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What’s your go too (secure) method for casting over the internet with a Jellyfin server.
I’m wondering what to use and I’m pretty beginner at this
I'm using jf on unraid. I'm allowing remote https only access with Nginx Proxy Manager in a docker container.
Headscale server on cheap vps with tailscale clients.
Wireguard vpn into my home router. Works on android so fire sticks etc can run the client.
I'm trying to self host navidrome in docker with a cloudflare domain and reverse proxy on the same network. Still fiddling myself since I keep getting a 403 cloudflare no access error.
Essentially, using cert provided by cloudflare where they proxy to my ip. From there the reverse proxy routes to my service. If I'm understanding it right, anyone with my domain would only see cloudflare ip instead of my own. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm still learning this stuff as well.
Prior to this, I was using tailscale which worked fine but I'd have to connect via tailscale everytime and some instances, it wouldn't connect properly at all.
Tailscale - funnel
Just that
I have had Jellyfin directly open to the Internet with a reverse proxy for years. No problems.
I see everyone in this thread recommending a VPN or reverse proxy for accessing Jellyfin from outside the LAN. While I generally agree, I don't see a realistic risk in exposing Jellyfin directly to the internet. ~~It supports HTTPS and certificates nowadays, so there’s no need for outside SSL termination anymore.~~ (See Edit 2)
In my setup, which I've been running for some time, I've port-forwarded only Jellyfin's HTTPS port to eliminate the possibility of someone ending up on pure HTTP and sending credentials unencrypted. I've also changed the Jellyfin's default port to a non-standard one to avoid basic port-scanning bots spamming login attempts. I fully understand that this falls into the security through obscurity category, but no harm in it either.
Anyone wanna yell at me for being an idiot and doing everything wrong? I'm genuinely curious, as the sentiment online seems to be that at least a reverse proxy is almost mandatory for this kind of setup, and I'm not entirely sure why.
Edit: Thank you everyone for your responses. While I don't agree with everything, the new insight is appreciated.
Edit 2: I've been informed that infact the support for HTTPS will be removed in a future version. From v10.11 release notes:
Deprecation Notice: Jellyfin’s internal handling of TLS/SSL certificates and configuration in the web server will be removed in a future version. No changes to the current system have been made in 10.11, however future versions will remove the current system and instead will provide advanced instructions to configure the Kestrel webserver directly for this relatively niche usecase. We strongly advise anyone using the current TLS options to use a Reverse Proxy for TLS termination instead if at all possible, as this provides a number of benefits
It feels like everything is a tradeoff and I think a setup like this reduces the complexity for people you share with.
If you added fail2ban along with alert email/notifications you could have a chance to react if you were ever targeted for a brute force attempt. Jellyfin docs talk about setting this up for anyone interested.
Blocking IP segments based on geography of countries you don't expect connections from adds the cost of a VPN for malicious actors in those areas.
Giving Jellyfin its own VLAN on your network could help limit exposure to your other services and devices if you experience a 0day or are otherwise compromised.
Nah, setting non-standard ports is sound advice in security circles.
People misunderstand the "no security through obscurity" phrase. If you build security as a chain, where the chain is only as good as the weakest link, then it's bad. But if you build security in layers, like a castle, then it can only help. It's OK for a layer to be weak when there are other layers behind it.
Even better, non-standard ports will make 99% of threats go away. They automate scans that are just looking for anything they can break. If they don't see the open ports, they move on. Won't stop a determined attacker, of course, but that's what other layers are for.
As long as there's real security otherwise (TLS, good passwords, etc), it's fine.
If anyone says "that's a false sense of security", ignore them. They've replaced thinking with a cliche.
I think the reason why its generally suggested to use a VPN is because it reduces the risk of intrusion to almost zero. Folks that are not network/sys admin savy would feel safer with the lowest risk solution. Using the port forward method, there could be configuration mistakes made which would unintentionally expose a different service or parts of their home network they don't want exposed. And then there's the possibility of application vulnerabilities which is less of an issue when only VPN users can access the application. That being said, I do expose some services via port forwarding but that's only because I'm comfortable with ensuring its secure.
