im confused.. is this for a particular product router ? i mean, not every router ? we dont have those QN router thing. will this tutorial work with other products ?
thank you for the fine tutorial I have a mac As such, i downloaded the OpenVPN file, installed it, but when I attempted to download my Qnas profile, it requested a certificate. I'm stuck at this point. What's next? Many thanks!
Unfortunately, I did not have a MAC when I created this video so I can't provide exact instructions. I have a few now, but have since switched to Tailscale. Sorry, I could not be more help and thanks for the feedback.
@@MikeFaucher Hope you don't mind if I ask a tech support question :D. I'm setting up access to my QNAP nas using your open VPN system, and its working great! Since I'm a noob, I can't get Qbelt to work (hitting Apply button fails, so when I switch away, all settings are lost). But Open VPN works, so I am happy. But now I have the problem of simultaneous connections by same user on different devices failing to connect. I installed tablet, and connected. Then installed phone with same user. Then rebooted tablet (while phone was still connected) and tablet will not connect now. I presume there might be a user permissions conflict, but not sure how to verify. The Log file reported "Exiting due to fatal error". Should I create unique users for each device? This seems like the easy workaround. Your thoughts?
@@thomaswilliams495 No problem at all. You do not need to have a separate user for each connection but you do need to use a user that has permissions on your NAS. This is the way I connect and use multiple devices to connect without any issues. Are you using the QBelt app or the OpenVPN app for your clients? I would disable the QBelt as that is proprietary and just enable only OpenVPN. Redownload the configuration file and if required, uninstall and re-install the client apps. Make sure you only use the client apps from OpenVPN, not the QBelt apps. Let me know how that goes.
@@MikeFaucher Thanks! I finally managed to fix it, and it seems it was related to a windows update, which may have affected the way the vpn accessed the qnap. I ended up reinstalling software and rebooting and it finally started to work again. I appreciate your approach of just using openVPN, which was not an obvious choice from most of the other tech videos I have seen. Turns out this is both easy to use and pretty solid. Thanks again!
Very good video Mike. It cleared up a lot of things for me, was able to connect my NAS without any issues. The question I do have is I have a second NAS. Here is what I did to get that connected, please let me know if it was the correct way of doing it. I setup QVPN on my second NAS and used a different port number pointed at that NAS IP. I then forwarded that in my ASUS router. I found I had to shut down the connection on openvpn and open the new connection to access my second NAS. That was a pain. I thought there would be a better way to share that one OPENVPN connection. So what I did was on my primary NAS, in the QVPN settings, I used the VPN Connection Profiles under VPN Client and added the connection profile for my second NAS. I still have to specify on my phone which NAS I want to connect to, but it now goes through only the one OPENVPN connection. Is there a better way to do that? I know it sounds confusing, but I don't know how else to explain it. Would enjoy your comments on this. Thanks
Once you are connected to your network you do need a second connection and should be able to connect to all your devices including the second NAS. I have 4 NAS units and can use the app or a browser tc connect to any of them. Remember once you are connected you are on your local network. Hope that helps.
From what little I know (in the process of learning) would suggest that the TCP option on the Server Port would be better than UDP. Please explain why you decided to stay with the UDP option? Thank you
@@MikeFaucher What benefit(s) (if any) do I get by setting up and running OpenVPN on my QNAP NAS vs on my ASUS router? I’ve been tinkering around and getting myself more familiar with all of this networking stuff, and noticed my router has OpenVPN available as a building feature under advanced settings/VPN/OpenVPN.
I have a Raspberry Pi 2 set up right now with PiVPN (Wireguard). Overall I'm pretty happy with it albeit a bit slow. Security wise do you think having the VPN directly on the NAS is worse than having a seperate device?
Great video, very informative I've wondered about Qvpn but never considered In using it. I wouldn't use the built-in service for Openvpn on my qnap. Setting a dedicated openvpn server/container was a better option for me.
Great tutorial, but after importing the ovpn file and typing in my Qnap username and password, it times out when attempting to connect. What am I missing?
