Lab_nas

Access a Synology NAS from Google Colab (or any headless Linux box) through a NetBird mesh network.

Lab_nas bundles two small pieces:

• NetBird — starts the NetBird client in userspace (netstack) mode, connects with a setup key, and exposes a local SOCKS5 proxy. On Colab it keeps the peer identity in Google Drive, so every runtime reconnects as the same peer with the same NetBird IP.
• Synology — a Synology File Station client that talks to DSM through that SOCKS5 proxy: browse, search, download (files and folders as .zip), and upload, with live progress bars.

Install

pip install Lab_nas

The NetBird binary itself is downloaded automatically the first time you call NetBird().start() (fetched from the official netbirdio/netbird GitHub releases).

Quick start (Google Colab)

from Lab_nas import NetBird, Synology

NetBird().start()                       # connect Colab to your NetBird network
nas = Synology('100.83.14.114')         # your NAS's NetBird IP
nas.login()                             # uses Colab secrets SYNO_USER / SYNO_PASS

nas.ls('/')                             # list shared folders
nas.find('*.xlsx', '/home/Drive')       # search by name
nas.download('/home/Drive/file.xlsx')   # download to /content
nas.download('/home/Drive/MyFolder')    # a folder arrives as MyFolder.zip
nas.upload('/content/file.xlsx', '/home/Drive')   # upload a local file

Secrets

In Colab, add these in the 🔑 sidebar (with Notebook access enabled). If a secret is missing you'll simply be prompted to type it.

Common operations

nb = NetBird(hostname='colab')          # customise the peer name
nb.start()
nb.status()                             # show NetBird status + proxy state
nb.log()                                # tail the NetBird log
nb.stop()

nas = Synology('100.83.14.114')
nas.login('admin', 'password')          # or pass credentials explicitly
nas.ls('/home')
nas.find('report*', '/home', max_depth=3)
nas.download_more(['/home/a.pdf', '/home/b.pdf'])
nas.download('/home/Photos', extract=True)   # download + unzip the folder
nas.upload('/content/out.csv', '/home/Drive', overwrite=True)
nas.logout()

Requirements

• Linux (Colab counts). The NetBird binary published for linux_amd64 / linux_arm64 is used.
• A running NetBird network and a setup key.
• A Synology NAS reachable on your NetBird network, with an account that has File Station permission.

Notes

• Runs NetBird in netstack (userspace) mode, so no tun device or kernel module is needed — which is exactly what makes it work inside Colab.
• Synology often serves DSM with a self-signed certificate; TLS verification is disabled for the NAS session by design.
• Synology Office files (.osheet, .odoc, .oslides) can only be opened in Synology Office — export to .xlsx/.docx on the NAS first if you need them elsewhere.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.