Universal Media Server | Forum

not asking for support, just more of a architectural question maybe.

i already run UMS at home on a box and can stream stuff fine over DLNA over LAN fine no problem.

my question is this: can i forward DLNA ports from my internet router/gateway and then when i am not at home, stream the same media files from outside the home (using public IP vs. private IP of course).

i know there is are security concerns, but just trying to address the point of the question (forget security). is this technically feasible? is this something UMS already does and i'm not seeing it?

if not that way method, is there an alternate more secure username/pw-based method to stream media from UMS beyond the LAN?

the *reason* for this question is all my music is flac and i dont want to keep another mp3 as a set.

so ideally i would like UMS to transcode flac as tiny mp3 or whatever music files compresses best to stream over 3G/4G mobile data to save on data $. i dont want to stream flac over 3G/4G mobile data plan for obvious reasons. and to do this from outside the home.

of course on the mobile device side we are using some sort of DLNA-compatible app accessing UMS

DLNA/UpNP is generally visible to local subnet only as router all these communication doesn't pass outside.
I don't know about existing router which supports redirecting it outside so only option is using http/https.
UMS supports securable access to UMS from internet. You should search forum for more info. By default http(s) access is not secured.

will it transcode for external wan https access? sounds like it will not

i think i finally figured it out.

so while users can open all DLNA ports to beyond LAN to WAN and let that work... it is a huge security risk... and performance is most likely not proven. there isn't a method or system or re-trying from client to server so when mobile data drops (as it often does) it will not re-try again.

as for the HTTP access, it's more secure as it requires AUTH but misses the boat on transcoding, etc.

therefore... currently UMS doesn't do what Plex/Tonido does... which uses an mobile app ecosystem to work together with the media server to transcode files.

we can probably close this thread out.