I have docker installed, but only have a vague idea of how it works.
Back in the day, I would just port forward, but even then, I would need a static IP somehow.
I have heard a reverse proxy is an option, but that is an entirely new topic to me.
Surely there is an easy way to access Jellyfin outside of my home network that I’m just missing.
*Edit: I am blown away by all the help and support! I currently have tailscale running, and I’m in the process of purchasing a domain.
Thanks everyone!


Personally I didn’t want to have to hand out VPN credentials to everyone, so I went with a cloudflare tunnel with Authelia as the method of authentication.
+1 for Cloudflare Tunnels/Zero Trust. The free tier is more than generous for a homelab
Not to mention, the amount of data you can run through it is nuts. I’ve been running Stremio web through it for months without issue to watch content at work.
is that against ToS? i want to do it but dont want to get banned
What are your concerns about Cloudflare and getting ‘banned’? There used to be a clause in the TOS that prohibited streaming video. However, as one user here has pointed out, that has been since superseded. Now, I’m not going to tell you that you can share your JF with 20 other users and not raise an eyebrow with Cloudflare. I don’t have a clue what they would do in that case. As far as streaming, I run Navidrome around the house from the time I get up in the morning, until I go to bed at night, and have had no issues. There also isn’t a bandwidth cap that I can find anywhere in Cloudflare’s documentation.
Yup. OP was asking about bandwidth caps, I haven’t experienced any, nor can I find any documentation to support bandwidth caps. I stream Navidrome around the house from the time I get up to the time I go to bed and it has worked flawlessly.
Can I ask, how much of a limit does the free tier have on bandwidth if you’re doing something like hosting Jellyfin?
My understanding is that there is no hard limit. At some point they will decide “this is business level traffic” at which point they will start harassing you to purchase a business plan.
That cutover point is unknown. I’ve never even seen an estimation of when it happens, so it could very well be the type of traffic instead of the amount.
They also only allow HTTP traffic for the free tier, which is another way they push you towards business tiers.
I don’t think that’s true. I’m pretty certain all of my domains are HTTPS only, but maybe that’s because I own the domain? Does cloudflare offer free domain names for tunneled traffic?
HTTPS traffic is still HTTP traffic. There’s just an encryption layer in there.
And yes cloudflare absolutely supports https.
Okay. Carry on. I was thinking that you meant the free tier didn’t support HTTPS encrypted traffic. I didnt want someone to rule out that option based on a false assumption. Sorry for the confusion.
In the past, Argo Tunnel has been priced based on bandwidth consumption as part of Argo Smart Routing, Cloudflare’s traffic acceleration feature. Starting today, we’re excited to announce that any organization can use the secure, outbound-only connection feature of the product at no cost. You can still add the paid Argo Smart Routing feature to accelerate traffic.
Cloudflare Zero Trust pricing is based on number of users. Unlike some of our peers, Cloudflare does not charge for increased bandwidth, number of app connectors, or volume of threats mitigated.
I honestly cannot find a hard bandwidth cap. Now, that is not to say that if you are sharing your JF with 20 other users, that they would not frown on that. However, from what I can tell, there is no real bandwidth cap.
On my mobile, but to give you an idea, I stream Navidrome probably 12-15 hours a day. I really don’t think they have a bandwidth limit per se, but when I get back to my desktop where I can actually see, lol, I can do some digging for you.