OK, got it to work once I went into Netgear router settings and set up an OpenVPN Port Forwarding as you instruct...HOWEVER...once I did that everything slowed almost to a stop in terms of internet speed and connection. Almost as if the VPN was choking off my internet. In fact, at one point it showed I was disconnected from the Internet and it only returned when I discnnected from OpenVPN.@@MikeFaucher
I went into my Netgear router configuration and added OpenVPN to Port Forwarding and it connected with the Qnap opvn. profile loaded. BUT - it was so slow it was literally choking off my internet connection so I had to turn it off.
Hi Mike, i tried the steps as in the video and it all works fine. Now there's something i'm confused about: i was able to connect using OpenVPN and in my QVPN2 app i can see an active connection into the NAS (from another IP address). With this VPN connection i was expecting to be able to load the QTS page (as i would when on LAN), but that doesn't work. Also, at the end of the video, you showed the Qfile app. I can open that too on the device with OpenVPN connection but in the settings of Qfile i can see it's connected over myQNAPcloud, which you recommend to stay away from. What am I doing wrong?
I would not use MyQNAPClould at all and would disable it. Once you do that you will be able to better isolate if you have connection issues and what they are. You should be able to access QTS only if you are connected via OpenVPN. If you disable the MyQNAPCloud and you cant connect to anything it may be a port forwarding issue. You need to make sure that you are forwarding 1194 in your router to the NAS IP for OpenVPN to work. My guess is that you are not really connected via OpenVPN and only by the cloud app. Hope that helps. Try to disable the cloud and let me know.
@@MikeFaucher Hi Mike, thanks for your prompt reply. I took the following actions: logged out of myQNAPclould, enabled OpenVPN in QVPN2 app, downloaded the configuration file, installed the config file on the other device (chromebook), set up port forwarding on my router, made a connection over OpenVPN, connection seemed to be successful as i could see the my device in the list of Connected VPN Users in the Overview panel of QVPN2 app. Then i tried to log into QTS using the usual url that i used when on LAN (192.xxx.xx.xxx:8080). Result: time out. I'm puzzled, what am i doing wrong?
@@kurtselleslagh7489 I assume you have the OpenVPN client running on the computer? Can you rdp to an internal pc or access anything else? Is the IP address of what you are connected with correct based on the OpenVPN configuration?
@@MikeFaucher hi Mike, I can see that my OpenVPN profile has IP address 116.xx.xx.xx and that the Overview panel on QVPN2 app shows connected user 111.yy.yy.yy. Could that be the problem?
@@kurtselleslagh7489 Here is my suggestion. Download and install the actual OpenVPN client app instead of QVPN client for now so you can troubleshoot and would suggest going back through the steps one more time. It looks like you are giving your ISP IP address from the OPVN config file or MyQNAPCloud is still connected. Once you connect to OpenVPN, go to the network properties of the device you are connecting from and you should see your network adapter IP address and it should be in the 10.8.0.XX range if you are actually connected and getting the IP from the QVPN (OpenVPN) server in your NAS (see the 8 min mark on the video). If you are connected then you should be able to connect to anything, but if you see anything else or any other IP range you are not yet connected. Also, if you disabled the cloud app, try and re-download the configuration file from your NAS as it may have some wrong settings in it. Let me know what happens.
Hi Mike, I still am having difficulties in finding my NAS files via the vpn. I know it's connected as I can see the connection madein qvpn via a normal login within my home network but no joy on viewing files. I can no longer access via qfile on my android as it won't log in, I've tried several ip addresses but they all fail. So although the vpn is easy to set up and connect the next part isn't. Any advice?
Assuming you are not testing this from the same wifi/network, if you show connected when you log in with a client, you should be able to use the IP address of the computer or device you are trying to access. If that does not work, something in your firewall may be blocking it. I would also try the default ports if you have changed them. Without seeing your exact configuration, I can't think of anything off hand. I am planning a short video on this topic as you are the second person to ask this question.
