Media streamer Plex has raised new capital. The company, which began as a media organization startup, has morphed over the years to become a one-stop shop
I hope this doesn’t mean they are on the slippery slope of selling user data, thoughts?
The best solution requires a bit of technical ability: reverse proxy. Things like Nginx Proxy Manager are really not that hard to use, especially on something like unraid but requires a bit of infrastructure and time to setup. The advantage of this is you can then get into the world of self hosting and do stuff like file sync (seafile), password manager (bitwarden), etc. The list is endless once you have a reverse proxy setup.
The easiest way however is to use tailscale to setup a VPN and access it via local IP address.
Sure, but the VPN alone is only a partial solution - if your computer is on the same tailscale VPN as your plex server, you can create a peer to peer connection without plex pass. But for third party apps - like a smart TV or a Roku or whatever - those don’t have tailscale clients and they probably never will. Which means you would have to produce some kind of extra solution, like utilizing a raspberry pi or other portable micro pc that can bind to the tailscale network but also project video to the television. Which is very clunky. Right now, I feel like there is no drop in replacement for Plex if you want to share you server with friends or family while also maximizing your own security and keeping self-hosting costs to a “minimum.”
The best solution requires a bit of technical ability: reverse proxy. Things like Nginx Proxy Manager are really not that hard to use, especially on something like unraid but requires a bit of infrastructure and time to setup. The advantage of this is you can then get into the world of self hosting and do stuff like file sync (seafile), password manager (bitwarden), etc. The list is endless once you have a reverse proxy setup.
The easiest way however is to use tailscale to setup a VPN and access it via local IP address.
Sure, but the VPN alone is only a partial solution - if your computer is on the same tailscale VPN as your plex server, you can create a peer to peer connection without plex pass. But for third party apps - like a smart TV or a Roku or whatever - those don’t have tailscale clients and they probably never will. Which means you would have to produce some kind of extra solution, like utilizing a raspberry pi or other portable micro pc that can bind to the tailscale network but also project video to the television. Which is very clunky. Right now, I feel like there is no drop in replacement for Plex if you want to share you server with friends or family while also maximizing your own security and keeping self-hosting costs to a “minimum.”