Unraid Question

Double07 · 23 Mar 2021 at 12:17

Apologies if this in the wrong section to begin with!

I've had a wee media server for a while now that basically just ran plex media server for a no more than 4 users. I just stuck Windows 10 on it and left it to it's own devices as I was sitting next to it almost every day anyway so was easy to do anything that needed doing. It was just 1 SSD with OS and 3x8TB drives slapped in, no RAID or anything like that.

Got a new job so won't be at home all the time now, and I am a bit bored, so fancied trying something new. Installed Unraid (30 day trial) and whilst it has taken a flipping eternity to build the parity drive and get the array up and running it is now working with 1XSSD cache drive, 1x8TB parity drive and 4x8TB. Plex is working fine but I would like to be able to access the server/shares from outside my hone network.

I know very little about setting this up so was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of some articles online which might explain the process. From what I can glean the best option is to set up a VPN on a router and then use that on a remote PC to connect to my home network which would simply allow me to access it as if I were physically on the home network. Is this the case, also can this be done in Unraid as docker or the like as I would need to get a new router I believe in order to set this up as I doubt my Vodafone bog standard one would allow me to do this, although I could obviously be wrong given my lack of knowledge here

Any information would be gratefully appreciated, and even some pointers to some stuff to read online would be a big help so that I know I am looking in the right direction. It's not particularly urgent so I have time to read up and have a fart about with stuff.

Cheers

ubern00b · 23 Mar 2021 at 12:52

Any good?

Unraid | Setting Up WireGuard® on Unraid

Edit: Are you merely wanting to watch your Plex library remotely or do you actually want direct access to the file shares on unRAID?

Double07 · 23 Mar 2021 at 13:28

ubern00b said:
Any good?

Unraid | Setting Up WireGuard® on Unraid

Edit: Are you merely wanting to watch your Plex library remotely or do you actually want direct access to the file shares on unRAID?

I'll have a good read through that, thanks very much

And yeah looking to be able to access my shares remotely. Got plex working fine outside my network.

whiskycycle · 24 Mar 2021 at 02:44

As @ubern00b said, WireGuard is the way to do it... fairly easy to setup and pretty much just works, with everything behaving as if I’m on the same network.

Avalon · 25 Mar 2021 at 09:10

If you just want to access your own media, you don’t need a VPN, just enable a port forward on the router. The remote access tab on your Plex settings let’s you specify the port (assuming it’s not running in docker, so all you need to do is enable remote access and then forward 32400 (or whatever port you choose) to the internal IP of your Plex server. I would suggest this is probably a good time to make sure your server is provisioned a static IP via the router.

AyeAyeAhoy! · 25 Mar 2021 at 20:50

What Avalon said. It's quite simple really, but I usually find a bit of a bug where it refuses to accept that it can see the outside world. A few refreshes or a reboot tend to fix it

Avalon · 25 Mar 2021 at 22:02

doug_1986 said:
What Avalon said. It's quite simple really, but I usually find a bit of a bug where it refuses to accept that it can see the outside world. A few refreshes or a reboot tend to fix it

I have noticed similar on occasions, but usually just refreshing the browser after enabling remote access and being told it’s failed is sufficient for it to change its mind.

AyeAyeAhoy! · 25 Mar 2021 at 22:06

Avalon said:
I have noticed similar on occasions, but usually just refreshing the browser after enabling remote access and being told it’s failed is sufficient for it to change its mind.

Yeah, had me stumped for a while.

Now that I think of it though, I did find that my old BT home hub would outright block the connection. No way of fixing it. Seemed to be a common thing, but I can't remember exactly why.

I picked up a second hand Draytek Vigor and that fixed it immediately

Avalon · 25 Mar 2021 at 22:22

doug_1986 said:
Yeah, had me stumped for a while.

Now that I think of it though, I did find that my old BT home hub would outright block the connection. No way of fixing it. Seemed to be a common thing, but I can't remember exactly why.

I picked up a second hand Draytek Vigor and that fixed it immediately

Random, I ran various HH’s during training periods on FTTC and g.fast, zero issues port forwarding for Plex. The issue I referenced affects local and remote servers, I just assumed it was safari being quirky.

AyeAyeAhoy! · 25 Mar 2021 at 22:44

Avalon said:
Random, I ran various HH’s during training periods on FTTC and g.fast, zero issues port forwarding for Plex. The issue I referenced affects local and remote servers, I just assumed it was safari being quirky.

Yeah, it was really weird. I'll try to remember why it was