So what sign in details do you put in qfile? I've tried the wan ip, with the 1194 as as destination port and both personal and admin passwords to no effect. I must be missing something in understanding this.
@@stickulari Once you are logged in to VPN, add your NAS and in the "host/IP" just type the IP of the NAS (192.168.1.xx). If you are not using the standard port on your NAS then use (192.168.1.xx:XXXX). XXXX being what you use inside your network to access your NAS. Remember that when you are logged in to the VPN you are on the LAN.
Hi Mike, thanks for easy instructions. By following your video I managed to set up the openvpn with my qnap. It works fine on both windows 10 and Android devices. However, I am experiencing two issues: 1. When connecting via openvpn on Win 10, I cannot get access to my Qnap's shared drives/folders. I do have a proper access to the nas when connecting via chrome/opera etc though. How can I make this work? 2. It seems that QuFirewall blocks my access when I try to connect via openvpn. For now, I disabled QuFirewall as I have Asus router which has a pretty reliable firewall. Is there any specific instruction how to set up the QuFirewall, so it does not block my openvpn access? Thanks in advance!
I have had issues with QuFirewall. It is a work in process so temporarily try to disable to test it out. As for accessing your folders, you have to use the IP address of the system you are trying to access to access. For example, after you log in and want to access your files on your QNAP, from the file explorer window type \\192.168.1.xxx and you should see you file assuming you are logged in. Thanks for the feedback and I am doing an updated video on how to access and use the VPN. Hope that helps.
No, there are other ways. The easiet way to do this is use the DDNS service which is free and to use one of those services (such as DynDNS to route your device requests to a changing IP. You will have to sign up for an account but it resolves the issue. Look under Network and Virtual switch and set one of those up.
terrible video.... after watching this video, I have so many questions, so you have to be more detailed and specific when doing those subjects like VPN. Also, after setting up VPN server on your NAS, I don't think so you can access ALL your devices remotely (router, other PCs etc...), you can ONLY access to your NAS, and nothing else. VPN server should be setup on router which provides internet connection (WAN connection -> ADSL, PPPoE, Static IP etc...), that way you can access ALL your devides remotely.
Thanks for the feedback but actually all devices can be accessed and have been doing so for years. One thing I should have pointed out is you need to access these devices by IP. If you set it up correctly it will be able connect to everything. If there are specific things that do not work, post those questions. Thanks.
Unfortunately, I can't make this work! Although I got OpenVPN to connect to my QNAP, and it clearly shows through the user logs that I have logged in, I cannot access my files using my laptop. You say to use the the IP address, I assume you mean of the NAS itself (192.168.1.xx) but typing this into file explorer displays an error. Typing "\\192.168.1.xx" doesn't also displays an error. Adding the work folder to the address also displays an error. Tried turning on SMB but that doesn't work.
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Excellent explanation, concise and to the point. Appreciate the effort to show this. Greetings from Holland.
Thank you very much for the feedback. It is appreciated!
Can you link the video about isolating IoT devices that you mentioned at the beginning of the video (1:00 mark)? Thanks!
Here is one: (th-cam.com/video/Pl05-kVebRU/w-d-xo.html) and the original (th-cam.com/video/jIzE8rNgzV0/w-d-xo.html).
I cant find the video about QBelt you said in this video you have.
Thanks for pointing that out. That video ended up not getting published. Sorry about the confusion.
im confused.. is this for a particular product router ? i mean, not every router ? we dont have those QN router thing.
will this tutorial work with other products ?
It is for any router or device that has OpenVPN built in. Most routers and NAS units today have this support.
@@MikeFaucher thanks very much
thank you for the fine tutorial I have a mac As such, i downloaded the OpenVPN file, installed it, but when I attempted to download my Qnas profile, it requested a certificate. I'm stuck at this point. What's next? Many thanks!
Unfortunately, I did not have a MAC when I created this video so I can't provide exact instructions. I have a few now, but have since switched to Tailscale. Sorry, I could not be more help and thanks for the feedback.
