Linked servers
Your friend's films on your own TV, and yours on theirs.
FulDC++ has a media server built in: your TV, phone or browser plays your share through a Jellyfin app. Linked servers joins two of them. Your friend makes a code, you paste it into your FulDC++, and your friend's films and shows appear on your server on shelves of their own (“Anna Movies”, “Anna TV Shows”) — with posters, subtitles, seeking and resume, played on your TV from your friend's server through yours. A link works one way; for both ways, each of you makes a code.
Before you start
- The media server is on on both sides (Settings → Media server).
- The side that shares has HTTPS on and “reachable from the internet” allowed, and its HTTPS port open in the router (a port forward) — unless you are both on the same network. A connection that cannot take incoming connections at all (some mobile and “CGNAT” connections) can follow a friend, but cannot share.
- The sharing side has itself added as a person with a password under Settings → Media server → People.
Sharing with a friend
- Open Settings → Media server → Linked servers… and press Create code…
- Tick the folders your friend may see, give the code a label (“for Bob”), check the address (your external address and HTTPS port, filled in for you; a DDNS name works too) and choose how long the code is valid: 1, 3 or 7 days.
- Press Create, then Copy, and send the code to your friend.
- When your friend has used it, the link shows as waiting. Select it and press Accept. You are asked first, with the name of your friend's server, the label of the code it used and the address it came from — accept only if that is your friend.
Until you accept, your friend's server sees nothing. Remove ends a link at any time; your friend's shelves of your films disappear on their next check.
Following a friend
- Open the same Linked servers… window, paste the code into A friend's code and press Follow. Tick “My friend is on this network” if your friend's server is on your own network.
- Your friend accepts. A moment later your friend's shelves are on your server.
On your server, the administrator sees a friend's shelves. Anybody else in your house sees them only once you give them under People → Friends' shelves — your friend shared with you, not with everybody you have an account for. A film you already share yourself is not shown a second time on your friend's shelf.
Following a Jellyfin server
Add Jellyfin server… follows any Jellyfin server (or a FulDC++, as one) by its HTTPS address and an account there — no code, nothing to accept. The password is used once to sign in and is not kept. The server's certificate is trusted from that first contact; if it is renewed later, the link says so: unlink it and add it again, and what you watched is kept.
Downloading a friend's films
Select a friend in Servers this server follows and press Films…. Pick films or episodes and press Download to my share: they download over DC, from your friend's own client, into your download folder — while you are both on a hub. Your friend's client gives these files only to you, over an encrypted connection from your own client, even when they are in none of its DC shares. (Not for a Jellyfin server, which has no DC side.)
A bitrate limit per friend
Your upload is what your friend's films travel on. Bitrate limit… on a friend's link sets the highest bitrate of a film your server sends that friend as it is (in Mbit/s; empty or 0 for none). A film above it is not sent as it is: it plays on your friend's side as your server converts it down to that bitrate, relayed through theirs — if your converter is set up; if not, it is marked Download only and your friend can still download it over DC. The limit decides which films stream as they are, not how fast: a film under it is sent as fast as your connection allows.
How long a link lasts
| A code | 1, 3 or 7 days, and it works once |
|---|---|
| An accepted link | No end date. It lasts until either of you ends it, or the sharing server's certificate changes |
| A Jellyfin link | No end date. It lasts until the account is reset on that server, or you unlink it |
| Friend offline | Their shelves stay for 24 hours, then hide until your friend is back |
| How often it is checked | Every 10 minutes; every 2 while your friend cannot be reached |
If your friend's address changes (a new IP, a new port), your FulDC++ looks for your friend on the hubs you are both on and asks where their server is now. A new address is used only if the server there shows the same certificate as before.
When it does not work
- “No connection” when following: the sharing side's HTTPS port is not open from the internet. Check the port forward, and that HTTPS is on and allowed from outside. On the same network, tick “My friend is on this network”.
- “Waiting for your friend to accept”: your friend has not pressed Accept yet.
- “Certificate changed”: the sharing side's HTTPS certificate is not the one the code named. Ask for a new code (or, for a Jellyfin server, add it again).
- A film says “Download only”: it is above your friend's bitrate limit and your friend's converter is not set up. Download it over DC instead.
- “Not on a hub you are on” when downloading: join a hub your friend is on.