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[eydlehoms49]

Hi, sorry if this is elementary. I'm wondering if its possible for the Roku to stream content from my web server. My mother is completely tech-challenged and recently got rid of DirecTV, we live on opposite coasts and I've been mailing her usb drives full of movies for use with our dvd player. It would be amazing if I could update her library remotely. Any ideas? Thanks!

[atc98092]

Yes it can, through a third party server product. Plex offers a media server you install on your computer. Once configured, it is available over the Internet to users you authorize. You install the Plex channel on her Roku, and log it into your server. She can then access everything you offer via the Plex server. 

This does require configuring your Internet router to allow Plex to be accessed remotely. You can find more information on the Plex site (https://www.plex.tv/). Note that they do offer a paid version, but the free version works perfectly well for this use. 

[DBDukes]

As @atc98092 said, you can do that very thing with Plex. My mother used to watch my video library from her house. You just need to set it up. 

A possible issue you might encounter would be your server being powerful enough to serve the content up. Depending on how you have the files stored, your Plex server may have to transcode the files. However, if you have them stored in mp4, for example, you will not have that issue.

[atc98092]

Don't forget one more thing, your Internet upload speed. Many providers use an asynchronous connection, meaning the upload and download speeds are not the same. In my case, I have 108 Mbps down but only 10 Mbps up. Since you don't want your remote viewer to suffer through constant buffering, you can set an outgoing bitrate on the Plex server for both local (your own network) and remote (Internet access) users. I have my server set at 7 Mbps, and that seems to work well with my connection. I take a Roku with me when I travel and connect using the hotel WiFi.