A NAS, or network-attached storage device, is a box that connects to your home router and gives every computer, phone, and TV in your house access to the same files and backups. Setting one up for the first time takes 30-60 minutes if you follow the steps in order. Skip steps or do them out of sequence and you end up redoing things. This guide covers the first seven things every new NAS owner should do, regardless of which brand they bought.
In short: Install drives, run the setup wizard, create a storage volume, add shared folders, configure backup (to the NAS and from the NAS to a second location), enable remote access via QuickConnect or Synology's DDNS, then install any apps you need. Do these seven things in order and your NAS will be doing useful work within an hour. Skip backup and you have an expensive single point of failure.
Step 1: Install Your Drives
Every NAS ships empty - drives are sold separately. Open the drive bays (usually tool-free on consumer models - press the release button and slide the tray out), slide each drive into the carrier, and lock it in. The drives click or screw into the trays depending on the model. Synology's consumer NAS trays are mostly tool-free for 3.5-inch drives. QNAP's trays typically have thumbscrews. Check your model's quick installation guide for the exact process.
If you are buying drives now, NAS-rated hard drives are worth the premium over desktop drives. Desktop drives are not designed to run 24/7 in a vibration-prone multi-drive enclosure. Seagate IronWolf and Western Digital Red Plus are the standard choices for most home and SMB NAS builds. Both are CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) drives engineered specifically for always-on NAS use.
Do not confuse RAID for a backup. RAID (a method of spreading data across multiple drives so the system survives a drive failure without data loss) protects you from a drive dying. It does not protect you from accidental deletion, ransomware, or your NAS being stolen or flooded. A NAS with RAID is not a backed-up NAS. Step 4 covers the backup piece separately.
Step 2: Connect and Run the Setup Wizard
Connect the NAS to your router with an Ethernet cable. Do not connect it via Wi-Fi - a wired connection is faster, more reliable, and easier to troubleshoot. Power it on. The NAS will take 2-5 minutes to boot on first run.
On a computer on the same network, find the NAS. Synology provides Synology Assistant (a desktop app) and find.synology.com in your browser. QNAP provides Qfinder Pro and start.qnap.com. Either method will detect the NAS on your local network and give you a button to open the setup interface in your browser.
The setup wizard installs the operating system onto the NAS (DSM for Synology, QTS or QuTS Hero for QNAP). This process takes 5-10 minutes and requires your NAS to be connected to the internet to download the latest OS version. Once installed, you create an admin account with a strong password. Write this password down somewhere secure - if you forget it, resetting the NAS wipes your configuration.
Step 3: Create a Storage Volume
Before you can store anything, the NAS needs to organise your drives into a storage pool and volume. The setup wizard handles this on most consumer models, but it is worth understanding what you are choosing. For a 2-drive NAS, RAID 1 mirrors your data across both drives - if one fails, the other has a complete copy. For a 4-drive NAS, RAID 5 uses one drive's worth of space for parity, allowing any single drive to fail without data loss. SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID, a drive-protection method) is Synology's equivalent that handles mixed drive sizes more flexibly.
For most home users, accept the wizard's recommended configuration. If you are setting up a 4-drive NAS for a business, consider RAID 6 or SHR-2 which tolerates two simultaneous drive failures - more protection at the cost of two drives' worth of usable space. The volume creation process formats the drives and can take anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours on first run as the RAID rebuilds (this is normal and happens in the background).
Step 4: Create Shared Folders
A shared folder is a folder on the NAS that network devices can access over the local network. Think of it as a folder on a hard drive that everyone in the house can read from or write to, depending on the permissions you set. DSM and QTS both handle this through a Shared Folder section in the control panel.
Create at least two shared folders to start: one for personal files (call it Personal or your name) and one for shared files the whole household can access (call it Shared or Media). You can add more later. For the personal folder, set permissions so only your account can access it. For the shared folder, give read/write access to the accounts of other people in the house.
To access the shared folders from Windows, map them as network drives. In File Explorer, click This PC, then Map network drive, and enter the NAS path. Synology's SMB (the network file-sharing protocol Windows uses) is enabled by default. On a Mac, use Finder then Go, Connect to Server, and enter smb://NAS-IP.
Step 5: Set Up Backup - Both Directions
Backup runs in two directions: computers backing up to the NAS, and the NAS backing up to a second location. Both matter. Setting up only one direction leaves a gap in your data protection.
PC to NAS backup: Synology's Active Backup for Business is a free tool that installs a small agent on your Windows PC and manages backups centrally from the NAS. It supports full PC image backup, incremental backups, and bare-metal restore. QNAP's equivalent is Hybrid Backup Sync. Both are free and take about 20 minutes to configure.
NAS to cloud backup: Your NAS is a single point of failure. If it is stolen, damaged in a flood, or destroyed in a fire, your data is gone. Synology's Hyper Backup connects to cloud services including Synology C2, Backblaze B2, and S3-compatible storage. QNAP's Hybrid Backup Sync handles the same destinations. Set up an automated daily backup from the NAS to a cloud destination - even a basic plan at a few dollars per month is cheap insurance for data you cannot replace.
Step 6: Enable Remote Access
Remote access lets you reach your NAS files when you are away from home - from work, while travelling, or from your phone. There are two main approaches: the NAS vendor's relay service, or a VPN you control.
