Hi comphilip. DSM is the Synology diskstation manager that manages the Synology NAS. The 718+ is the model of the NAS.
2 - I can get to the login screen when on my LAN or when tunneling in through the VPN, but I've never accessed it externally without the VPN.
4 - cool. I couldn't find anywhere that stated that explicitly, but that is what I thought.
5 - I could figure out how to post them here. I cross posted on the synology forum (no hits there) and have the screen shots there.
https://community.synology.com/forum/16/post/120555
Thanks.