When I first dipped my toes into the world of self-hosting with a Synology NAS, my goal was simple: reclaim my data from the clutches of big tech. I wanted a central, private repository for my documents, backups, and precious memories—a digital filing cabinet that I owned and controlled. I acquired a Synology DS925+ and the brand's DSM suite helped me cover most of these bases right away. Synology Photos is among the best image management suites the XDA team has tried, and I couldn't complain much about the accompanying services. It excelled at digital hoarding, offering peace of mind a cloud subscription never could.

Since my NAS was powered on 24/7, sipping power more efficiently than my desktop, I thought of plunging into the world of self-hosted services using it as the testing grounds. It was practically a low-power local server waiting to be unleashed, freeing my desktop from burdensome background programs that chipped away at its usable performance. I've offloaded everything from media streaming to network security onto my Synology, and it isn't breaking a sweat.

A media server for personal Netflix

At least at home

For years, my media collection was relegated to the slowest spinning disk on my computer, and if I wanted to watch a movie on the living room TV, the simplest solution involved copying it to a USB drive and sticking that into the TV. Otherwise, I'd need to leave the computer running and manage clunky network shares or casting options.

Installing Plex on my NAS changed everything overnight. It automatically scans my movie and TV show folders, pulls in beautiful artwork and metadata, and presents everything in a Netflix-style interface that's accessible on every device using my home Wi-Fi. Now, the server does the heavy lifting if I just install the Plex app on every streaming client.

For images, Synology Photos takes the cake. It provides a private, self-hosted replacement for Google Photos, much like rival platforms such as Immich. However, I prefer it for the automatic backups from everyone's phones, album organization, and basic AI for searchable face detection in group photos of family and friends. This is a massive step up from manually dumping phone pictures into a folder on my PC every few months.

Most importantly, the NAS can process concurrent tasks and I can stream a 4K movie while it backs up my smartphone's photos simultaneously in the background. This helped me decouple media consumption and management from my desktop, making it accessible to everyone at home. I could extend this service outside my Wi-Fi coverage area if I cough up the fee for a Plex Pass.

My passwords are mine alone

Nothing like truly private storage

After media that hogged space and resources, I shifted my attention to personal security, and passwords stood out. They aren't really safe if you're using a password manager, because that's still a server, which would be a beacon for cyberattackers and breaches. Sure, a web-based service is convenient and omnipresent, but hosting one on a NAS is safer than the challenges of a local-only password file on my desktop. The text file wouldn't sync, and I risked dealing with outdated versions or locking myself out of an account.

I run an instance of Vaultwarden, a lightweight, open-source server that’s fully compatible with the official BitWarden clients. The setup was surprisingly straightforward, and now I have all the benefits of a premium password manager, such as browser integration, mobile apps, secure password generation, but the encrypted vault lives entirely on my own hardware. My data is readily accessible on my home Wi-Fi, and this solution also takes care to sync my credentials across devices. Once again, this would require a desktop configured for remote access with constant power.

An ad blocker for the entire network

No soliciting, even digitally

On my desktop, I have a mostly ad-free browsing experience thanks to an assortment of browser extensions that keep the relentless advertising at bay. However, mobile apps, smart TVs, and other devices weren't immune to the deluge of ads, surveillance, and tracking. Every time I set up a new device, I’d have to remember to install and configure an ad blocker. Keeping them all updated thereafter was a constant, piecemeal battle.

Deploying Pi-hole on my NAS solved this problem for my entire home in one fell swoop. Pi-hole acts as a DNS sinkhole. I configured my router to send all DNS requests from every device on my network to the Pi-hole instance, so when a device is connecting to a known ad-serving domain, Pi-hole simply refuses to resolve it, effectively blocking the unnecessary content. Suddenly, websites loaded faster, and ads within my smart TV UI and smartphones have vanished too. Sure, it isn't effective all the time, but I'm breathing easier with this NAS-hosted service.

While a browser extension is a bandage for a single application, Pi-hole on my NAS is a network-wide immune system. The dashboard also gives me fascinating insights into my network traffic, showing me which devices are the "chattiest" and which domains are blocked the most.

Monitoring network security

A one-two punch

If securing your home Wi-Fi is a priority above and beyond simple ad blocking, you'll like a centralized service or two to ensure your network is secure. I set up Uptime Kuma, a beautiful and simple monitoring dashboard. It pings other services like Plex, Pi-hole, and Vaultwarden every few minutes to alert me if anything goes down. Although every service has independent outage alert systems, this offers at-a-glance confidence that everything is working as it should. Every machine running round the clock can benefit immensely from a similar dashboard.

In a similar vein, I've set up WireGuard VPN server on the NAS. Now, when I'm on the go, I can activate the VPN on my phone or laptop, creating a secure, encrypted tunnel directly to my home network as opposed to risky access over several public intermediary servers. This setup works in tandem with the password manager I mentioned earlier, ensuring I have my credentials wherever I am. Replicating this on a desktop would be a nightmare of dynamic DNS, port forwarding, and constant security patching.

Docker

The one service to house them all

Installing all the aforementioned services directly on my Synology NAS seemed disorganized. To isolate them from each-other and prevent fresh installations from messing up older ones, I use Docker. It has fundamentally changed how I manage my self-hosted services, running each in an isolated environment called a container. My Plex server, Pi-hole, and Vaultwarden each live in their own container. They have their own configurations and dependencies and cannot interfere with each other or the underlying NAS operating system. This makes management incredibly clean and simple.

If I want to try a new service, I can spin up a container for it in minutes. Just as easily, I can dispose of unwanted containers swiftly, breaking nothing else. On a desktop, they leave registry entries and hidden folders behind. Docker's sheer efficacy is underrated until you try it firsthand. Even if you don't install any of the above, I'd urge you to still try Docker.

More than just secure storage

Looking back, it's clear my NAS has evolved far beyond its initial role as a simple storage device. It's now the silent, efficient engine powering my home's media, productivity, and network infrastructure. It serves movies, guards passwords, cleans the internet traffic, and provides a secure gateway back home, all while barely making a dent in my electricity bill.