Possible to use JF on a mobile hotspot?

[4r5hw45twh]

So, I just moved into my partner's place. They don't have a traditional Internet provider, so we are using my Netgear Nighthawk MR1100 (unlocked) that I happened to have. A T-Mobile SIM is in it. Is it possible to connect to JF through it? Everything works fine locally on my PC but we like to use the projector, which is connected to their phone, which is connected to the WiFi network to play JF media. That's how we had it work at least. But now we only have this hotspot since I moved.

I assume I can't forward the port on the hotspot....or can I? Not sure how to proceed.

[TheDreadPirate]

It depends. I'm not familiar with that particular router, but the manual for it indicates it has the capability to port forward. But, generally speaking, mobile providers don't like letting people run servers on their connections. And mobile connections tend to be network managed a lot more than wired connections (throttling connections during peak usage). I have T-mobile through Ting on my cell phone. AFAICT, T-mobile doesn't use CGNAT. At the very least they should be giving you a proper IPv6 address so CGNAT on IPv4 can be worked around through IPv6. I don't know if you have a data cap, but keep that in mind. Video consumes a lot more data than you think.

[4r5hw45twh]

It depends.  I'm not familiar with that particular router, but the manual for it indicates it has the capability to port forward.  But, generally speaking, mobile providers don't like letting people run servers on their connections.  And mobile connections tend to be network managed a lot more than wired connections (throttling connections during peak usage).  I have T-mobile through Ting on my cell phone.  AFAICT, T-mobile doesn't use CGNAT.  At the very least they should be giving you a proper IPv6 address so CGNAT on IPv4 can be worked around through IPv6.  I don't know if you have a data cap, but keep that in mind.  Video consumes a lot more data than you think.

Thanks for the reply! Data cap-wise, I changed the IMEI and some other stuff on the router/hotspot so that the SIM thinks the hotspot is a phone, so the cap isn't there. Still throttled speeds at a certain point, but no cap, luckily. Yeah, so the hard drives and whatnot are on my PC, locally. I do have a VPS & domain name that I use so I can tell people to go to "jellyfin.website.com" instead of giving my IP out, if that could help at all. "should be giving you a proper IPv6 address so CGNAT on IPv4 can be worked around through IPv6." How exactly does this work, and what's the benefit?

While on the topic, do you know if a Xfinity hotspot (that you need to login to a Comcast account to use) could be used? Had the same issue using that, and would prefer to use that if possible so we don't eat our own mobile data up.

[TheDreadPirate]

 "should be giving you a proper IPv6 address so CGNAT on IPv4 can be worked around through IPv6." How exactly does this work, and what's the benefit?

Just thinking out loud just in case I was wrong about there not being CGNAT for T-mobile's network for IPV4.  TLDR; if you had a CGNAT'd IPv4 address, but a proper IPv6 address you could point your domain or VPS to the IPv6 address and not have to worry about the CGNAT.

While on the topic, do you know if a Xfinity hotspot (that you need to login to a Comcast account to use) could be used? Had the same issue using that, and would prefer to use that if possible so we don't eat our own mobile data up.

No idea.  Pretty sure Xfinity Mobile is just Verizon.  My main concern with both T-Mobile or Xfinity is their TOS and potentially violating them.

 
I do have a VPS & domain name that I use so I can tell people to go to "jellyfin.website.com" instead of giving my IP out, if that could help at all. 

When you are at home, do you use your domain name/VPS to access your jellyfin?  Or do you just use the local IP?

[4r5hw45twh]

When you are at home, do you use your domain name/VPS to access your jellyfin?  Or do you just use the local IP?

When I lived at home, I had regular Internet, so we used my domain name that pointed to my VPS which then pointed to my home public IP. But now since we don't have regular Internet, and just the hotspot, I simply changed the public IP to the new one of the hotspot, and that actually does work now since I forwarded the port on the hotspot. However, now the dilemma is using the hotspot data or somehow trying to use the public Xfinity hotspots that are around the city. Can use the Xfinity ones no problem once we sign into them with a Comcast account, but I assume there's no way to login to them and open ports, etc.

[TheDreadPirate]

However, now the dilemma is using the hotspot data or somehow trying to use the public Xfinity hotspots that are around the city. Can use the Xfinity ones no problem once we sign into them with a Comcast account, but I assume there's no way to login to them and open ports, etc.

Definitely not since they are owned by other people and you don't have the router login credentials.