The easiest option is Synology QuickConnect (for Synology) or myQNAPcloud (for QNAP). Both are relay services that route your connection through the vendor's servers, eliminating the need to configure your router. Enable QuickConnect in the Synology Control Panel and choose a QuickConnect ID. You can then access your NAS from anywhere by visiting quickconnect.to/your-id or through the official mobile app.
The more secure alternative is a VPN. Synology includes a VPN server package (OpenVPN or WireGuard). Rather than exposing the NAS directly to the internet, you connect your phone or laptop to the home VPN and then access the NAS over the local network connection the VPN creates. This requires port forwarding on your router. An important caveat: if your internet provider uses CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT, a cost-saving measure some ISPs use that blocks direct remote access to your home network), port forwarding will not work and you will need to use the vendor relay service, a VPN provider with dedicated IP support, or Tailscale.
Step 7: Install the Apps You Actually Need
Both DSM and QTS have an app store with free and paid packages. Install only what you plan to use - more apps mean more attack surface and more maintenance. Common useful additions for home users: Plex or Emby for media serving to TVs and phones, Moments (Synology) or QuMagie (QNAP) for photo management, and Note Station or Synology Office for document management if you want to replace cloud office tools.
Docker, software that runs applications in isolated containers, is available on higher-end NAS models and opens up a much wider app ecosystem - self-hosted tools like Immich (photo backup), Home Assistant (smart home), and Nextcloud (file sync) all run in Docker. Do not start there if you are new to NAS - get the core setup working first. Add Docker apps once you are comfortable with the basics.
Common First-Time Mistakes
Skipping the cloud backup: The single most common mistake is treating the NAS as the backup destination without creating a second offsite copy. Your NAS is at risk from the same physical events as your computers. A two-drive NAS in RAID 1 protects you from a drive failure. It does not protect you from a house fire or theft. Cloud backup adds the offsite copy that RAID cannot provide.
Using admin for everything: The default admin account should be used only for configuration. Create a standard user account for day-to-day file access. If a compromised device connects to the NAS with a standard user account, the damage is limited. If admin credentials are exposed, the entire NAS is at risk. Disable the default admin account after creating a new administrator account with a different name.
Exposing the NAS management interface to the internet: Do not open the NAS's web management port to the internet. The QuickConnect relay and VPN methods both provide remote access without requiring the management interface to be directly reachable. A NAS with management ports exposed receives constant automated attack attempts - enabling two-factor authentication and using QuickConnect or a VPN are the safer alternatives.
Related reading: our NAS buyer's guide.
Related reading: our NAS explainer.
Do I need to leave the NAS on all the time?
Not necessarily. A NAS that is only used occasionally can be configured to sleep or power off when idle and wake via network activity or a schedule. Synology and QNAP both include power scheduling in the control panel - you can set specific hours for the NAS to run. If you want backups to run automatically while you sleep, schedule the NAS to power on an hour before the backup window. For always-on use cases like Plex servers or security cameras, continuous operation makes more sense.
What is the difference between a shared folder and a volume?
A volume is the storage pool created from your drives - it is the disk space. A shared folder is a folder inside that volume that is accessible over the network. Think of the volume as a hard drive and the shared folder as a folder on that drive with network access enabled. You can have many shared folders inside a single volume. Most home users need only one volume but will create multiple shared folders to organise different types of content or control who can access what.
How long does RAID synchronisation take on first setup?
The initial RAID synchronisation or parity check takes roughly 1-4 hours per terabyte of raw drive capacity, depending on drive speed and NAS processor. A 2x4TB RAID 1 NAS might take 4-8 hours to complete its initial sync. This happens in the background - the NAS is usable during this time, just with reduced performance. Do not power off the NAS during the initial sync.
Can I add more drives later after initial setup?
Yes. Most QNAP and Synology NAS devices support online storage pool expansion - you can add a drive to an empty bay, add it to the pool, and the system expands the available storage without data loss or downtime. The expansion process rebuilds the RAID and can take many hours. For SHR volumes on Synology, you can even mix drive sizes and expand incrementally. Check the online expansion documentation for your specific model before buying additional drives.
What apps do most people install on a home NAS?
The most common additions are Plex or Emby for media serving to TVs, a photo backup app (Synology Moments or QNAP QuMagie), and the vendor's own mobile app for file access from phones. Beyond that, popular self-hosted apps like Immich for photo management, Home Assistant for smart home, and Nextcloud for file sync are installed via Docker on higher-end models. Start with the basics - the core NAS functions are valuable without any additional apps.
My internet provider uses CGNAT. Can I still access my NAS remotely?
Yes, but not via standard port forwarding. CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT) blocks incoming connections to your home network at the ISP level. Use QuickConnect (Synology) or myQNAPcloud (QNAP) instead - these relay services route your connection through the vendor's servers and bypass the CGNAT restriction. Tailscale is another option that works through CGNAT using its relay network. Some NBN providers in Australia apply CGNAT by default - check with your ISP if direct port forwarding is not working.
Where to Go From Here
Once the seven steps above are done, your NAS is working and protected. From there, the direction depends on what you want to do with it. Setting up a family NAS with multiple user accounts and shared folders is a natural next step for households. Running self-hosted apps via Docker is the path for users who want to replace cloud services with local alternatives. Plex media server setup is the most common first app for users with large movie or music collections.
For deeper guidance on any of these areas, the guides below cover the most common next steps for new NAS owners.
Ready to set up multiple users and shared folders for the whole family? The family NAS setup guide covers user accounts, folder permissions, and shared media access.
Family NAS Setup Guide