VPN vs HTTPS

[stellabella 0]

Hi, Are there any advantages/disadvantages in speed and stability when using emby through vpn vs https? I would prefer to use vpn but it seemed a little intolerant to resuming songs after a 4G signal drop-outs. Thanks

[Abobader 3464]

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[GWTPqZp6b 50]

A connection through a VPN is more than likely to reduce throughput and increase latency reducing performance and reliability due to additional overheads and complexity. Even more so when operating on a 4G connection. 
I would suggest a correctly configured HTTPS end point is secure enough to not warrant the overheads of a VPN. You can add additional protection against brute force attacks with fail2ban etc. 

[Carlo 4561]

VPN also requires a VPN client software which makes it difficult to use with all Emby clients.
HTTPS/SSL just works with everything.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

22 minutes ago, cayars said:

VPN also requires a VPN client software which makes it difficult to use with all Emby clients.
HTTPS/SSL just works with everything.

That is true unless you put the VPN on your router.

Having said that I did a some research and it is computers, primarily, that are at risk for remote hacks and, after rather extensive research, I decided that my clients really do not befit much from being connected through a VPN. So I decided to protect my computers but not my Emby clients with a VPN. I use a VPN on my computers that attach to the internet, particularly the one I use to browse the internet. But my clients do not use a VPN. I can do it two ways one way is to run VPN software on each computer and the other is to run the VPN on the router but set up exceptions for the EMBY clients that do not need the extra overhead of passing through a VPN.

A good VPN is a good protection for many possible hacks but many, maybe most, ransomware attacks are triggered by things like clicking on a link in a web page or email and that act installs the ransomware. Since that click happens when you are already connected to the nefarious site a VPN will make little difference. So a VPN of any sort is not going to protect you from all attacks it will make the attacks that come from people scanning the web for vulnerable addresses more difficult.

[Carlo 4561]

Typically I think the best use of a public VPN is to skirt ISP shanagans.

Public VPNs leave half your routing on the Internet unprotected.  Private VPNs where you control the server and client of course are a different beast as the whole path is protected.