I use several different clients to stream from a local-network plex server. If a client has trouble finding the server by scanning, it’s usually easy to just input the server ip-address manually.
One client, (Plex for FireTV) cannot find the server by scanning and (strangely!) there is no option to input the address manually. If I log into my plex account on the client, voila… server is found, playback is fine.
Here’s my question: Is the stream using external bandwidth? Am I uploading the stream from the server to somewhere outside my network and then downloading it from somewhere outside to my player?
I feel like I know the answer, but enough people where complaining about this on a plex-for-firetv forum that I’m curious for confirmation.
If everything works as it is supposed to, the clients will talk directly to the server. Without crossing over into the internet.
There are a few things which can interfere though.
your router can block Plex’s way to use the DNS system, resulting in an ‘indirect’ connection.
your home network is “fragmented”. This happens if you use more than one router device. Or if you have a more complicated network layout, utilizing virtual networks and custom routing or VPNs.
Which then also results often in an indirect connection or no connection at all.
The client was on a subnet, which connected externally to a vpn. After some trial and error, it seems this was preventing the client (FireTV) from finding the server. Surprising a simple subnet could cause “fragmentation”.
