True.
But many of the plex support pages and blog articles talk about applying restrictions for children, now none of these make much sense if you can access the content without requiring a login.
Those articles are related to content from your server. Anything you have you can control. This is from Plex where you donât have control.
I was looking at articles like this one:
https://www.plex.tv/blog/the-one-where-plex-announces-free-streaming-live-tv/
Create your own kid-friendly channel line-up
Are your kids old enough to grab the remote from your loving hands? Well now you can fine-tune live TV on Plex for them by setting up a managed user and remove any channels from their lineup you donât want them watching. You get to be the benevolent overlord who controls the channels your kids get to surf.
Good point. This is being discussed internally.
Thanks,
Just curious has this change been announced anywhere?
If this is going to be the way free content is available going forward, then I think we come back round to @tashbaugh original post.
We need an option in PMS to request a login for the local web app, maybe it could be added to the remote access panel of the settings and only shown when remote access is enabled
This way the free content is only available at app.plex.tv (unless you have manually enabled it for your own PMS)
Just curious. Why are you allowing users to use your local Web client? I mean, if you donât tell them what the address is, they wouldnât use it and only use the hosted one.
I am not, but it is easy enough to find Plex Media Servers that are available on the internet.
So you can access the free content via any of those servers.
Edit:
Although I have used the Custom server access URLs option for years
This is a really odd remark. Why the heck would I want anyone fiddling with the user interface on my public facing Plex instance? Really odd decision to all of a sudden enable this. I get that you want to show the power of Plex but please do that on your own web server at plex.com not through my home server.
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ReallyâŠ! As a long-time paid Plex Pass user, the more I think about this, the less sense it makes and the more I find it highly inappropriate. Itâs really truly ridiculous and disturbing to just enable this all-of-a-sudden and then mention âthis is working as intendedâ. Thatâs a really arrogant attitude and the fact that it hasnât been announced makes it even worse.
Iâm really scratching my head here⊠Plex team, what are your intentions with this, why would you all of a sudden do smtg like this?
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Hey Plex Team. Iâm a big fan of everything you do! I can tell that youâve worked hard to secure content and make it available to the masses! Youâre taking on the big companies like Amazon
and Netflix and I think thatâs absolutely amazing! Iâm not criticizing your efforts; please keep up the good work!
I simply want a checkbox in my server settings that lets me choose to have a simple/minimalistic login screen when someone browses to my server on the web rather than a buffet of all the awesome content that youâve miraculously made available for free.
As a tech-savvy parent, I block most movie/television streaming services on my home internet connection so that I can do my job as a parent and police the childrenâs television habits. But, I have a feeling that blocking plex.tv to keep the Rated-R movies out of the kidsâ tablets/phones/laptops/desktops/Chromebooks would most likely break the plex app completely.
I appreciate your time and consideration of this matter.
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But the Plex Web client on your local server is not publicly facing. The only way a user would know that URL if you told them. Normally a user would launch Plex Web from plex.tv, or if they have their own PMS, they can launch their local Plex Web. There is no need for them to launch Plex Web from your computer.
Also note that launching Plex Web does not access your PMS server, it just launches the client. Itâs the same code as whatâs available on plex.tv or on Ple Media Player or Plex for Windows/Mac, just a different version. So any feature you see on plex.tv will eventually make it to all of those clients as they get updated.
For example, if I wanted to share my server with you, I would not tell you my public IP address, you wouldnât need it. You can load the Plex Web client from any of the other methods I mentioned above and you can still access the content Iâve shared. You can also access your own content from your server, content from others that are sharing with you, and Plexâs free content. It doesnât matter where you load Plex Web from, as long as itâs the right version, you will see all the features that are available.
All of that free content has nothing to do with your server. When a Plex user launches any Plex client, they are not accessing your server exclusively. Think of the content from Plex as Plex sharing their server with all Plex users. You canât control what other people share. The user themselves have the ability to turn these off, but not you since itâs not coming from you.
What if you wanted to see that content. But you also have access to a shared server from a friend. That friend turned off access to those content. Now you canât see any of it unless you stop the share from your friend.
As mentioned, the team is discussing internally the impact towards kids of allowing access without needing to sign in.
But the Plex Web client on your local server is not publicly facing. The only way a user would know that URL if you told them. Normally a user would launch Plex Web from plex.tv, or if they have their own PMS, they can launch their local Plex Web. There is no need for them to launch Plex Web from your computer.
