Control Panel

The most important icon on the DSM desktop is that of the Control Panel because it provides access to all settings and functions. All choices are categorized into four main categories: File Sharing, Connectivity, System, and Application. All icons are quite self-explanatory and nicely designed.

File Sharing

Manage file-sharing options to host your files or share those files with others via the file-sharing panel.


Manage shared folders, the root folders of your NAS, through the Shared Folder menu. You can store data you want to share with users or groups via access privileges in shared folders. You can also create new shared folders, edit their permissions, or delete existing ones. Encrypt them with AES 256-bit encryption to make all unauthorized access attempts impossible.


These options allow you to enable file-sharing protocols for all platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux), enable the FTP service, which allows users to upload or download data to the NAS via FTP, activate WebDAV to remotely manage and edit files or calendars stored on the NAS, and enable the TFTP service and setup the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) service for PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment).


You can create new users and groups and assign access permissions to these through the "user" and "group" choices. You should enable the guest account option since it is deactivated by default for security reasons; that is, if you want to make several folders on your NAS available to anyone.


These options allow you to create and edit groups, add users to groups, and edit group properties, saving you the trouble of editing users one by one. We should note that only users belonging to the administrator group have access to Control Panel settings.


This options set allows you to add your NAS to a directory service as a Windows domain or LDAP client.