I prefer not to allow remote access to the computer running my plex server for fairly obvious reasons but wish Alexa could control it like it does other local devices that do not have outside access.
This is not possible. There is no way for Alexa to search for your server locally, it doesnāt work that way.
How is it that local players find the server?
Local players are not a cloud-based speech-recognition deviceā¦
there are very few devices alexa can control locally. basically there is only zigbee lights (only the bigger echo models) and one or two types of home automation wall plugs because the soft and hardware to do so is build into the echo.
everything else has to go through third party skills and cloud based apis because the code for skill the skills must be callable by amazon services. home automation skills are even required to run on amazon aws. custom skills can be hosted by the vendor.
there are open source home automation systems that will allow local skill code but even then they have to run at least parts of the code on aws. for a plug and play system like plex and commercial vendors there is simply no way to run completely locally.
And yet, none of those other devices need to have the vulnerabilities that direct outside internet access allows. Alexa can turn on my TVs and change channels just fine without a hole in the firewall to them. I donāt have a problem with Alexa connecting (outbound) to Amazonās servers to run the skill and voice recognition, but the connection to my local devices needs to be handled by the local alexa device the way it works with everything else. It should not take a hole allowing the rest of the world in to accomplish this any more than it does for TVs.
Yes, they do. You just donāt know about it. 
Sure, but youād have to hack into the upstream servers to affect them. I think Amazon can afford better network security than my own plex server computer gets.
Your TVs have Alexa built in which means they talk to Amazonās serverās automatically. Amazon did release an update a while ago that allows some Alexa devices to work locally, so if your internet goes out, you can still control your lights. I donāt know what devices support this, but Plex has no Alexa code, only the skill itself, which lives on Amazonās servers, so your PMS has to be accessible via remote access.
if your internet is not working your echos will stop understanding anything as the recognition is working on amazon servers in the cloud. also the skill code is hosted there (or has at least to be reachable from there). so even if you have a light that an echo can control locally (like zigbee) it will not work.
even for devices that have āalexa build inā you mostly have to active a skill that runs in the cloud. and these devices will open some sort of reverse network connection to the vendor cloud to be reachable from the outside.
As I mentioned just above, there was an update so this is not true for all Echo devices. I canāt remember which ones, but there are some newer Echo devices that can work without internet. Iām guessing the lights/switches might need to be compatible too. Regardless, none of that helps Plex.
Actually while it might not be possible to control Plex without remote access allowed I do not ever have remote access enabled and I can control my devices just fine in several ways. I can directly control my Harmony remote/hub with Alexa without any remote access. I also have an app installed that allows me to say things like āPause Rokuā or āPlay Rokuā and my Roku just plays.
I cannot tell my devices to play anything by name but, for me, that is unimportant.
I find it hard to believe that remote access is required to control most devices and even the Plex app itself. Yes Alexa must, in most cases, see the internet but that is NOT the same as allowing Plex to be accessed remotely.
I use a VPN and no ports are required to be opened or forwarded and my Alexa is fully functional but Plex, if I were to try to allow it, would fail without jumping through a bunch of hoops.
I simply believe that the Plex folks are missing some pretty simple way to allow Alexa to control Plex without any remote access required they just have tunnel vision and because the found a way that works for some they cannot see the other alternatives.
The Alexa Plex skill is hosted at Amazon on their servers. When you tell your Alexa to do play X movie. It sends that command to Amazon services to figure out what you are saying and tells the Plex Skill there what you said. The Plex Skill then like a remote player on the otherside of the world then need to over the internet request the Plex Media Server at your house to play X movie or whatever. Like the remote player asking a server to so something to access that server remote access needs to be enabled so it can contact the server and tell it to do X or Y or Z. The Plex Media Server is a lot more complicated than your harmony remote/hub or simple commands like On/Off for a light switch, etc.
The simple fact is this feature request wonāt happen because Alexa just doesnāt work that way regardless of what you find hard to believe about how Alexa works.
Rather than just closing it which is what I would normally do to feature request that will not happen I am moving this too the General Discussion are if you really want to keep talking about.
Iād be perfectly happy if the necessary commands/connections were relayed through the echo device which has outbound connections to the Amazon servers, or if Plex itself offered the option to talk outbound to the Alexa service. I donāt find it āhard to believeā that Plex or the Alexa skill doesnāt offer a safe way to provide this functionality but Iām annoyed by it.
To be clear when I said āā¦hard to believe.ā I was referring the E Baileys comment above mine not you.
ah. the harmony is a great example ā¦
actually your harmony hub is opening a reverse connection to the logitech cloud and is allowing remote connections in exact,y the way i have described above. just because it is automatic without you doing anything or knowing about it.
yes. there is a local xmpp api but in the latest firmware versions it has to be activated manually and it is of no use for alexa as the echo does not send the commands directly to the hub but the amazon cloud sends it to the cloud hosted harmony skill which will then sends it to the logitech cloud which sends it to the reverse connection your device has hpened.
and yes. i know. i have written a harmony module for the fhem home automation system. and an alexa skill. and a sonos moduleā¦
there is no way for the skill and vendor code to run on the echo device itself. so there is no other way. and this remote stuff happens. even if you find it hard to believe.
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