I know ExpressVPN is pretty popular these days (especially for un-geoblocking) so hopefully I can get an answer here - Has anyone here managed to get their PMS working with ExpressVPN enabled?
I’ve been scouring the forums and Google for a solution to get the bloody thing to allow remote access, but it’s been rather futile, their support chat wasn’t even sure if it was achievable without port forwarding and offered next to no assistance. I’ve tried split tunneling to not include Plex, I’ve tried disabling the Network Lock, also not connecting to the VPN DNS servers, no deal; There must be some way.
The only choice I have left at this stage is to install the VPN in a VM… but I’d rather not if there is an alternative method.
you may, or may not have seen these (googled them easily enough):
…might offer some clue or idea not previously visited…
I use PIA and it was a 2 minute operation forwarding a port in my router, then telling Plex and my PIA client what that port was.
Idiot Proof <— had to be - I did it.
Thanks @JuiceWSA. One of your google searched links found a relavant solution for me (and I thought my google skills were up to scratch ;)).
I got a bit delayed and forgot about replying to this thread, but anyway here is the workaround for other users on ExpressVPN who are having issues with Plex. It is a method that will need some recurring maintenance to keep working, but it does get Plex working with the ExpressVPN Service.
You will need to use the OpenVPN GUI client in place of the ExpressVPN App. Instructions on how to do that are here:
#Plex and ExpressVPN
You can set static routes to allow certain IPs through. So what you’re really doing is telling your VPN client (OpenVPN, perhaps?) that IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (belonging to plex.tv) should connect directly to the Plex Media Server.
Here’s what I mean:
First you need to know the IPs of plex.tv. These IPs change fairly often. On any OS in the Command window/terminal, you should run
nslookup plex.tv
This will return the IPs plex.tv is currently using.
Then you have to tell your VPN client to allow those IPs through to your local network (and bypass the VPN). In Open VPN, this is pretty easy. Locate the config file for the connection you’re using (check OpenVPN’s docs, or just poke around). Open the config file in a text editor.
Add lines like this:
route xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 255.255.0.0
where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is one of the IPs you found via nslookup. Repeat for each of the other IPs found via nslookup.
Like I said, plex changes IPs pretty often, so you’ll need to update this once in a while. I make it a little easier on myself by adding a comment line before this section in the config file. Comment lines are preceded by a hash:
#Plex IPs for July 28 2016
route 54.194.102.80 255.255.0.0 192.168.1.13
Mine PMS is 192.168.1.13.
@OkelV said:
Thanks @JuiceWSA. One of your google searched links found a relavant solution for me (and I thought my google skills were up to scratch ;)).
I got a bit delayed and forgot about replying to this thread, but anyway here is the workaround for other users on ExpressVPN who are having issues with Plex. It is a method that will need some recurring maintenance to keep working, but it does get Plex working with the ExpressVPN Service.
#Plex and ExpressVPN
You can set static routes to allow certain IPs through. So what you’re really doing is telling your VPN client (OpenVPN, perhaps?) that IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (belonging to plex.tv) should connect directly to the Plex Media Server.
Here’s what I mean:
First you need to know the IPs of plex.tv. These IPs change fairly often. On any OS in the Command window/terminal, you should run
nslookup plex.tv
This will return the IPs plex.tv is currently using.
Then you have to tell your VPN client to allow those IPs through to your local network (and bypass the VPN). In Open VPN, this is pretty easy. Locate the config file for the connection you’re using (check OpenVPN’s docs, or just poke around). Open the config file in a text editor.
Add lines like this:
route xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 255.255.0.0
where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is one of the IPs you found via nslookup. Repeat for each of the other IPs found via nslookup.
Like I said, plex changes IPs pretty often, so you’ll need to update this once in a while. I make it a little easier on myself by adding a comment line before this section in the config file. Comment lines are preceded by a hash:
#Plex IPs for July 28 2016
route 54.194.102.80 255.255.0.0 192.168.1.13
Mine PMS is 192.168.1.13.
I hope this helps.
This all quite manual in nature, with having to nslookup all the relevant ip’s… Depending on your host os, you can use this OpenVPN router script for your split routing needs. The link goes for a tomato router (or tomato based…) but if you have an *nix host OS, the script would not be that hard to use as well…
Oops, I somehow missed your reply to this thread. It might be a little late, but for anyone who needs to bypass their VPN, here are 2 tools that can help.
