Reverse proxy with fail2ban or crowdsec. It's possible to set up things like Pangolin which ultimately use a VPN between external and internal access points but not at the client, though it takes more setup if you want to use apps over pangolin instead of just the browser.
this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| CA | (SSL) Certificate Authority |
| CGNAT | Carrier-Grade NAT |
| DNS | Domain Name Service/System |
| HTTP | Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web |
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider |
| LXC | Linux Containers |
| NAS | Network-Attached Storage |
| NAT | Network Address Translation |
| NUC | Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers |
| Plex | Brand of media server package |
| SSH | Secure Shell for remote terminal access |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption |
| SSO | Single Sign-On |
| TLS | Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
| VPS | Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting) |
| nginx | Popular HTTP server |
16 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 14 acronyms.
[Thread #311 for this comm, first seen 23rd May 2026, 22:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
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Put Jellyfin and a reverse proxy in an isolated vlan or DMZ, with no ability to reach into your lan at all and everyone connects in the same way. Its just movies, thats all you lose if it gets hacked. Set up some monitoring too in case it becomes a botnet node so you can destroy it and start over.
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My use cases are:
- Connect from multiple devices on the same home network (with the application)
- Connect from a phone device on the internet (with the application)
- Connect from some PC's and devices on the internet (with the application and from web browser)
For home networked devices, I don't care about security that much. I try to lock it down on the router level and by using VLANs for less secure devices. I connect via IP directly (or .local domain).
Jellyfin runs under its own user with read access to a media library.
For devices on the internet, I have jellyfin exposed on a specific url path of my domain - through a reverse proxy all through 443. A bit of security through obscurity here. I'm proxied through cloudflare on the DNS side with very restrictive IP rules.
I think this is enough for the security flaws jellyfin does have. I'd sleep better at night if it had client certificate support, but Its not a big deal imo. If security flaws allowing remote code execution are found, I'll shut it down and allow access through wireguard only and lose access from some devices on the internet where I cant use VPNs. Not a bit deal either.
As others have mentioned, a reverse proxy, like nginx or caddy. These are web servers, so you need to configure it or an app that runs in it. May I shill: Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM).
I toyed with the idea of exposing ports and decided against it. I don't understand networking well enough yet. For me specifically, VPN access has been perfectly workable in the US with both speed and ease of access.
Can you use fail2ban on Jellyfin? That might be a wise step.
How much access do you have to their system? I would set up a script on their end to poll https://ipv4.icanhazip.com/ and send you their IP. I would then trigger a firewall rule change on your end to that information. This keeps the access to only their IP, with maybe a few minutes between polls where it might be different.
I use a Wireguard tunnel to a VPS and fail2ban with geoblocking: https://codeberg.org/skjalli/jellyfin-vps-setup
afaik but I’m not sure, Jellyfin lacks support for OIDC AuthN which is a clear sign that you cannot expose this publicly.
~~There's a plugin for that.~~ Plugin is archived and will become outdated (and unsafe to use) over time. Don't use it.
says repo is archived
Oops. I tried it in the past and just linked to quickly without taking a close look at the repo. I've updated the above posting. Thanks for pointing this out.
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