Post #4426569

2026-07-31 00:29 UTC

They won’t do that because it’s expensive and free software generally doesn’t have the budget to do this I don’t know why you think the “just works” is any different from tunneling with a service. Your server is still opened to the internet through upnp with direct connections and through a tunnel to plex.tv when a direct connection is not possible. In fact plex is inherently less secure because their infra is both the encryption endpoint (as opposed to your client with Jellyfin and Tailscale or whatever) and their infra has been vulnerable in the past (like the massive breach in 2022). Jellyfin with something like nginx and a vpn is open to the internet, yes, but a service that tunnels (like wireguard, Tailscale) bypasses this issue and it’s up to you to set it up as to your level of comfort Plex is just easier but as with all things tech (especially those infected with VC dollars) “ease” translates to less secure and far more likely to exploit your data

Replies (1)

@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 2026-07-31 02:43

I came up with a funny strategy I use to lock it down a bit. What’s exposed to the internet for me is Apache2 reverse proxy. The proxy is locked down to reject all connections EXCEPT for the ones coming from a special subdomain which is something like a 64-character long random string. This prevents pretty any unwanted connections. Obviously the special subdomain must remain as secret as a shared password among the Jellyfin users. It works for trusted users. What I want ideally is an “authenticated firewall.” OpenWrt rejecting all connections on the open port except for an allowlist of IPs. Then there must be a system where users can authenticate and their IP is added to the allowlist. I haven’t found an off-the-shelf solution like this but I’ll make it some day. Too bad I figured this random string subdomain trick cause it seems good enough for now. :D

Open ##4426568