I currently have my Plex server open to the world. I realise that’s probably not best practice, so I’m trying to find a solution that can work for me.

I’ve been looking at cloudflare tunnels and it seems like thats probably what I want. Giving me access to my home server from outside. And it’s free, which is a nice perk

I’ve noticed however that the terms of service don’t allow for video streaming, but is allowed in the paid tier. Before I commit to spending money, I’m curious if it’s even technically possible. Plex tends to phone home to allow users to authenticate and locate their servers, so is that possible through tunnels?

Is this a waste of time? Is there a better solution? How are others dealing with this problem?

  • @AlkEnglish
    10•9 months ago

    I have my plex accessible from outside, but only to plex users I add. It’s not like anyone can just get my IP and watch my content.

    • @[email protected]English
      10•9 months ago

      There are many crawlers, and I’m confident at least a couple have tried to connect to your server (unless you have an IP firewall, or if you’ve changed Plex Media Sever’s default port, in which case significantly less likely).

      I assume it’s not really about them watching content, but to avoid them exploiting any possible PMS bugs.

      • @keyezEnglish
        2•9 months ago

        I have plex open on my pfsense to US only IPs and see lots of requests blocked from overseas crawlers and some curls from the US, I moved it to a different external port and nothing but expected traffic after that.