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DNS Loopback Fix for Internal Network Access
May 15, 2024•Updated Feb 17, 2026
Just install and use a DNS server.
In summary:
When accessing an external IP from the internal network, the router needs to return its own internal IP, but since it doesn't know this, the connection fails.
The feature that enables this is called loopback. Over 90% of routers support it, but some ISP-provided routers do not.
In this case, a simple solution is to have the NAS perform the router's job instead. That is, install DNS on the NAS and have each computer connect to the NAS IP instead of addresses like 8.8.8.8 in their DNS settings, so they access the NAS's DNS.
That solves it. The video linked below explains it very clearly.