Reverse proxy is really useful when you have more than one service to expose to the internet because you only have to expose one port. It also automates the certificate creation & simplifies firewall rules inside the home network
Reverse proxies can be useful for hiding your IP if you do something like host it in a VPS and tunnel the traffic back to your self hosted service. There's also a lot of documentation on attaching things like fail2ban or crowd sec which can be helpful in reducing the threat from attacks. if you're running lots of services it can reduce the risk of two apps using the same ports as ultimately everything will go through ports 80 and 443 on the public facing side. Finally again if you're hosting several services having a central place to manage and deal with cert from can save a lot of time rather than having to wrangle it per service/ server.
Imo that's perfectly fine and not idiotic if you have a static IP, no ISP blocked ports / don't care about using alt ports, and don't mind people who find your domain knowing your IP.
I did basically that when I had a fiber line but then I added a local haproxy in front to handle additional subdomains. I feel like people gravitate towards recommending that because it works regardless of the answers to the other questions, even their security tolerance if recommending access only over VPN.
I have CGNAT now so reverse proxy in the cloud is my only option, but at least I'm free to reconfigure my LAN or uproot everything and plant it on any other LAN and it'll all be fine.
no idea how safe or secure but i use cloudflare tunnel to point my jellyfin port on my computer
Someone mentioned above that cloudflare will ban you for streaming through their tunnel. Just be warned.
I don't use jellyfin but my general approach is either:
There are obviously ways to do this all on your own but... if you are asking this question you probably want to use one of those to roll it. Because you can leave yourself ridiculously vulnerable if you do it yourself.
That’s my feeling too
I would look into Tailscale based on your responses here. I don’t know what your use case is exactly but you set TS up on your server and then again on your phone/laptop and you can connect them through the vpn directly. No extra exposed ports or making a domain or whatnot.
If you want other people to access the server they will need to make a TS account and you can authorize them.
I rent a cheap $5/mo VPS and use it to run a wireguard server with wgeasy and nginx proxy manager. Everything else runs on my home server connected by wireguard.
I was just trying to get a setup like this going yesterday. I used standard Wiregaurd and got that working between the VPS and home server, but I was trying to set up Caddy as a reverse proxy to direct the incoming traffic through the WG VPN to my services. I wasnt able to figure it out yesterday. Everyone online says Caddy is so simple, but I'm such a noob I just have no idea what it's doing or how to troubleshoot.
Is Nginx Proxy Manager running on the VPS itself and then the proxy routes across the wireguard to your home server? Or is the VPS just port forwarding to your home server which runs the proxy?
I also would like to know
This is 99% my setup, just with a traefik container attached to my wifeguard container.
Can recommend especially because I can move apartments any time, not care about CGNAT (my current situation which I predicted would be the case), and easily switch to any backup by sticking my boxes on any network with DHCP that can reach the Internet (like a 4G hotspot or a nanobeam pointed at a public wifi down the road) in a pinch without reconfiguring anything.
SWAG reverse proxy with a custom domain+subdomain, protected by authentik and fail2ban. Easy access from anywhere once it's set up. No vpn required, just type in the short subdomain.domain.com and sign in (or the app keeps me signed in)
What's the point of authentik when Jellyfin already has authentication?
That’s probably this type of setup I would want but I miss the technical know how, so if you have a cool beginner guide
I used several separate guides plus help from a friend. Check out space invader one's YouTube channel. I'm not at my pc right now but I can gather some of the tutorials I used when I get back.
Nobody here with a tailscale funnel?? It's such a simple way to get https access from anywhere without being on the tailnet.
Is the funnel URL accessible by everyone who knows it? I.e what are the chances someone finds the URL and gets access to it?
Yep, a Tailscale funnel URL is publicly accessible to anyone who knows it. And while it doesn’t expose your machine’s IP, Jellyfin is exposed publicly. Only the port you configure is reachable, but that doesn’t make it secure in itself - you definitely need more security. I don't have anything critical on my server so I'm not overly concerned but I still use CSF to block traffic from most every other country and limit abuse.
I’m looking into it but I find that starting (or keeping open) Tailscale for music is not the best system.
I’m looking into building a shared Jellyfin library between friends