Remote Access & In-Home Access vs. Plex

[iamspartacus 40]

I'm a long time Plex user looking to possibly make a switch to Emby.  I have a few questions that hope either an Emby employee or longtime Emby user can answer with regard to how certain features work in Emby compared to Plex.

 

Remote Access

 

Currently I limit remote access to my Plex server by maintaining a small alias list of hostnames/IP addresses in my firewall that need remote access to my server.  This includes DDNS hostnames I've had all my shared users create, as well as some IP addresses of Plex servers/services that need to speak to my server.

 

Is there any documented list of IP addresses and Ports needed to be allowed through one's firewall in order to allow for seamless use of Emby remote access?

 

In-Home Access

 

Plex has a features called Plex Home which allows me to create different user accounts for devices in my home and I can easily switch back and forth between them.  This allows my wife for example to watch content on her own account, my kids with their own, etc. etc.  I can also create passcodes for these accounts if I want to prevent unauthorized access to mature material to my kids.

 

Does Emby have something that rivals Plex Home in regards to managing access to one's Emby server from inside there home?

 

Offline Sync

 

I use this feature with my Plex Pass account and I'm wondering if it works the same way.  If I'm an Emby Premiere subscriber, does that mean my shared users can also use Offline Sync to sync content from my server as well the way my Plex users with free accounts can?

Edited September 23, 2017 by iamspartacus

[Luke 42080]

Hi, welcome. we don't currently have an IP filter but it's a nice idea for the future, something we'll consider.

 

Yes, we have local users that you can create on Emby Server and we think we've done it better.

And for offline downloading - yes, but not available in iOS yet.

[iamspartacus 40]

Thank you for the response.

 

So do any of your servers actually need access to my Emby server for remote access to work for my shared users? I can not allow access from a source of "any" inbound to my server so if you do have servers that need access but can't provide those IPs, remote access would never work for me and thus I could never use Emby.

[Luke 42080]

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking with that, but there is nothing on a hosted server of ours that will ever try to communicate with your emby server. everything is always direct from user's device to your server.

[iamspartacus 40]

I'm sorry if I'm confusing you. I only know about the Plex side of things and to enable Plex Remote Access your server must be accessible over the one port that you forward in your router not only from your users but from a few Plex IPs/hostnames (such as Plex.tv).

 

For the average user this isn't an issue because most just enable basic port forwarding on their consumer routers which allows incoming connections from ANY IP address in the world to their server. I'm a sticker for security so I want complete control over the access list of every network that has access to my server. This is what I currently do with my Plex server

 

However if Emby doesn't need to talk to my server at all for remote access to work this should all be moot.

[Luke 42080]

Correct, we never do, only your user's devices.

[Happy2Play 9782]

Have you had a chance to look through the Wiki, it may cover some of your questions.

[iamspartacus 40]

Excellent! I'll be setting up my server tomorrow for sure to give Emby a nice trial run.

 

Any ETA on offline sync for iOS?

[iamspartacus 40]

Have you had a chance to look through the Wiki, it may cover some of your questions.

I have read over a lot of the Wiki and these were the questions I had that I didn't find specific answers to.

[Luke 42080]

@@iamspartacus one thing I just thought of. If you intend to use the Alexa feature then you will need to allow access for Amazon cloud servers. We send the traffic straight from Amazon to you without routing through any emby domain. I imagine the incoming address will vary so you will probably have to watch what they are.

 

@@Angelblue05

[iamspartacus 40]

@@iamspartacus one thing I just thought of. If you intend to use the Alexa feature then you will need to allow access for Amazon cloud servers. We send the traffic straight from Amazon to you without routing through any emby domain. I imagine the incoming address will vary so you will probably have to watch what they are.

 

@@Angelblue05

 

Thanks for the clarification @@Luke.  I figured this was the case and I'll have to do the same troubleshooting as I had to do in order to get the Plex Alexa skill working.  I just need to go through all the voice commands I intend to use with Alexa and watch the incoming IP addresses being flagged in my firewall.  I did this with Plex and came up with 4-5 IPs I had to unblock.  I imagine it will be just as simple with Emby.