I do get what youâre saying. What really are the chances that someone will stumble upon the secret URL for https://Plex.MyDomain.Com:32400 and actually even care that there is content listed there? Slim, right? My ISP is always scanning their customers for open ports and checking the content theyâre hosting. The current setup is designed in such a way that it appears to the naked eye that Iâm the one hosting the free content at my server address, which is against my ISPâs ToS.
If we took the argument to extremes for a moment, in a completely hypothetical scenario: Would you feel comfortable letting someone else have complete control over the images displayed on your serverâs domain name? Even if the actual content was hosted somewhere else, and the URL was difficult to find, would you rest easy at night knowing your domain name could be tied to something like child porn? I understand that is a wild out of this world example and that Plex wouldnât host that sort of content, but hopefully you get where Iâm coming from by my use of this extreme example. I canât sleep at night not having control over what content others choose to make public USING MY NAME!
I do not want my domain / server IP associated with random entertainment offerings. Regardless of the fact that the URL is difficult to find without a port scanner. Hoping that someone doesnât scan/guess the URL isnât secure enough. It doesnât change the fact that someone some day somewhere will eventually report me to my ISP and cause trouble for me. At the very least, redirect the userâs browser back to plex.tv so that it is obvious to the end-user that the content isnât being hosted by me.
I feel very strongly about the above conversation, but I forfeit my argument over the parental controls and concede to the decision your team makes internally.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
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Iâm really struggling to understand your attitude here. We want ours servers to require sign in. You can offer your content at app.plex.tv to guests and not on MY URL.
Plex attempting to become a streaming service is ruining the product.
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But the Plex Web client on your local server is not publicly facing. The only way a user would know that URL if you told them.
Oh, come on! Are you really going to pretend you donât know how the internet works!? Plex is tied to my domain name (the same way as most of the people in this thread do, you know, probably because thatâs how you do these things).
Just donât tell anyone the URL
Come on now⊠You are surely joking arenât you? This is so laughably naive that I just cannot wrap my head around it, are you playing your users for a fool?
Normally a user would launch Plex Web from plex.tv,
Maybe revisit that thought as thatâs definitely not what I do ânormallyâ. I visit my own domain. Again, if you want to serve out content without logging in from plex.tv, please do so. Just donât go and decide what your users should be serving from their network and, even worse, do it out of the blue without any warning/heads-up whatsoever.
For example, if I wanted to share my server with you, I would not tell you my public IP address, you wouldnât need it.
This comment just does not make any sense, most of us are talking about domain names. Though the actual problem lies in the fact that all of a sudden an outside facing web service is showing all kinds of content after an update. No heads-up was sent, no means of disabling it is available and in the support forums Plex reacts very blasĂ© with faked childish naivety and tries to brush it off as if it is somehow the usersâ fault (for âtelling anyone the domain nameâ). I really canât believe how youâre handling this.
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Regardless of whether or not this change is a good one, I beleive what @anon18523487 is trying to say is; why would people you share with even need to know your domain name (or external IP, one in the same thing except one reads nicely). I would imagine typical usage is via official apps, which require a sign in, rather than a web browser.
If this isnt the case for your users, then I would recommend that they do access your content via the apps, web browsers are terrible media players which will put more strain on your server.
Having said all of that, the change is a big one and probably deserved an announcement.
I donât have any other users than myself.
Besides that, the entire issue is not about âsharing the domain nameâ. The issue is that they went from only serving a login view to serving a full fledged interface with (seemingly) all kinds of content.
Please read the original post that started this thread.
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Not cool Plex, Itâs beside the point that no-one will ever go to my domain or that Iâm not actually hosting the content, itâs that if anyone were to go to my domain:plexport.web it would look like Iâm hosting all this stuff if you look at the address bar. And you changed it without even saying anything. Please change it back or make it an option in PMS. I much prefer a simple login screen.
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No attitude, just trying to understand why this would be needed. Loading Plex Web is not signing into your server. Plex Web is just a webpage. Yes, it is loaded from your computer, but it has nothing to do with your Plex Media Server. You can delete your server and as long as PMS is still running, you can load Plex Web.
I understand that. What I donât understand is why are you having users access Plex Web on your server? If you share your server with me, I wouldnât need to know your domain or access Plex Web from your domain. I would just load from app.tv. Since I have PMS, I can also load my local copy.
My point is that if you donât want users thinking the Plex content comes from your server, donât have them access Plex Web on your computer. If you were having users do that since the local version didnât support Live TV before, to purposely hide Plexâs content, well thatâs a different story.
This is quite a major change to the availability of the Free Content so I do think it should be announced properly somewhere.
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