Hi all,
First, let me say I am not as well versed in many of the things around this. It originally took me 3 days to set up Sonarr in the first place, so I really appreciate your patience with me on this.
I picked up a mini pc to use for my *arr setup and have it just working in conjunction with my drobo nas. I want to be able to connect to it remotely from 2 locations: my home computer and then with my phone if I am out and about. If a friend tells me to check something out, I’d like to be able to add it instead of trying to remember, forgetting, then doing it all over when I run into them next.
I have found many people saying to either set it up with a VPN or with a reverse proxy. The only issue is I have no idea what either of those mean.
I’ve tried looking up how to set it up, but it just keeps coming back to “just set up a reverse proxy/VPN and you’ll be good!”
So how do I set up a VPN so I can remotely access sonarr from where ever? I am using PIA as my VPN on my mini pc currently.
Thank you for the help and guidance here!
Tailscale vpn app - free (for up to 20devices) secure and super easy 3 clicks installation
A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. Simply put, it’s a way to route your network traffice through a different computer. The way that you PIA VPN works is it connects your computer to a PIA server and lets it “act” as your computer. So to the websites you visit, it’ll see you as the PIA server, complete with the server’s IP. VPNs can also be used to hide your internet traffic (like if you’re connected to a public WiFi that you don’t trust) since it’s encrypted.
Setting up your own VPN will do the same (except that websites and other users will see you as your server, with your home IP), which means the traffic from your phone or laptop will be routed to your server, where it then sends it on to Facebook, Google, Sonarr, or wherever you browse. Since you’re routing your traffic through your server, that means you get access to the devices that it can access, like devices on your home network or the Sonarr service on your server. This is considered safer than just opening Sonarr’s port in your firewall, since you’re only opening a single (encrypted) port which requires authentication. By comparison, Sonarr’s authentication is really weak and really only meant to keep your non-techie users out (there have been countless examples of open service getting pwned, including a couple with Sonarr/Radarr)
Personally, I use Tailscale which gives each machine it’s installed on its own local IP on the virtual network. The main benefit of Tailscale is however that it can be used without port-forwarding since I don’t have administrative access to my router (port-forwarding is required for a self-hosted VPN) It’s also free for personal use and you can share individual devices with other users (such as a Plex server with a friend)
If all you care about is adding shows/movies while on the go, one approach would be to forget about VPN and just set up a sync with Trakt. Then you just add them to a Trakt list via the app and they magically show up at home.
This is the video I followed and it works perfectly
I would recommend wireguard. Super easy to setup on windows or Linux or through docker. Newer/simpler/probably more secure vpn protocol than openvpn
Also want to mention Luna Sea (iOS) and nzb360(android) best apps I’ve found for managing *arrs programs
Agree with the people who suggest a Trakt list or Tailscale - just to throw another out out there, ZeroTier does pretty much the same thing and has been working great for me
Hi /u/Diligent_Walrus27 -
There are many resources available to help you troubleshoot and help the community help you.
Please review this comment and you can likely have your problem solved without needing to wait for a human.
Most troubleshooting questions require debug or trace logs.
In all instances where you are providing logs please ensure you followed the Gathering Logs wiki article to ensure your logs are what are needed for troubleshooting.
Logs should be provided via the methods prescribed in the wiki article. Note that Info logs are rarely helpful for troubleshooting.
Dozens of common questions & issues and their answers can be found on our FAQ.
Please review our troubleshooting guides that lead you through how to troubleshoot and note various common problems.
If you’re still stuck you’ll have useful debug or trace logs and screenshots to share with the humans who will arrive soon.
Those humans will likely ask you for the exact same thing this comment is asking…
Once your question/problem is solved, please comment anywhere in the thread saying ‘!solved’ to change the flair to solved.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I use Google Remote Desktop to access my PC.
+1 for trakt to achieve what you want. It’s fantastic, and foolproof.
In my router (TP-Link Archer C7 v4.0) there is an option for openvpn server, I just enabled it generated a certificate put that into the app for my phone (from openvpn) imported the certificate and good to go, just like I was on my home network.
No fees required.
Router OpenVpn Configuration
I use a pfSense box for my router and run my own VPN server for my personal, remote connections. I also have OpenVPN connections from my pfSense box to IPVanish and ExpressVPN to route all of the internet traffic from my house. This way I can connect to my house via VPN through either VPN tunnel or my public WAN address depending on how I configure the server.
Huh, I’ll have to check into this. Would it also allow me to access it from my home computer?
I’ll give it a watch in the morning, thank you for the link!
Trakt.tv is just an website/app that lets you build watch lists, rate movies and shows, etc.
You set up Sonarr/Radarr to import those watchlist.
So no, it doesn’t effect your ability to use *arr normally if that’s what you are asking.
If you’re using Plex as your media server, Sonarr can also be configured to monitor the built-in watchlist and add shows as they’re added to the list. Radarr does have a similar thing which uses RSS, but it only updates about once or twice a day. IIRC they’re working on the same integration as Sonarr has though.
Regarding the *arr check interval… you can manually kick off the sync task whenever you want, also.
I haven’t played much with the new Plex Watchlist, as I have plextraktsync and a whole automation already set up, but good point!
you can manually kick off the sync task whenever you want, also.
Sure, but that requires you to trigger it in the Sonarr settings, which defeats the purpose of automating it and requires them to set up a way to access Sonarr remotely.
I guess it depends on the need. If you are wanting to watch the show immediately? Ok.
If you just want to add it to the watchlist, have it download overnight, and watch it when you have time, then it’s automated fine. It just takes a bit.
I purely use Trakt because I’m not usually adding shows I need that second. On the occasion I so want to add something and watch it immediately, I’m almost always at home anyway and I can kick off the sync.
Anyway, the point is that it’s one simple option that might cover needs without requiring anything complicated.
Absolutely. If you want to watch it immediately you’re better off just manually adding it to Sonarr and telling it search IMO.
But for OP’s needs, they were specifically looking for a way to add shows remotely, which would require some kind of VPN or exposing Sonarr to the internet for them to be able to trigger the list sync manually.
