I’ve been using Plex for several years on Windows with mixed success. I have consistently had issues with my antivirus/firewall intermittently causing issues, which I have dealt with in stride, but I had recently found a nice sweet spot with Kaspersky. That said, their software is being discontinued in the US due to federal legislation, so I attempted to roll the dice once more and try out some new software. I initially installed Comodo, which I had never tried before, and now my media server is non-functional. I’ve uninstalled Comodo, disabled all Windows built-in antivirus/firewall settings, reinstalled Plex (including after deleting all residual local files/folders), but nothing has fixed the issue.
Symptoms are as follows:
Initially, my devices would still detect the server, but I could no longer directly connect, so playback was being relayed / transcoded. This is a new issue for devices on the network (my Samsung smart tv and Android phone), which have traditionally direct connected without issue (e.g., streaming original quality 4K HDR content to my smart tv).
Now, my devices often cannot even detect that the media server is active. Sometimes restarting the server or computer knocks something loose and the server re-appears, but even when it reappears, the connection is not direct.
I am a Plex Pass member and have really enjoyed using Plex when it has functioned properly, but given the repeated and now seemingly insurmountable issues, I’m thinking about moving on to a new media server solution. Hopefully someone here can help me navigate this though…
I did so, and the issue persists. I even then disabled all Windows Defender and Firewall protection to confirm that was not causing the issue, and the issue persisted.
I just got word that this might be caused by the connection between plex and letsencrypt.
I recommend you to pause any attempts to claim your server until the incident has been marked as solved in here: https://letsencrypt.status.io/
To answer your first round of questions, I typically use Chrome with various extensions that have nevwr previously caused issue. I inly use the browser to manage the server and primsrily use my smart tv for viewing. I’m not sure why my browser would impact performance of the server when content is streaming to another device, but let me know if I’m missing something there.
I just tried updating my DNS to 1.1.1.1 with 8.8.8.8 as a backup, but the issue with lack of direct connection persists. I also do not have any ad blocker or other internet traffic filters running on my local network.
Can you expand on what the impact of the letsencrypt issue might be? Given that my issues immediately followed some local system modifications, Im skeptical that this is an external server issue, but I will keep an eye on it as suggested.
It doesn’t. It is just a likely cause if you often lose grip of your server.
It wasn’t really clear from your initial post that this is an issue for you.
A very common cause of direct accessibility in the local network is “DNS rebinding protection”, applied by the local DNS resolver, or sometimes a firewall.
This article explains the background and offers some tips to resolve it: https://support.plex.tv/articles/206225077-how-to-use-secure-server-connections/
