What is Jellyfin? #
Per the Jellyfin GitHub: Jellyfin is a Free Software Media System that puts you in control of managing and streaming your media. It is an alternative to the proprietary Emby and Plex, to provide media from a dedicated server to end-user devices via multiple apps. Jellyfin is descended from Emby’s 3.5.2 release and ported to the .NET Core framework to enable full cross-platform support. There are no strings attached, no premium licenses or features, and no hidden agendas: just a team who want to build something better and work together to achieve it. We welcome anyone who is interested in joining us in our quest!
What does this mean? If you have a lot of digital media that you own and have the source file for, you can use Jellyfin as a catalog to keep track of shows watched, movies played, music listened to. Jellyfin gives your files a pretty face and a pretty way to organize your files. As well, Jellyfin allows you to watch the content that you own the source file, to other devices in and outside your home network. For example, you can start the movie at home and pause it before bed. The next day you are at work and on lunch you want to continue the movie, you log in to your self-hosted Jellyfin instance and boom, you continue on right where you left off last night.
How to watch content on Jellyfin #
To watch content on Jellyfin, you need to first host Jellyfin. Windows, macOS, Linux can all host a Jellyfin server. When you have Jellyfin running, you can play content from a browser, phone app, TV app, or Jellyfin’s video player software.
Remote Access #
What is remote access? Remote access allows you to access a program or computer outside the network that is used to host the computer or program you are wanting to access. For example, you want to watch a home movie that is on your Jellyfin server, but you are at work on lunch. You would need remote access for this or a VPN.
Different Ways To Access Jellyfin Remotely #
There are 3 very common ways to access software remotely:
- Reverse Proxy
- More secure than opening random ports
- Can be used with a VPN
- VPN (connecting you to your home network, not you to a VPN provider for external use to the general internet)
- More secure than opening random ports
- Can be used with reverse proxy
- Open Ports with external IP
- The Least secure method
- The easiest method
Test
