How to connect to a Synology NAS via SSH

Enable SSH on your Synology NAS and connect using Windows, Mac or Linux.

Enable SSH on your Synology NAS

1. Access your Synology NAS via the management web page
2. Go to: Control Panel -> Terminal & SNMP
3. Check “Enable SSH service”
4. Apply

Connect with Terminal (Mac & Linux)

Open terminal and run the following command from Terminal.

$ ssh -l <username> <ip-address-of-nas>Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Connect with PuTTY (Windows)

PuTTY is a popular opensource SSH and Telnet client, you can download it here. I opt for the .exe over the .msi installer, since it’s light weight and portable. 

Create a connection to your Synology NAS with PuTTY:

1. Run PuTTY
2. Enter the IP of your NAS and give it a name in the “Saved Sessions” box, ensure SSH and port 22 are selected
3. Save

Now you can open an SSH connection via PuTTY, logging in using your Synology username and password.

Additional Notes:

• Right click functions as paste in PuTTY
• Type ‘exit’ to close the SSH connection
• To use a port other than the default port 22, -p <port>