Hello,
I am in the market for a TS-251 to use as a media server. I would LOVE to also use the machine as a download center as well, completely taking my desktop out of the picture in the media acquisition and streaming departments!
I know that this QNAP NAS has the Download Station software allowing for torrent downloading, and from what I have read there are way to get it to work with a proxy, although it is not necessarily straightforward. My torrent download method for some time now has been to use a Private Internet Access VPN while downloading, and this has worked well and been secure.
My question is about using the Virtualization Station instead of the Download Station. Could I install say a basic Linux distro, set up the VPN and a torrent client on that, and use that for downloading? There are 2 concerns I have with this:
1) How easy is it to transfer media files from within the VM to the regular NAS storage for streaming?
2) Would the VM's torrent traffic be secure over the VPN? I have read that the Virtualization Station requires a secondary ethernet input, which is encouraging to think that it potentially has it's own network adapter and could successfully mask the download traffic.
I know this is very niche and not an intended use, but I do think it could be a neat workaround to the VPN being unavailable to use with the Download Station.
Any and all input is very appreciated!!
Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
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Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
I'm sure that since this reply is 5 months after you've posted, you've figured out a solution on your own. But I'll chime in just because I found your post searching for a similar issue with the Download Station and VPN... I have a Windows 7 VM running on my TS-563 with the PIA client setup to auto connect and kill internet access when it's not connected. This seems to be working fine. Every time I boot the VM, I check my external IP address to ensure I'm on the VPN. Using this method, I have run the box to download all my media onto the VM and "transfer it to the NAS" via \\"nas name" and it has worked great. It's a little slow on the file copy process, even though I've got the new internal network setup per the instructions that say "10 GbE data transfer when the network adapter of the VM uses a Virtual Ethernet Controller (Virtio)." Previously I was running a Hyper-V VM on my desktop box with the same setup and transferring the files to the NAS that way.
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Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
Thank you for the reply! I was just looking into this again since I never got an answer. I now own a TS-251+ but have not been able to get the VPN set up in any meaningful way to use simply for p2p and not to interfere with the rest of the NAS's operations.tigerdevil wrote:I'm sure that since this reply is 5 months after you've posted, you've figured out a solution on your own. But I'll chime in just because I found your post searching for a similar issue with the Download Station and VPN... I have a Windows 7 VM running on my TS-563 with the PIA client setup to auto connect and kill internet access when it's not connected. This seems to be working fine. Every time I boot the VM, I check my external IP address to ensure I'm on the VPN. Using this method, I have run the box to download all my media onto the VM and "transfer it to the NAS" via \\"nas name" and it has worked great. It's a little slow on the file copy process, even though I've got the new internal network setup per the instructions that say "10 GbE data transfer when the network adapter of the VM uses a Virtual Ethernet Controller (Virtio)." Previously I was running a Hyper-V VM on my desktop box with the same setup and transferring the files to the NAS that way.
It would still be ideal to not have to use the VM at all and to be able to run the VPN on the NAS and have it only used by Download Station, but that still does not seem to be possible. I might install a VM now and give your method a go. Are you sure that your traffic is still secure? I know that the VM is running the VPN, but does the traffic become unsecure as it leaves the VM and is transmitted to the net by the NAS?
- mydjtl
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Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
bump
TS-251+
(2) Seagate IronWolf 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives
8gb RAM in one slot. 4.3.3
Firmware as of 3/8/2020: 4.4.1.1216 (2/14/2020)
(2) Seagate IronWolf 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives
8gb RAM in one slot. 4.3.3
Firmware as of 3/8/2020: 4.4.1.1216 (2/14/2020)
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Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
Bump +1
I too am interested in this, and have seen others asking the question in this forum but no solution.
I too am interested in this, and have seen others asking the question in this forum but no solution.
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Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
I know this topic is extremely old, but OP and I are almost exactly in the same boat. I have a VM I run through PIA, and when I got my NAS, I wanted to use Download Station and still be able to VPN through PIA, but that doesn't seem to be possible. So then I did the next thing OP did: install Virtual Station and put my VM on there.
It worked well enough, but I found it to be slow. Plus, with only 8gb in the NAS, I didn't want to take away what little RAM that's available to it, so I moved the VM back to my VM server.
TL;DR - No, you can't use Download Station with PIA VPN. If somebody says otherwise, I'd be more than happy to hear their solution.
It worked well enough, but I found it to be slow. Plus, with only 8gb in the NAS, I didn't want to take away what little RAM that's available to it, so I moved the VM back to my VM server.
TL;DR - No, you can't use Download Station with PIA VPN. If somebody says otherwise, I'd be more than happy to hear their solution.
- mydjtl
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Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
I ended up using sonarr, couchpotato, qnzbget, headphones, qtransmision after upgrading to 4.3.3. wasnt easy but finally got it owrking after about Id say roughly 15 hours.
TS-251+
(2) Seagate IronWolf 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives
8gb RAM in one slot. 4.3.3
Firmware as of 3/8/2020: 4.4.1.1216 (2/14/2020)
(2) Seagate IronWolf 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives
8gb RAM in one slot. 4.3.3
Firmware as of 3/8/2020: 4.4.1.1216 (2/14/2020)
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- Starting out
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- Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:41 am
Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
Does that include a VPN for anonymity?I ended up using sonarr, couchpotato, qnzbget, headphones, qtransmision after upgrading to 4.3.3. wasnt easy but finally got it owrking after about Id say roughly 15 hours.
- mydjtl
- Getting the hang of things
- Posts: 95
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:52 am
Re: Using Visualization Station and VPN for torrenting instead of Download Station?
yup
TS-251+
(2) Seagate IronWolf 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives
8gb RAM in one slot. 4.3.3
Firmware as of 3/8/2020: 4.4.1.1216 (2/14/2020)
(2) Seagate IronWolf 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives
8gb RAM in one slot. 4.3.3
Firmware as of 3/8/2020: 4.4.1.1216 (2/14/2020)