this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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400
Plex has paywalled my server! (lemmy.giftedmc.com)
submitted 19 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
197 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I tried testing a movie from my home server in plex through firefox and repeatedly got this message, even after reloading.

I knew that they had paywalled the apps on mobile and streaming from outside the network but now they have also blocked watching your own movies through your own hardware.

I do get the point that making software should be able to sustain people but I dont see the move of plex as a fair thing to do. Yes, they have made great software but taking your home server hostage feels like the wrong move.

Even a pop up that says "we need you to donate please" would have been fine. make it pop up before every movie, play donation ads before any movie but straight up disabling the app is kinda cruel.

Anyway, i have switched to jellyfin and it is insanely good. please give it a try. you can run it alongside plex with not issues (at least i had none) and compare the two.

In any case, good luck. Let me know if you need help.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

It's pretty rare that a company starts taking away free features and doesn't end up fucking payers in the end.

The biggest bar to Jellyfin is TV clients, the second biggest is security.

TV clients can be fixed with a one-time purchase of a $20 android TV stick. If viewing your familys ARR content isn't worth $20 you probably don't need to do it anyway.

Security for remote streaming is a harder thing to handle. Most people are capable of port forwarding, But just hanging a smallish public project out there in the open is always a dicey proposition. It honestly needs real fail2ban, probably SSL, 2FA and password complexity requirements.

We could probably make a jellyfin helper container to handle some of this. Walk people through Let's Encrypt, dynDNS, port forwarding tests, add fail2ban with a firewall, maybe even slap suricata in it.

We need to convince the project to add 2FA and password complexity requirements.

I don't know guys what do you think is it crazy? does it make sense? Would anybody actually use it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

As someone who is … lazy and took advantage of some Amazon Black Friday Fire TV stick deals, and who doesn’t want to drop the $200 for a Shield:

Any Android sticks/players you might recommend?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 47 minutes ago

I think you make a hugely important point and I would definitely use it and I might even be able to help making it.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Old news, but time for Jellyfin. I made the switch a couple months ago. Some minor teething issues, but better, IMO, especially now as my family all have LDAP users and that just works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

awesome. thanks for chiming in. I will have to check how to do external streaming without opening my network up to the world (metaphorically).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 minutes ago

I used synology and reverse proxy. It was pretty easy to set up. The tricky part was going into jellyfins setting and connecting your reverse proxy to the path you made.

Overall my kids and family can now access it anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

...wireguard

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Thats not what I meant. I of course have wireguard set up for administration and my own streaming needs. But friends of mine who were able to use plex by just making an account but now they cant because of course there is no relay server etc. I'll have to think of a way to make it available to them (easily!) without putting my network at risk.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

That is pretty much how I imagined it. Sadly, its A TON of work. I have most of this set up in many VPSs for both me and customers (with other services of course) and I can imagine its probably the best solution. I still hate my life when thinking of implementing it. :D I bet its gonna be easier than I think but you may get my point here. Thank you very much for sharing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 minutes ago

Hell I know what you mean, it was so much trial and error until it worked, hence this guide/template to help others. Plus at some point it feels more like work than a hobby 😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Mine is public, but I block every state but the one all of my users live in(family) and I never get unwanted visitors. Couldn't say the same if I lived in NY or CA.

If they have static IP addresses, you may be able to whitelist them in your proxy, or maybe there's some sort of dyndns client/relay software you can run if their ips change.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

yeah, thanks. but thats not gonna work for me. i live in a big city and none of us (me and my server included) have static IPs nor am I gonna get them (at all) and I dont want to pay for them either (because ISPs here want you to pay for them). in any case, thanks for trying to suggest something. it might help someone else who has a different setup. :)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Access via IP address and not the name. I've been having to do it that way for several days now, too.

Edit to add: It's due to a change I made in my OpnSense setup. I restored a ZFS snapshot and it's working again as it should.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

So its a thing. Very interesting. Thanks for confirming. Have you tried jellyfin? i switched now and it works great.

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