable PPTP VPN server"
- Important! Under the "VPN Client IP Pool" set the IP range, make sure you use a unique IP range not commonly used because you wouldn't want the VPN IP to clash with the local network IP of the client computer.
Client-side (Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 8.1) settings:
- You can install the myQNAPcloud Connect utility which will build the VPN dialup connection for you, or you can manually set it up yourself. I simply installed the utility to let it setup the VPN connection and then removed the utility from start up. The utility is simple, however it will not automatically connect your VPN if you're on a wifi network, and it will not automatically reconnect if the internet connection was disrupted. We are going to fix this flaw by doing some manual settings and powershell scripting.
- In case you decide to build the VPN dialup connection yourself - here are the settings:
1. Inside Network and Sharing Center click "Set up a new connection or Network",
2. Choose "Connect to a workplace"
3. Choose "Use my Internet connection (VPN)"
4. Inside Internet address - insert the public IP of the network on which your NAS is located. Or if you have a DDNS by QNAP or third party - put it here.
5. Check "Don't connect now..."
6. Insert your VPN username and password (usually it's the main NAS admin by default, but you can add VPN users inside the QNAP VPN Service page inside the web console)
7. Click Create but don't connect yet. Click Close.
8. Inside Network and Sharing center click on "Change Adapter settings".
9. Right click your newly created VPN connection icon and choose Properties.
10. Under the Security tab - make sure Type of VPN is PPTP, Data Encrytpion is set to Optional, and protocols PAP, CHAP and MS-CHAP v2 are enabled.
11. Under the Networking tab - make sure that only IPv4 is checked, double click on it, choose Advanced, and uncheck the "Use the Default Gateway on remote network" to not use the gateway of the VPN for your internet traffic.
12. OK all of the windows of the connection properties.
Now we will write a Powershell script that will run in the background and check for connection drops and reconnect if necessary.
- First let's create a folder on the C: drive and call it Script.
- Let's create a file in that folder and call it vpn.ps1
- Inside the file let's put the following code (using Notepad or another text editor):
$ip = "10.0.20.10"
$result = gwmi -query "SELECT * FROM Win32_PingStatus WHERE Address = '$ip'"
if ($result.StatusCode -eq 0) {
Write-Host "$ip is up."
}
else{
Write-Host "$ip is down."
Write-Host "Disconnecting..."
rasdial.exe YourVPN /DISCONNECT Write-Host "Connecting..."
rasdial.exe YourVPN vpnUsername vpnPassword12345
}
$result = gwmi -query "SELECT * FROM Win32_PingStatus WHERE Address = '$ip'"
if ($result.StatusCode -eq 0) {
Write-Host "$ip is up."
}
else{
Write-Host "$ip is down."
Write-Host "Disconnecting..."
rasdial.exe YourVPN /DISCONNECT Write-Host "Connecting..."
rasdial.exe YourVPN vpnUsername vpnPassword12345
}
Make sure you put in the correct IP of the NAS (first line of the script) while it's inside the VPN. If your VPN IP pool starts from say 10.0.10.2 that means the server address is 10.0.10.1
Also make sure that after rasdial.exe you put the name of your VPN dial-up connection, its username and password (where it's stated).
Now we fire up powershell (just type powershell inside the Start menu search and run it in elevated mode), and we need to set it to accept running scripts. First, lets run this command:
get-executionpolicy
If the answer is "Restricted", run this command:
set-executionpolicy unrestricted
This will ask you to confirm, press Y.
After this is done, all that's left is setting up the task scheduler to run this script.
Inside Task Scheduler create a New Task, make sure that it runs with highest privileges and with the user logged on or not. The Trigger should be at Startup, Repeat the task every 5 minutes. Under Actions leave it as Start a program, point the path to C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
add an argument to run the script:
-File C:\Script\vpn.ps1
For the method of a stable VPN connection I used the tutorial posted here.
Now, after we're done setting up a stable VPN connection - it's time to enable Offline Files. (Offline Files are available only on Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows)
Browse to your server using its VPN IP, find the folder you'd like to sync, right click it and choose "always available offline" . It is best to create a mapped drive for this folder, so it's easily accessible when offline. Also make sure no one else is using this shared folder because sync conflicts may happen.
In Windows 8 Pro you might first have to enable Offline Files by going to Control Panel > Sync Center, click on Manage Offline Files, and then Enable Offline Files.
Now we fire up powershell (just type powershell inside the Start menu search and run it in elevated mode), and we need to set it to accept running scripts. First, lets run this command:
get-executionpolicy
If the answer is "Restricted", run this command:
set-executionpolicy unrestricted
This will ask you to confirm, press Y.
After this is done, all that's left is setting up the task scheduler to run this script.
Inside Task Scheduler create a New Task, make sure that it runs with highest privileges and with the user logged on or not. The Trigger should be at Startup, Repeat the task every 5 minutes. Under Actions leave it as Start a program, point the path to C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
add an argument to run the script:
-File C:\Script\vpn.ps1
For the method of a stable VPN connection I used the tutorial posted here.
Now, after we're done setting up a stable VPN connection - it's time to enable Offline Files. (Offline Files are available only on Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows)
Browse to your server using its VPN IP, find the folder you'd like to sync, right click it and choose "always available offline" . It is best to create a mapped drive for this folder, so it's easily accessible when offline. Also make sure no one else is using this shared folder because sync conflicts may happen.
In Windows 8 Pro you might first have to enable Offline Files by going to Control Panel > Sync Center, click on Manage Offline Files, and then Enable Offline Files.
