Beelink ME Pro - my first NAS

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SerjTank

42 posts

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#323883 29-Jan-2026 21:30

I recently got a Beelink MEPro. It's my first NAS. I'd like to set it up simply and securely using free software. Initially, I will use it to stream music and possibly movies from. It's running Windows 11 home currently, and I have begun to install Jellyfin on it. I've been getting a little confused when looking at all the options for securing it, reading about reverse VPN, virtual layers, VPN etc. etc.

Again, I need a simple, yet secure setup to stream movies and music from while I'm at home, and while I'm not at home. Thank you for any recommendations you may be able to provide.

War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left.

everettpsycho

668 posts

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#3457064 29-Jan-2026 22:04

So you need to decide on an OS but based on your use case you will need a media server and method to remote access the device.

Media servers there's a few, if you want free jellyfin seems to be the main one you hear about.

Remote access there's various methods you can use. Personally I've set up tail scale but there's things like cloud flare proxies and other options available. The biggest headache here is if your connection uses cgnat circumventing it can limit your options and add complexity. All doable but not as easy as a dynamic dns and vpn used to be. Try tail scale as on a non Linux box it's probably easier than I had to do on proxmox.

Those things in .one you have a few OS options

Truenas is pretty tried and tested, well regarded and has good support in the community. Only issue is it can be tricky if you don't know what you're doing.

ZimaOS is a new one that is free but going paid soon. I'd give it a shot and get the free license forever and you can always uninstall it, you would have to pay for that license later

Open media vault is one I've heard of that is good for beginners but doesn't offer as much a customisation as true as.

Most will definitely say take windows off. It's quite bloated and not a great platform for a nas. The ones above are lightweight meaning the power and ram is saved for serving you your media and have app stores to me install things like jellyfin and tails ale from. I also imagine windows defender on a nas would destroy your performance with how it loves scanning everything coming over the network.

Handle9

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#3457082 30-Jan-2026 00:58

My ISP has moved to exclusively CGNAT for residential connections. This has prompted me to go from a mixture of Cloudflare tunnels and reverse proxy to move everything to pangolin for remote access to services. There's a cost involved but it's no big deal, especially as I already have a domain.

It was relatively straight forward to setup and performance seems decent. I'm cutting over fully tonight as we move from our static IP house to a CGNAT house tomorrow.

cddt

1965 posts

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#3457101 30-Jan-2026 06:39

Re the OS: a lot of people are going to tell you that Linux is far better for this use case. I agree with this.

Jellyfin is a great software, highly recommend it.

Securing the server - you have two main options. The first option is to expose it to the internet and configure a reverse proxy. This is relatively straightforward, but if you are the only one accessing it, you don't need to do this. The second option is to use some kind of VPN or similar service to connect your roaming device to your local network, so it can access the server which is only available locally. Something like WireGuard is good, some routers will let you set this up out of the box.

Anyway those are a few random thoughts... and not completely coherent, since I'm tired.

MikeAqua

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#3458692 4-Feb-2026 13:56

Which version did you get?

Mike

SerjTank

42 posts

Geek
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#3458772 4-Feb-2026 16:21

Thanks for your help everyone. Currently I've got TrueNAS and Tailscale running on it. Much better than when it was on Windows.

The NAS I have is the base model... 12gb ram, N95 processor. It's pretty quiet, compact, and cool to run so far.

War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left.