I have Plex, Radarr, Sonarr, Overseerr etc running in Docker containers, but have never found a good guide on how to access these (safely) from outside. I resort to connecting to a server running VNC. I’ve tried nginx but didn’t understand it, also tried Cloudflare (ditto). Is there a good, easy to understand guide on how to do this?
The best way is to have a small server with wireguard installed, which is a VPN. This runs on virtually anything, including a raspberry pi or even a router with open-wrt.
Anyways, your wireguard server will only accept connections from devices that have its certificate (secure passwordless authentication).
Once you’re connected to that VPN, it’s effectively as being in your home network.
You might want to Google for guides on how to setup wireguard on a raspberry pi. Even if you don’t have a PI you’ll surely find the tutorial you need.
Specifically, this:
You’re probably looking for Tailscale. Simple to use, free plan, extensible and powerful.
In addition to the server and desktop clients, there are mobile apps for both Android and iOS.
Can be used to connect offsite server for backups or hosting but seen as part of your local network. No need for open ports on your home router.
Easy way to access you Plex server when away from home.
The safest (but not as convenient) way is to run a VPN, so that the services are only exposed to the VPN interface and not the whole world.
In pfsense I specify which services my OpenVPN connections can access (just an internal facing NGINX for the most part) and then I can just go to jellyfin.homelab, etc when connected.
Not as smooth as just having NGINX outward facing, but gives me piece of mind knowing my network is locked down
Assuming you don’t want to expose these services directly to the internet (I don’t recommend it) then you want to set up a VPN to connect back to your home network. Wireguard or OpenVPN are the most commonly used. As far as guides that will depend where/how you want to run it.
You’ve been given a the usual variety of suggestions, but I suggest also gaining an understanding of networking principles, including RFC 1918 addressing and NAT.
