Point your own domain at your Synology at xaweho

By default, you reach your Synology with us under a subdomain like 12345.nas.xaweho.de. Functionally that’s enough, but many people prefer their own domain — nas.deinname.de, cloud.deinname.de, whatever you like. Takes 5–15 minutes, depending on your DNS provider.

Requirement: a domain you control

You need a domain where you can set DNS records — either directly at a registrar (1&1, Strato, IONOS, AllInkl, namecheap, hover) or at a third-party provider like Cloudflare.

We also register domains for you if you don’t want to do it yourself. Open a ticket and we’ll walk through the options.

Which IP address?

You need the public IPv4 of your Synology. It’s in the setup mail we sent you after provisioning. If you can’t find it anymore:

• Open the DSM URL 12345.nas.xaweho.de
• Via dig or nslookup: dig 12345.nas.xaweho.de → the IP is in the A record
• Or ask us via ticket

Set the DNS record

Log in to the DNS management at your domain provider. Create an A record:

Field	Value
Name / Host	nas (or another subdomain)
Type	A
Value / Target	public IPv4 of your Synology
TTL	3600 (1 hour) — or the default

Save. With some providers the change is instant, with others it takes 5–60 minutes, in the worst case up to 24 hours (old caches).

Test whether it works

On the command line:

dig nas.deinname.de

Should return your Synology IP. Alternatively, open http://nas.deinname.de:5000 in the browser — it should show the DSM login (with an SSL warning, because there’s no Let’s Encrypt certificate yet).

If the IP isn’t correct: flush your local DNS cache (sudo dscacheutil -flushcache on macOS, ipconfig /flushdns on Windows) and try again. If it’s still wrong: wait 30 minutes, sometimes DNS propagation takes longer.

Step 2: issue a Let’s Encrypt certificate

As soon as DNS works, get yourself an SSL certificate — see Set up a Let’s Encrypt certificate.

Multiple subdomains for different apps

In our experience, many customers use separate subdomains for different apps:

• nas.deinname.de → main DSM access
• drive.deinname.de → Synology Drive
• photos.deinname.de → Synology Photos
• mail.deinname.de → Mail Plus

All point to the same Synology IP. In DSM, under Login Portal → Applications, you can define per subdomain which app loads by default when someone opens that subdomain.

DNS records: one A record per subdomain (or a single wildcard A record *.deinname.de).

Cloudflare as a proxy in front

If you want DDoS protection or caching, you can put Cloudflare as a proxy in front of your Synology. Setup:

1. Sign the domain up at Cloudflare (free).
2. Create the DNS records at Cloudflare, proxy status set to orange (proxied).
3. SSL/TLS mode: “Full” or “Full (strict)” — not “Flexible”, or you get a loop.
4. In DSM: whitelist the Cloudflare IPs, otherwise Cloudflare constantly rotates IPs and the fail2ban-style auto block kicks them out.

Careful with Let’s Encrypt renewal: the HTTP-01 challenge gets blocked by the proxy. Solution: briefly switch to “DNS only” (grey cloud), trigger the renewal, switch back to orange.

In everyday use, Cloudflare as a proxy is overkill for most private customers. It makes sense for setups with a higher traffic profile or compliance requirements.

DynDNS — if your IP changes

With us, your Synology has a static IPv4 — it doesn’t change. You don’t need DynDNS.

If you run a second Synology at home behind a normal DSL line, then yes — DynDNS updates run in DSM under Control Panel → External Access → DDNS. There you can configure Synology’s own DDNS (<deinname>.synology.me) or another DynDNS provider.

IPv6 setup

We also assign your Synology an IPv6 address. If you want AAAA records, set them analogously to the A record:

Field	Value
Name	nas
Type	AAAA
Value	public IPv6 of your Synology

This is optional — an A record alone is enough for most setups, because v4 is widely available.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the DNS change really take? With most providers 5–30 minutes. If you’ve set a low TTL, faster. With some old DNS resolvers it takes up to 24 hours.

Can I keep using the old xaweho subdomain? Yes, both addresses work in parallel. The xaweho subdomain stays active — if your own domain ever goes down, you still have backup access.

What if I move my domain later? Remove the A record at the old provider, create it at the new one. During the switch, the Synology is unreachable via your own domain for a few hours — but the xaweho subdomain keeps working.

Do I really need my own domain? No. Functionally the xaweho subdomain is identical. Your own domain is comfort and branding — with sharing links, your own domain looks more professional.

Can I customize xaweho.de subdomains? If you want a specific subdomain like meinverein.nas.xaweho.de, open a ticket. We’ll assign it on request (as long as it’s still free).

How do I protect my own domain from being taken over? Set a domain lock at the registrar (prevents transfers without the auth code), 2FA on the registrar account, and prepay the domain at least 5 years ahead. From our own experience: domain theft almost always happens through insecure registrar accounts.

Does this also work with subdomains from free DynDNS providers like No-IP or FreeDNS? Yes. As long as you can point the A record at the right IP, it works. However, some free DynDNS domains get blocked by spam filters — if you want a mail server on your Synology, better use your own domain.

What’s next

• Set up a Let’s Encrypt certificate
• Mail Plus — the built-in mail server
• Securing the admin account on your Synology