I have a DS923+. It has two Ethernet jacks in the back. Is there a way to configure it so that those two jacks act like a mini ethernet switch? I would like to but the ethernet cable from my wall jack that is plugged into my cable modem into one jack and then plug an ethernet cable from my MacBook Pro to the other jack with the goal being that the computer gets access to the NAS as well as getting access to the internet via ethernet, and, if I want to set up remote access to the NAS I can do it. I haven’t been able to figure out how to do this and I would rather not buy a separate switch. Thanks for any help you may provide.
True switch, no. You can probably bridge the ports and you can definitely run a router (eg pfSense) as a VM. But I’d just buy a cheap switch.
I would never plug my Nas directly into a cable modem/router with out going through a better router first with more security.
As suggested, use a switch in between (or router)