Hotspot*

Your DiskStation device supports creating a hotspot to share its Internet connection with other devices wirelessly if you have installed a Wi-Fi USB adapter or your DiskStation has built-in Wi-Fi. You can set your DiskStation to be a wireless access point (AP) or wireless router, depending on how you would like to use the Internet.

Hotspot Mode Description
Wireless AP
  • Bridges your LAN and Wi-Fi network together.
  • Your LAN and wireless clients will be on the same local network.
  • Applicable when you already have a router and want to use your DiskStation as an additional access point to an existing network.
  • Allows the sharing of network resources, such as DLNA devices, printers (not applicable to Grantley platforms, to see if your model supports this fuction, please refer to this article), Synology Web Assistant or other services relying on network broadcasts.
  • DHCP server will be disabled on DiskStation devices that act as wireless APs. To reactivate DHCP server for your DiskStation, remove Wi-Fi dongles and restart DiskStation.
  • For models with multiple LAN ports, only LAN 1 will be used to bridge with wireless AP.
Wireless Router
  • Sets up a wireless network where devices are on a private subnet.

Note:

  1. Some models require connecting wireless dongles in order to create hotspots. For a complete list of supported wireless dongles, visit www.synology.com.
  2. For non-DS213air models, the Wireless Hotspot option in DSM 4.3 is renamed to "Wireless Router" in DSM 5.0 and onward.

Managing Hotspot Settings

This section explains how to enable and manage hotspot settings of your DiskStation.

To turn DiskStation into a hotspot:

  1. Go to Control Panel > Wireless > Network Map. Choose Wireless AP or Wireless Router.
  2. Go to the Wi-Fi tab and click Edit to manage the following settings:

To set up a wireless schedule:*

Enabling a wireless network schedule allows you to control when the wireless network of your DiskStation is active and accessible.

  1. Go to the Wi-Fi tab and click Edit.
  2. Check the box Enable schedule.
  3. Click Set schedule.
  4. On the schedule screen, select when the wireless network will be active.

Security Settings

Control Panel > Wireless > Wi-Fi provides options to edit the security settings of your wireless network.

To set up wireless security:

  1. Click Edit.
  2. Choose one of the following security protocols from the Security Settings drop-down menu:

To enable Wi-Fi Protected Setup:*

Wi-Fi Protected Setup is a standard promoted by the Wi-Fi Alliance to simplify wireless security settings for users. You can use a Push button or a PIN number to keep your Wi-Fi network safe. Click WPS to enable Wi-Fi Protected Setup.

Guest Network*

In addition to creating a host wireless network, your DiskStation also supports creating a guest wireless network. The settings of the guest network can be limited to restrict users' access, which is useful for enterprises or other institutions who want to provide a wireless network for visitors, but keep them from accessing the host network.

To enable the guest network:

  1. Go to Control Panel > Wireless > Wi-Fi.
  2. Click Edit to manage the following settings on the Guest Network tab:

To set up guest network security:

Choose one of the following security protocols from the Security Settings drop-down menu:

To set up a guest network schedule:

Enabling a guest network schedule allows you to control when the guest wireless network of your DiskStation is active and accessible.

  1. Check the box Enable guest network schedule.
  2. Click Set guest schedule.
  3. On the schedule screen, select when the guest wireless network will be active.

Note:

MAC Filter Setting*

MAC filter (at Control Panel > Wireless) specifies which MAC addresses are permitted to access the wireless network, allowing you to block or grant access to specific devices. This feature only controls network access, not other encryption settings.

To create MAC filter rules:

  1. Enter the description and MAC address of a device.
  2. Choose an access policy:

Parental Control*

The parental control feature allows you to control when each client device connected to the DiskStation's local network can access the Internet. For example, if your kids' computers or mobile devices connect to the Internet through the DiskStation, then you can configure parental control settings to restrict their Internet usage according to specific devices and times.

To enable Parental Control:

  1. Go to Control Panel > Wireless > Parental Control Settings.
  2. Click the Add button to add a client device.

Connection List*

The connection list (at Control Panel > Wireless) displays information regarding devices connected to the DiskStation. Devices can be directly added to the MAC filter list from here.

To add devices to the MAC filter list:

  1. Check the box beside the device which you want to add to the MAC filter.
  2. Click Add to MAC Filter List.

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* Available on specific models only.