This is fantastic. Thanks.

Thanks, your link worked for me.

I clicked on the link to “installation instructions” on your home page in a couple of different places and got the error “e.split is not a function”.

What VPS service do you use/recommend and what’s your monthly cost?

Here is the guide I used to understand and setup Gluetun. Enjoy!

https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/gluetun-docker-guide/

I also use Gluetun. I consider it more or less mandatory for container–based torrent client setups. The idea is that you run your torrent client in a docker container and you run your VPN in a Gluetun docker container. Instead of opening up your torrent client ports directly for internet access, you make it a “service” of the Gluetun container. When your VPN drops connection, the Gluetun container loses connection, which means that your torrent client is also blocked. So, this setup provides a “fool proof” kill switch that prevents your torrent client from accessing the internet except through your VPN. This is as opposed to the kill switch built in to your VPN client, which tends not to be fool proof, particularly when using containers. I found this out the hard way.

I’m a Linux newb and I managed to set this up a couple months ago. Despite being new to servers and containers, I did not find it too difficult.

Here is the guide I used: https://zerodya.net/self-host-jellyfin-media-streaming-stack/

The guide above doesnt include Audiobookshelf installation, but you will quickly see that adding Audiobookshelf to the basic setup is very easy. There are two things I’ve learned since the initial setup, which are worth a deviation from the guide above.

First, the recommendation in the guide to use a separate userid and groupid (1001) for the docker containers vs. your own userid/groupid (1000) is a royal PITA and not necessary for most basic use cases.

Second, and much more important, you MUST set up your VPN in a Gluetun container and then make your torrent client container a “service” of the Gluetun container. Yes, I know, that sounds like some advanced-level abstraction, but it is actually extremely easy to do and it will save you from getting a nastygram from your ISP when your VPN loses connection. The MPIAA is extremely active with automated detection and processing of torrenting data, but if you set up your VPN with Gluetun, you have a perfectly effective kill switch when your VPN connection drops. And, no, the built-in killswitch on your VPN client won’t work with containers.

Here is the guide I used to make that modification to the initial setup: https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/gluetun-docker-guide/

Good luck! It was fun to set up, and even more fun to use.

Just to close off this thread, you were 100% right about using Gluetun as well.

After I got everything working nicely (pre-Gluetun), I got a strange email from my ISP about allegedly copyrighted material being made available by someone or other on my home IP. No idea who that could be.

Turns out, friends, that VPNs sometimes silently drop connection. And the killswitch may block the traffic of the user that initiated the VPN connection, but it not does not block Transmission traffic inside a docker container. That was a bummer to find out the hard way. Anyway, running the VPN in a Gluetun container and making it a service of the Transmission container solves that problem rather nicely and is surprisingly easy to implement. Thanks to the developer for that, and thanks to you for pointing me down the right path!

You were right, it wasn’t the pihole. I managed to get the system running by whitelisting my LAN in my VPN, which I’ve never had to do before. I’ll certainly look into creating services with gluetun, though! Thanks!

Thank you for this. It got me to look up asymmetric network routing :)

During troubleshooting, I realized that it wasn’t just Jellyseerr that was being blocked, but all kinds of processes. I managed to get the system working by whitelisting my local network within my VPN. I’ve never had to do that before, so it probably indicates some other problem. I’ll look into virtual machines next!