Exactly what I needed! thank you so much!!!
Glad to hear. Thanks for the feedback.
@@MikeFaucher Hope you don't mind if I ask a tech support question :D. I'm setting up access to my QNAP nas using your open VPN system, and its working great! Since I'm a noob, I can't get Qbelt to work (hitting Apply button fails, so when I switch away, all settings are lost). But Open VPN works, so I am happy. But now I have the problem of simultaneous connections by same user on different devices failing to connect. I installed tablet, and connected. Then installed phone with same user. Then rebooted tablet (while phone was still connected) and tablet will not connect now. I presume there might be a user permissions conflict, but not sure how to verify. The Log file reported "Exiting due to fatal error". Should I create unique users for each device? This seems like the easy workaround. Your thoughts?
@@thomaswilliams495 No problem at all. You do not need to have a separate user for each connection but you do need to use a user that has permissions on your NAS. This is the way I connect and use multiple devices to connect without any issues. Are you using the QBelt app or the OpenVPN app for your clients? I would disable the QBelt as that is proprietary and just enable only OpenVPN. Redownload the configuration file and if required, uninstall and re-install the client apps. Make sure you only use the client apps from OpenVPN, not the QBelt apps. Let me know how that goes.
@@MikeFaucher Thanks! I finally managed to fix it, and it seems it was related to a windows update, which may have affected the way the vpn accessed the qnap. I ended up reinstalling software and rebooting and it finally started to work again. I appreciate your approach of just using openVPN, which was not an obvious choice from most of the other tech videos I have seen. Turns out this is both easy to use and pretty solid. Thanks again!
@@thomaswilliams495 Outstanding. Glad to hear it is working.
Very good video Mike. It cleared up a lot of things for me, was able to connect my NAS without any issues. The question I do have is I have a second NAS. Here is what I did to get that connected, please let me know if it was the correct way of doing it. I setup QVPN on my second NAS and used a different port number pointed at that NAS IP. I then forwarded that in my ASUS router. I found I had to shut down the connection on openvpn and open the new connection to access my second NAS. That was a pain. I thought there would be a better way to share that one OPENVPN connection. So what I did was on my primary NAS, in the QVPN settings, I used the VPN Connection Profiles under VPN Client and added the connection profile for my second NAS. I still have to specify on my phone which NAS I want to connect to, but it now goes through only the one OPENVPN connection. Is there a better way to do that? I know it sounds confusing, but I don't know how else to explain it. Would enjoy your comments on this. Thanks
Once you are connected to your network you do need a second connection and should be able to connect to all your devices including the second NAS. I have 4 NAS units and can use the app or a browser tc connect to any of them. Remember once you are connected you are on your local network. Hope that helps.
@@MikeFaucher Thank you much. Did not need that second port forwarding in the router. Works as advertised. You are a great asset. Thanks again.
@@mikevadnais7722 Awesome. Good luck. Thank you.
From what little I know (in the process of learning) would suggest that the TCP option on the Server Port would be better than UDP. Please explain why you decided to stay with the UDP option? Thank you
Good question. Many VPNs work better over TCP however OpenVPN's documentation recommends UDP for the best performance. Either will work.
Interesting. Thank you for the prompt reply. 🙏
@@MikeFaucher What benefit(s) (if any) do I get by setting up and running OpenVPN on my QNAP NAS vs on my ASUS router?
I’ve been tinkering around and getting myself more familiar with all of this networking stuff, and noticed my router has OpenVPN available as a building feature under advanced settings/VPN/OpenVPN.
@@ianmoone1138 Good question. There is actually no difference except some routers do not need a port forward so it maybe easier.
I have a Raspberry Pi 2 set up right now with PiVPN (Wireguard). Overall I'm pretty happy with it albeit a bit slow. Security wise do you think having the VPN directly on the NAS is worse than having a seperate device?
I agree with you. The technology and code is more important than which device it is on. Sounds like you have a good setup and thanks for the input.
