How do I share Plex media, but nothing else, with users remotely?

[Bear Island]

My network looks something like this:

WAN-->PfSense (VPN server)-->FreeNAS.

I am still very new to this so please bear with me if it's not right. I have what are basically backups of my work stuff in the same volume as the Media files that Plex uses (the Plex jail is on another volume and I pointed it to the right folder).

I want users with certain credentials (let's say user name Jill) to have remote access to the Plex server and all the media on it, but NOTHING else on that volume. Right now I VPN into my network remotely if I want to use Plex on the go. But I feel like having Jill VPN into my network just to watch a movie might not be the most user friendly?

What is the best and most secure way to do this? How should I set permissions for everything? I am still trying to get a working knowledge of permissions.

 

[SweetAndLow]

The reason people use Plex is to do exactly this. Jill needs a Plex account then you give her permission to use your Plex server. No vpn required. Also you don't need a vpn to watch Plex either just use the Plex.TV site to access it remotely.

 

[Bear Island]

Thanks for your quick reply. If I do enable remote access on the Plex GUI, will that be exposing my server (and all those other files) and network to the outside?

 

[Jailer]

If you're that concerned about it create a separate dataset for your media files.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Thanks for your quick reply. If I do enable remote access on the Plex GUI, will that be exposing my server (and all those other files) and network to the outside?

Not it just exposes your plex ip address and port. So if you trust plex security and don't have any valuable data in the jail then you are fine. With jails the great thing is you can mitigate risk by not exposing your entire system to the outside world and only a little part of it.

 

[Bear Island]

I see. So am I correct in saying that if I have the following folders in a volume:

• Important docs
• Private docs
• Top Secret docs
• Media

...and I have Plex pointing to the Media folder, Plex and its users cannot go "up" and access the folders outside of Media?

 

[SweetAndLow]

You could have all in one folder and it would work. Separating it out into different datasets makes it almost impossible to get to. Have you used plex before? Your questions are quite strange, can you access your private data when you use plex?

 

[Bear Island]

Like I said, I am very new to FreeNAS. This is my first time using Plex.

In my reading here, I keep seeing that exposing any part of one's FreeNAS box to the "outside" is insecure, i.e., someone could get into my server through Plex. I just want to be sure that running Plex will not expose my more sensitive files to the internet.

Thanks for your help and patience.

 

[diedrichg]

You have two options:

1. Create a dataset for your private data with permissions for only one user and group and another dataset for your media with permissions for Plex.

2. Keep all your media in the Plex jail (walled garden). This is volatile though as the plugin could fail without warning and take your media with it.

 

[pirateghost]

This is pretty much exactly what Plex was designed for.

Opening your Plex server port only opens up to plex server, not the FreeNAS box. Your Plex server should have access to your media, but nothing else. There is nothing more that would need to be done. You aren't going to be able to open up Plex client and somehow browse to any other directories from a client side of things.

 

[Bear Island]

Exactly the answer I was looking for. Thank you everyone!