Is Plex allowed?

[rainmakerraw]

I’ve just switched my domain to Cloudflare (registrar), and set up Cloudflare as my domain’s NS also, obviously. I have a single domain, the A record for which points to my single static WAN IPv4 address at home. This hosts multiple services for my family (i.e. wife and kids), which previously I’d used longwinded and awkward port numbers to access (i.e. domain.com:1234, domain.com:5678).

Now, I have most of my services running on Docker with a Synology NAS acting as a local reverse proxy (nginx) to eliminate the need for those port numbers. Instead I now have sub.domain.com CNAMEs for all my services, all pointing to domain.com:443 (where the Synology reverse proxy sits to redirect subdomains to the appropriate local Docker container/resource). So far, so good.

I currently do not proxy my Plex, Emby or CCTV (Synology Surveillance) via Cloudflare, having this grey-clouded. I have just read online (Reddit post, SelfHosted forum posts) that some users have had their Cloudflare accounts terminated because they had their Plex subdomain proxied/orange cloud even though caching was disabled with a page rule or globally.

So am I understanding correctly that I can’t run Plex on my domain if I also use Cloudflare, except as a basic DNS pointer (grey cloud)? Since Cloudflare free doesn’t cache video files anyway, I’m guessing this is because Cloudflare would still be streaming the video from my home to the remote device (iPad, whatever, when we’re away from home).

Really I’m just double checking I’ve understood this correctly, so I’m not missing out on proxying my traffic. My confusion stems from reading on this very (official) forum many posts advising users on how to set up their Plex behind Cloudflare and have it accessible. Surely you all wouldn’t be helping people set up Plex on their Cloudflare accounts if its a bannable offence?

I’m solely concerned with protecting the domain and its resources rather than wanting to cache videos or gain any kind of advantage that way. For example now I have had to grey cloud my Emby, Plex and Synology NAS, Cloudflare warns me that my real IP is discoverable and I should proxy all CNAMEs… So, I’m confused.

Thanks in advance.

[novelltrade]

Contact customer support and click GET MORE HELP and let them know your situation. I hope that helps.

[rainmakerraw]

Done, thanks.

[matteo]

If you get a reply, please do post it here, just to close the issue and to solve it for people who may come searching for it later.

Just as clarification, Plex per se wouldn’t be banned, it always depends on the traffic. If it were for yourself only, with a few GBs per month, it wouldn’t be an issue. If you were serving tens of users, with hundreds and hundreds of GBs mostly localized to a single POP, then it may reach a significant percentage of the traffic on that POP which would cause issues.

[rainmakerraw]

@matteo

Just as clarification, Plex per se wouldn’t be banned

Unfortunately Cloudflare have replied, and Plex very much is:

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting Cloudflare Support. We’re sorry to read that you’re experiencing difficulties.

We’ll actively discourage you from doing this, as it says in the terms:

2.8 Limitation on Serving Non-HTML Content
The Service is offered primarily as a platform to cache and serve web pages and websites. Unless explicitly included as a part of a Paid Service purchased by you, you agree to use the Service solely for the purpose of serving web pages as viewed through a web browser or other functionally equivalent applications and rendering Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or other functional equivalents. Use of the Service for serving video (unless purchased separately as a Paid Service) or a disproportionate percentage of pictures, audio files, or other non-HTML content, is prohibited.

I dislike quoting T&C’s, to be honest, but that is what the system looks for, and triggering the usage you describe will cause everything to be routed off.

So if the traffic is running over the proxy, that will trigger the derouting for it all, even if it is not cached.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

(REDACTED) | Cloudflare Support Engineer

So that clears that up. It seems people ought to stop recommending setups for Plex users on the forums (how I discovered CF in the first place!), as it could get them de-routed and/or their accounts terminated.