I've run a Jellyfin server for several months now. It's been a huge help in cutting down on streaming costs, especially for comfort shows I fall asleep to. After all, who wants to pay a subscription just to watch Friends? Optimizing and maintaining the server has been a learning experience, but the great thing about Jellyfin is that anyone, even a complete beginner, can start a server and learn the ins and outs of it over time. That said, there are a few lessons I learned the hard way that I wish I had known before I set the server up. The time I spent figuring out the cause of the problems could have been better spent watching multiple movies.

Learn from my mistakes. If you're planning to set up your own Jellyfin server, here are a few lessons that can help streamline things in the long run.

Make sure your Jellyfin host machine is on the same network

It's not as obvious as it might seem

Let me be upfront about something: my home network setup could be found right beside the definition of "jank" in the dictionary. While most of my devices are on a single network, I have a secondary network set up for my smart home gadgets and, for some unknown reason, my gaming desktop. The desktop doesn't have a Wi-Fi card, so it plugs in through Ethernet to an Eero router. In theory, that router should be part of the same network as everything else, but it was not, at least not at first. It was running a completely different IP network than my primary Wi-Fi, and that meant the desktop – the host of the entire server – could not communicate with my smart TVs and streaming devices.

I spent hours figuring out why the Jellyfin app on my Roku couldn't see the server. Once I did, the solution was obvious; I had to set the Eero router to bridge the connection, not act as a secondary node. However, that discovery was the result of multiple troubleshooting sessions over a couple of days. It's a lot easier to configure your Jellyfin server when your network is in order, so make note of the correct IPs of all relevant devices. You could also save yourself a lot of trouble by simply streamlining your home network instead of creating a network that pays homage to MC Escher.

Plugins will improve the experience

And there are a lot of plugins that don't show up in the catalog by default

Jellyfin offered the opportunity to create a streaming service that was truly my own, catered exactly to my family's tastes and whims. I spent a lot of time looking at screenshots of other user's setups, but when the time came to start tweaking my own, I found the options to be a bit lackluster. I knew there were plugins, but the default catalog was underwhelming. The reason is simple: Jellyfin requires access to specific repositories before you can access the plugins found there. Granting this access is simple; just navigate to Dashboard -> Catalog, select the + icon beside Repositories, and enter the URL and name for the repo, then click Save. From that point on, you'll be able to access the plugin in your catalog.

There are a ridiculous number of Jellyfin plugins to choose from, and many serve similar or identical purposes. You don't need to overload your setup with different options; just pick a few that fit your server and start there. I suggest this Github repo of some of the most popular and highly-rated plugins.

You might need to open a couple of ports

Jellyfin might not open it for you

Trust me, I understand: networking can be intimidating. It's never been my favorite thing to deal with, but you might have to grit your teeth and open a few ports to get Jellyfin working properly. Port number 8906 is the default port for Jellyfin (and Emby, too). In some cases, installing Jellyfin will open the port for you, but that wasn't the case with me. I didn't realize it at first. I was able to open Jellyfin and configure my libraries, but accessing the content constantly threw an error. It was only after even more troubleshooting that I realized the port itself was not open. My desktop is a Windows 10 machine, so I accessed the port through Windows Defender Firewall. If you're on a different OS, the steps will likely be different.

I created a rule for the firewall that I named Jellyfin Port that opens the port and grants access. If you're worried about security, you can take that a step further and restrict port access to only specific devices, like your family's laptops or phones. You will still be able to use Jellyfin, but you will have more control over who can reach your network.

Jellyfin doesn't take up too many resources, but you will feel an impact

It's better to host on a dedicated device

Here's the good news: just about any machine can run Jellyfin and act as a server. I set it up on my gaming PC, mostly because I don't use it constantly and figured I wouldn't notice – but when someone in the house is streaming from the server while I'm gaming, I see a drop in performance. As a result, I'm in the process of shifting my server to a dedicated platform, like a Raspberry Pi. It's not a complicated process, thankfully. I've stored the actual files for my server on an external drive that I can easily connect to another device. But again, this is a situation I could have avoided entirely with a bit of planning and foresight, rather than jumping haphazardly into the project without planning.

Adios, overpriced streaming services

Jellyfin has already saved me a lot of money, just by allowing me to cancel a couple of streaming services that I kept in reserve for content I couldn't find anywhere else. I've enjoyed learning how to tweak everything to suit my tastes, and though I still have a long way to go (my metadata is a mess), Jellyfin is already the primary way everyone in my home watches content.