Great video, very informative I've wondered about Qvpn but never considered In using it. I wouldn't use the built-in service for Openvpn on my qnap. Setting a dedicated openvpn server/container was a better option for me.
Thanks for the feedback. Using a dedicated server/container is a great approach but more challenging to setup for most. Thanks again!
Great tutorial, but after importing the ovpn file and typing in my Qnap username and password, it times out when attempting to connect. What am I missing?
Did you port forward?
I don;t think so@@MikeFaucher
Is this done by going through MyQnap Cloud>UPnP Port Forwarding, and under "Forwarding Services" enabling the OpenVPN (1194)? @@MikeFaucher
OK, got it to work once I went into Netgear router settings and set up an OpenVPN Port Forwarding as you instruct...HOWEVER...once I did that everything slowed almost to a stop in terms of internet speed and connection. Almost as if the VPN was choking off my internet. In fact, at one point it showed I was disconnected from the Internet and it only returned when I discnnected from OpenVPN.@@MikeFaucher
I went into my Netgear router configuration and added OpenVPN to Port Forwarding and it connected with the Qnap opvn. profile loaded. BUT - it was so slow it was literally choking off my internet connection so I had to turn it off.
Great video, very informative, thanks Mike.
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks!
Hi Mike, i tried the steps as in the video and it all works fine. Now there's something i'm confused about: i was able to connect using OpenVPN and in my QVPN2 app i can see an active connection into the NAS (from another IP address). With this VPN connection i was expecting to be able to load the QTS page (as i would when on LAN), but that doesn't work. Also, at the end of the video, you showed the Qfile app. I can open that too on the device with OpenVPN connection but in the settings of Qfile i can see it's connected over myQNAPcloud, which you recommend to stay away from. What am I doing wrong?
I would not use MyQNAPClould at all and would disable it. Once you do that you will be able to better isolate if you have connection issues and what they are. You should be able to access QTS only if you are connected via OpenVPN. If you disable the MyQNAPCloud and you cant connect to anything it may be a port forwarding issue. You need to make sure that you are forwarding 1194 in your router to the NAS IP for OpenVPN to work. My guess is that you are not really connected via OpenVPN and only by the cloud app. Hope that helps. Try to disable the cloud and let me know.
@@MikeFaucher Hi Mike, thanks for your prompt reply. I took the following actions: logged out of myQNAPclould, enabled OpenVPN in QVPN2 app, downloaded the configuration file, installed the config file on the other device (chromebook), set up port forwarding on my router, made a connection over OpenVPN, connection seemed to be successful as i could see the my device in the list of Connected VPN Users in the Overview panel of QVPN2 app. Then i tried to log into QTS using the usual url that i used when on LAN (192.xxx.xx.xxx:8080). Result: time out. I'm puzzled, what am i doing wrong?
@@kurtselleslagh7489 I assume you have the OpenVPN client running on the computer? Can you rdp to an internal pc or access anything else? Is the IP address of what you are connected with correct based on the OpenVPN configuration?
@@MikeFaucher hi Mike, I can see that my OpenVPN profile has IP address 116.xx.xx.xx and that the Overview panel on QVPN2 app shows connected user 111.yy.yy.yy. Could that be the problem?
@@kurtselleslagh7489 Here is my suggestion. Download and install the actual OpenVPN client app instead of QVPN client for now so you can troubleshoot and would suggest going back through the steps one more time. It looks like you are giving your ISP IP address from the OPVN config file or MyQNAPCloud is still connected. Once you connect to OpenVPN, go to the network properties of the device you are connecting from and you should see your network adapter IP address and it should be in the 10.8.0.XX range if you are actually connected and getting the IP from the QVPN (OpenVPN) server in your NAS (see the 8 min mark on the video). If you are connected then you should be able to connect to anything, but if you see anything else or any other IP range you are not yet connected. Also, if you disabled the cloud app, try and re-download the configuration file from your NAS as it may have some wrong settings in it. Let me know what happens.
