When plex server is behind a VPN plex will use the public IP which the VPN uses. It would be good to have a simple ‘Manually specify public IP’ option for people to easily set up remote access.
Currently the workaround is to have all traffic from Plex to go through the VPN except for traffic going to plex.tv. Whilst this set up is good it would of been easier to just set my own IP.
Also the fact a lot of consumer IP addresses are not static it would be good to be able to set this to a domain. e.g. home.example.com. Quite a few people use DNS services which keeps track of their dynamic IP address.
I’ve tried using that option and it does not seem to work with the iOS app however it will work in a browser.
I don’t use iOS so I’m not sure of it’s setup but do you have this client setup to use a fixed IP?
The limited connection might be what’s causing the problem.
Plex Server: 192.168.99.55/24 (static) listening on default ports
Router LAN: 192.168.99.1/24 (static)
Router WAN: [OMITTED_WAN_IP] (static)
DNS A Record: plex.home.OMITTED.com -> [OMITTED_WAN_IP]
Router configured to forward [OMITTED_WAN_IP]:32400 to 192.168.99.55
iOS client is using DHCP outside of my LAN
Desktop browser client is using DHCP outside of my LAN
Adding http://plex.home.OMITTED.com:32400 to "Custom server access URLs" will get Plex working when accessing from plex.tv but will say the connection is limited which I’m sure means is that it’s using a relay instead of a direct connection via the URL provided in "Custom server access URLs"
I set “Custom server access URLs” to my DNS which resolves to my external IP which I want to be used for plex access.
I removed the routing rule therefore Plex Media Server will connext to plex.tv via my VPN tunnel
Although I set the “Custom server access URLs” to a domain by public IP on “Remote Access” is still resolved to my VPN public IP therefore plex attempts to use [VPN_PUBLIC_IP]:32400 and not [EXTERNAL_IP]:32400
@kantlivelong said:
Adding http://plex.home.OMITTED.com:32400 to “Custom server access URLs” will get Plex working when accessing from plex.tv but will say the connection is limited which I’m sure means is that it’s using a relay instead of a direct connection via the URL provided in “Custom server access URLs”
If the connection is limited then that is the relay feature. That means the client could not reach your server directly so it’s going through Plex.tv.
^^ Is that exactly what you entered? By using http you are saying to use an insecured connection. The iOS app by default is not allowed to connect using an insecure connection. There should be a setting to change this.
I’m no expert in that stuff but I’ll take a look. Can restart PMS, wait 3 minutes then try connecting from the iOS app a few times. Then grab both the PMS and iOS logs.
I’ve PM’d you the log files. You will notice and can ignore the successful connection on the iOS client at some point due to switching WiFi back on when grabbing the log files. (Thought I had to browse to port 32500 but I guess not)
I have server on a Synology NAS. The first when enabling remote access, my external VPN address is set for Public. Afterwards, even I turned the VPN off, the Public IP address never updated.
And I cannot find you suggestion “Under settings -> Network -> Server Access URL - this will publish any domains you put in there for server discovery.” Under Network, only “Security connections” is available, plus a checkbox “Enable local network discovery (GDM).”
Isn’t there a configuration file somewhere on the server which can be edited?
You have to decide how you are going to set this up and dedicate your system to working ONE way. It’s either using your real public IP address or your VPN address. If using the VPN public address you need to have a static VPN address AND have to be able to port forward to your local 32400 port of the Plex server. If you can’t do that with your current VPN provider then you can’t use it with Plex.
The real problem here is that Plex offers no advanced option to specify the inbound IP and will simply detect the wrong IP because outbound connections use a different gateway than inbound.
Well I don’t disagree that Plex could handle networking and ports better and be more configurable but at the same time this is usually a user configuration that can be changed.
If you setup your Plex server so it has one IP and one Gateway with the proper netmask then you won’t have these types of problems.
Agreed. Just don’t see why I need to work around Plex instead of it just working with me. It’s not like the ability to specify an IP is difficult to add. It’s already an option for the port.
