I’m Back
I know its been awhile since I posted, I want to apologize for that. I recently had my first child and became extremely busy. Things Have started to calm down and I am looking to get back into writing. I am planning on posting the final section to the server guide tonight. My plan is to then post on a weekly basis after that with a post going up Saturday or Sunday night.
After I finish posting the server guide, I plan on starting to post about hardware. If there is something else you would like to see a post on please let me know. Thank you again for reading and I look forward to getting back to writing.
About The Author
TheCordCutter
TheCordCutter is everyday man who got tired of forking over his cash to the cable company and found another way. Now he shares his knowledge with you.
I’m not a fan of Port forwarding. I always access my home network thru VPN. In all of your guides, you include a port designation. Is this necessary if I only plan on accessing my intranet thru VPN if I’m not home. If I’m home then can’t I just double click on the program icon?
I always access the from my mobile phone or on a secondary computer that may not be on the network. In this case port forwarding is necessary so that my router knows how to connect to the server. I never thought about connecting to my home network via VPN. In this case you are most likely correct. Port forwarding should not be necessary. As far as your router knows, all the connections are coming from the within the network so it should always know where to send them.
That said, you will always need to add the port designation to the address bar. I can’t say what the double clicking on the program icon does as I don’t have any of the program icons set up. I always access via browser remotely. In fact, the server the apps are installed on boots directly into Kodi and doesn’t ever load the desktop or the explorer.
Welcome back! I have just read your blog and I like the way you explain stuff to noobs like me 🙂 A few comments/ Q’s though:
1. Some of your screenshots have your API keys for the software you have used. Shouldn’t you be hiding your API instead of making it public?
2. Have you considered Kodi instead of Plex?
3. Have you considered the costs of power usage of your server? I have been contemplating setting up a sort of all in one server (Media, home automation, NAS, may be even firewall and routing) and am currently on the lookout for something that can do it all without guzzling watts and watts of power.
4. And yes, I look forward to your series of posts on hardware for the reasons I just mentioned. May be you can guide me to a server which consumes minimal power yet able to do all the things I want 🙂
Keep it coming and thank you 🙂
I’m glad I could be of help.
1.) Thanks for catching that and the heads up. When I get the chance I’ll black them out. It’s actually not a big deal as I took all the screenshots when I redid everything on a second machine to make sure I had up to date images which I’ve since wiped. Those APIs should be meaningless now.
2.) Funny you should mention that. My server which doubles as an HTPC runs Kodi as a front end in my living room. All of my satellite TVs run off of FireTV Sticks. Running Plex on the stick is much simpilar then side loading and maintaining Kodi.
3.) I haven’t really considered costs, but it can’t be too much more than the four cable boxes I used to have in my house. I’ve replaced all four with a single PC power supply.
4.) I’m looking forward to writing it. Unfortunately, the start is going to have to be delayed a week. With the holiday weekend, things just got too busy for me to get something down. Look for the start next Sunday.
Best of luck, mate! 🙂