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this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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I'm surprised any VPN would be strong enough for streaming video of anything other than potato quality
The bulk of the traffic between two Tailscale nodes is direct between the nodes. They mainly use the Tailscale servers to help them find each other (NAT hole punching) and establish a connection.
You're kidding! I thought all the traffic went through tailscale. So it's basically just establishing the connection, then I'm only limited by upload/download speed of the NAS and the client?
Usually yes! There will be some minor overhead from both nodes keeping in touch with the Tailscale command server but mostly they talk to each other.
Read this though to see if there's a case where direct connection might not be possible: https://tailscale.com/kb/1181/firewalls/
Man, that's great news. Though I may have some extra set up to do because I tried once with a decent internet connection and couldn't get plex working over tailscale.
Plex has issues with VPNs unfortunately. It wants you to go through them whenever you connect to your server, and this means it needs to know where your server IP/domain is. But if you have situations where the IP/domain changes, like a VPN, it can get confused.
It's one of the reasons that made me give up Plex back in the day. (Holding your accounts hostage was the other one.)
oh wow, thanks for that insight. So jellyfin in this use case would be superior?
Jellyfin or Emby, yeah. But it's more of an artificial limitation for Plex so it's worth checking that they haven't fixed it by any chance since the last time I tried.
The way these apps work is that the mobile app scans the local network for the server. That works when you're connected on WiFi at home but typically not when you're connecting over VPN, because a VPN isn't usually configured with broadcast. So the app for all three (Plex/Jellyfin/Emby) will discover the server just fine on WiFi but choke on VPN. To work around this, the mobile app [should] allow you to also enter the server address manually. Plex used to have this too but removed it at some point, so now it only relies on autodetect. 🤷
So now the only way it can work on Plex is if you keep the same server address/name when you're on WiFi and when you're on VPN, let the app detect it once on WiFi, then it "just works" on VPN too... but that can be problematic if the address/name is different on VPN, which is 90% of cases.
Between Emby and Jellyfin it's a toss-up, the main reason I'm using Jellyfin (I used to use Plex and Emby too) is because it's 100% free. Emby switched essential features like transcoding behind paywall at some point, and Plex locked pretty much everything useful behind paid Plex pass and you have to login to their website every time, so you can't use it if your external internet connection drops even if your local network is fine.
Here's an in-depth comparison of all three: https://github.com/Protektor-Desura/Archon/wiki/Compare-Media-Servers
Thanks! I'll look into this. I had jellyfin installed but I always used Plex just due to a better experience on my Apple TV. The Jellyfin client can barely get subtitles right so I stopped using it
At the end of the day it's always a trade-off. If you're willing to give up some control and privacy Plex is going to be a very smooth experience. If you don't like to give up privacy but still want a smoother experience and are willing to pay, Emby is probably best for you. If you don't want to make any privacy compromises and want a free, community-supported and fully open-source solution, you have to use Jellyfin.
Don't forget to check out Kodi on that list. It's not a media server, it's an indexer that runs on the client + a friendly interface. It can be a very nice solution if you mainly access your media on a single device, like a living room TV attached to your NAS.
It's going to depend on the devices involved, but I get about 600 megabit or so between two computers over tailscale on my network (really, wireguard). That's what, 10 HD video streams? Of course, it's going to depend on device cpu capability and network bandwidth.
On your own network? I'm not sure the reason to use tailscale between computers on the same network, nor if that's really relevant to the discussion. If tailscale was capable of 600mbps from outside the network then that would be another story
That 600mbps is the throughput of the encryption on those devices. It's no different crossing networks, but the speed will be limited by the network speed. The benefit of a p2p vpn is that you don't need to shut it off when you join the same network. The devices remain accessible at the same ip whether they are on the same network, or if one is somewhere else. The overhead is negligible and you gain the security isolation that would normally require subnets and a firewall.
In the end, yes, I can stream HD video just fine from another network. For most people, the limitation will be their home ISP's uplink speed.