Synology DSM: Visitor's Real IP Address Behind NGINX Proxy Manager

Title: Solving Real IP Address Visibility Behind NGINX Proxy Manager in Synology DSM

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss how to make the real IP address of visitors visible behind the NGINX Proxy Manager in Synology DSM. This issue occurs when the NGINX Proxy Manager receives a request from a client, and the client's IP address is not passed to the server.

Prerequisites

• A Synology NAS running DSM (DiskStation Manager)
• NGINX Proxy Manager installed and configured
• Basic understanding of networking and Synology DSM

Steps to Make Real IP Address Visible

1. Access NGINX Proxy Manager

   Log in to your Synology NAS, navigate to the Control Panel, and find the NGINX Proxy Manager. Click on it to open.

2. Edit the NGINX Configuration

   In the NGINX Proxy Manager dashboard, click on the Configure button. This will open the NGINX configuration file in a text editor.

3. Add the Real IP Module

   Search for the http block in the configuration file. Inside this block, add the following lines to enable the real IP module:

   http {
       # ... other directives ...
   
       real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
       real_ip_trusted_forward_headers X-Forwarded-For;
   }
   

   Save and close the file.

4. Reload NGINX Configuration

   After saving the changes, reload the NGINX configuration to apply the changes:

   • Click on the Save and Test button. If there are no errors, click on Apply Configuration.
   • Alternatively, you can reload the configuration manually by going to the System tab, clicking on NGINX, and then clicking on Reload Configuration.

5. Test the Changes

   Now, when a visitor accesses your website, the real IP address should be visible in the server logs. You can check the logs to confirm the changes have taken effect.

References

• NGINX Proxy Manager - Real IP Module
• Synology DSM - NGINX Proxy Manager

Summary

In this article, we learned how to make the real IP address of visitors visible behind the NGINX Proxy Manager in Synology DSM. We achieved this by enabling the real IP module in the NGINX configuration and reloading the configuration. This allows the server to see the real IP address of the visitors, even when they are behind a proxy.