Great video, thank you 😊
Thanks for the feedback.
Hi Mike, I still am having difficulties in finding my NAS files via the vpn. I know it's connected as I can see the connection madein qvpn via a normal login within my home network but no joy on viewing files. I can no longer access via qfile on my android as it won't log in, I've tried several ip addresses but they all fail. So although the vpn is easy to set up and connect the next part isn't. Any advice?
Assuming you are not testing this from the same wifi/network, if you show connected when you log in with a client, you should be able to use the IP address of the computer or device you are trying to access. If that does not work, something in your firewall may be blocking it. I would also try the default ports if you have changed them. Without seeing your exact configuration, I can't think of anything off hand. I am planning a short video on this topic as you are the second person to ask this question.
So what sign in details do you put in qfile? I've tried the wan ip, with the 1194 as as destination port and both personal and admin passwords to no effect. I must be missing something in understanding this.
@@stickulari Once you are logged in to VPN, add your NAS and in the "host/IP" just type the IP of the NAS (192.168.1.xx). If you are not using the standard port on your NAS then use (192.168.1.xx:XXXX). XXXX being what you use inside your network to access your NAS. Remember that when you are logged in to the VPN you are on the LAN.
Hi Mike, thanks for easy instructions. By following your video I managed to set up the openvpn with my qnap. It works fine on both windows 10 and Android devices. However, I am experiencing two issues: 1. When connecting via openvpn on Win 10, I cannot get access to my Qnap's shared drives/folders. I do have a proper access to the nas when connecting via chrome/opera etc though. How can I make this work?
2. It seems that QuFirewall blocks my access when I try to connect via openvpn. For now, I disabled QuFirewall as I have Asus router which has a pretty reliable firewall. Is there any specific instruction how to set up the QuFirewall, so it does not block my openvpn access? Thanks in advance!
I have had issues with QuFirewall. It is a work in process so temporarily try to disable to test it out. As for accessing your folders, you have to use the IP address of the system you are trying to access to access. For example, after you log in and want to access your files on your QNAP, from the file explorer window type \\192.168.1.xxx and you should see you file assuming you are logged in. Thanks for the feedback and I am doing an updated video on how to access and use the VPN. Hope that helps.
For average user, I would need to have internet access with static IP address. My provider changes my IP every 24 hours
No, there are other ways. The easiet way to do this is use the DDNS service which is free and to use one of those services (such as DynDNS to route your device requests to a changing IP. You will have to sign up for an account but it resolves the issue. Look under Network and Virtual switch and set one of those up.
it should be mike fauchaieai
😀
thanks i use asus router
terrible video.... after watching this video, I have so many questions, so you have to be more detailed and specific when doing those subjects like VPN. Also, after setting up VPN server on your NAS, I don't think so you can access ALL your devices remotely (router, other PCs etc...), you can ONLY access to your NAS, and nothing else. VPN server should be setup on router which provides internet connection (WAN connection -> ADSL, PPPoE, Static IP etc...), that way you can access ALL your devides remotely.
Thanks for the feedback but actually all devices can be accessed and have been doing so for years. One thing I should have pointed out is you need to access these devices by IP. If you set it up correctly it will be able connect to everything. If there are specific things that do not work, post those questions. Thanks.
This is NOT a terrible video, your comment is terrible, if you can explain it better, please also post your video
Unfortunately, I can't make this work! Although I got OpenVPN to connect to my QNAP, and it clearly shows through the user logs that I have logged in, I cannot access my files using my laptop. You say to use the the IP address, I assume you mean of the NAS itself (192.168.1.xx) but typing this into file explorer displays an error. Typing "\\192.168.1.xx" doesn't also displays an error. Adding the work folder to the address also displays an error. Tried turning on SMB but that doesn't work.
Are you running QuFirewall? If you are, you need add a firewall rule to allow VPN traffic. th-cam.com/video/CydCrgw7TGM/w-d-xo.html