Guys - really could use some help here. I’ve got something that I can’t seem to figure out. Recently I’ve noticed a severe decline in the quality of my movies being streamed inside my home network. Also timing out, etc. Took me awhile to realize that I was getting a relayed connection inside my network.
My setup is as follows:
Plex server stored in a central room in my home with NAS attached storing my media. Cable modem and router in the same location.
My house is 2 levels so I have 2 bridge routers set up on the same network using Google DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
I have even gone so far as to reinstall windows, reinstall PLEX SERVER and rebuild my library in an attempt to resolve this issue but with no luck.
I’ve read through some similar posts but nothing seems to click. I’ve been using PLEX in my home with this setup for more than 3 years now. This is a new problem that’s been occurring for the last month or so.
I’m having the exact same issue. It only started happening when I upgraded my server software to Version 1.14.0.5470. Before that, everything worked just fine. I’ve logged out of my server, restarted it, logged out of Plex on both my ROKU and two LG Smart TVs and restarted them. I still get the Relayed Connection instead of a Direct Connection. I don’t see how it can be anything but the server software since everything was working great (for years) before that. What can I do to get to to work???
So I need to change the DNS on my router??? I’m trying to wrap my head around the reason for that. Everything worked PERFECTLY until I upgraded. Shouldn’t wee be looking at the actual upgrade???
I’ll give this a try (if I can figure it out) but I’m pretty sure the issue isn’t on my end.
Okay…I successfully changed DNS as well as took the other steps. I was unable to do step 3(b) but I’m fine with keeping my Secure Connections at Preferred (which they were before). Unfortunately, I am still getting “Indirect” playback on my LG Smart TVs and “Relayed Connection” on my ROKUs. I’ve restarted the Plex Server as well as the apps on the TVs. No success. I’m open for any other ideas/suggestions you have. Thanks
Let’s first confirm that we have an issue with DNS rebinding:
Set ‘Secure Connections’ to “Disabled”
then restart the server
The web app may now warn you that the connection to the server is not ‘secure’ and
It may ask you whether you’d like to connect ‘unsecured’. Say ‘yes’ at this stage.
The purpose is to try and see if the connection to the server is now direct/local.
OK. If you disable Secure Connections, the ‘relayed’ access is not available anymore. So this confirms that the tv devices cannot contact your server directly.
You can now turn this setting back to ‘preferred’.
Do they use the exact same WiFi network?
Does your router have a setting activated, which isolates the ‘wired’ part your your home network from the ‘wireless’?
(sometimes called ‘guest network’ or ‘AP isolation’ or similarly)
Did you recently add a ‘network’ device to your setup, like a second router, a WiFi repeater, a PowerLan segment or the like?
Yes - I use the same network. 2 are wired and 2 are wireless.
No. I do not have guest access activated.
No new network device at all. Literally the ONLY change I’ve made has been upgrading Plex server. And the only reason I did that was because of the new Plex interface that was rolled out for ROKU. I was ‘forced’ to upgrade if I wanted to use Plex on my ROKUs. I have had absolutely NO issues with indirect play, remote access or anything for years - until the dreaded upgrade.
Settings - Server - Network - ‘Show Advanced’
‘LAN networks’ - put in the network address of your LAN (e.g. 192.168.2.0/24
‘Treat WAN IP As LAN Bandwidth’ - should be ‘ticked’
After doing these configuration changes, restart the plex server and then let it sit for at least 1 hour.
After this, shut down your TVs and other plex clients and force them to reboot (unplug the power, instead of just switching them off).
If that still doesn’t help, I think we need to inspect server logs.
No joy! I’m attaching the logs. I was still getting Indirect playback on by LG Smart TV as well as Relayed Connection on my ROKUs. I also lost remote access.
I’m going to undo all of the settings we did today so at least my remote users will have some access. I can always find something to watch my files locally. I sure hope this can be fixed. Even if it means a rollback to an older version of the server software. Plex Media Server Logs_2018-12-11_17-23-13.zip (1.1 MB)
Unlike most, I enjoy the new interface and I’ve been a Plex Pass user for ages.
Not true. I needed to get rid of the LAN setting and something else (can’t remember now) in order to get Remote Access working. Right now - my remote access is working so people outside my network can access the files. However, at home I either get Indirect Playback (LG TVs) or Relayed Connection (ROKUs). The files will play but they are all being transcoded (they used to all direct play) and they play at about 480p instead of 1080p. The remote stuff may might also be transcoding but not 100% sure. I’ll check next time someone is watching something.
As a side - I loaded Emby last night to see if there was some sort of network error but that worked perfectly with no tweaking at all. Files were direct playing at 1080p with no transcoding.
If that is the case, I wonder if your client devices are using IP addresses from a different subnet.
Can you take a look into the settings of these client devices and note down their IP addresses?
Then note down your server’s IP and finally the IP of your router and the netmask.
In your home network, are you using an IP range that has been explicitly assigned for private networks? Private network - Wikipedia
You should definitely not use any other IP ranges.
I’ll take a look but I’m 99% sure that is not the issue. I had absolutely NO issues - either direct playing or remote access until 5 minutes after I updated my server software. NOTHING else changed.
Guys, I’ve missed all of this communication as I wasn’t getting notified of the new posts. I did resolve my issue after working on it all weekend and wanted to share my resolution.
Long story short, I re-networked my home about a month or two back, which created this problem. Not sure why it is just now surfacing, but the details of the problem are this;
My house is somewhat spread out on 2 different levels. My wireless didn’t work well so I decided to add 2 additional routers (as bridges and in bridge mode) to increase the range of my wifi. I had given them both static IP addresses (as you should) but my problem was that I assigned the IP addresses outside of the range of IPs on my primary router. Once I assigned them static IP addresses within that range, my problem went away and now my connection is no longer “relayed”. It now shows “nearby” which I assume is what I’m looking for.
I have one problem remaining that I thought was related to the device I was streaming on (ROKU) but after further testing it doesn’t appear to be limited to ROKU. Frequently when streaming my ROKU(s) would freeze during playback, and reboot. I have several different ROKUs (all WIRED connections). 2 ROKU 3’s, and 2 ROKU Ultras. This has been going on for several weeks now, and I’m getting extremely frustrated with this. I decided to pick up a Apple TV to test it on a different piece of hardware. I have a similar issue with the freezing, however it doesn’t cause the APPLE TV to reboot…I just have exit. I do have to reboot the Apple TV manually to get it to play again.
Thought I would share my experience with you guys so that it might help. If you have any insight into the freezing, I would love to hear it!.
Bill - thanks for the info. My server shows that it is ‘nearby’ but neither my Rokus or my Smart TVs will connect directly any more.
I have seen some posts about the ROKUs streaming for a bit and then rebooting. I’m not sure if people have found a solution but you may want to do a quick search of the forums or on Reddit.
Otto - I took a look at the IP addresses of a TV and a ROKU and they matched the server. Again - I’ve not changed or upgraded any of that at all.
I might have been mistaken about the remote users having access. Right now my dashboard shows under remote access: “Not available outside your network. Your server is signed in to Plex, but is not reachable from outside your network.” with a red exclamation point. However, I just had 2 users try to open Plex and play something and they were both successful. They were both transcoding but that might be a normal circumstance since I’ve never really paid close attention. So while Plex is telling me there are issues with remote access, there doesn’t seem to be.
But that brings us to the REAL problem - I still have Indirect Playback and/or Relayed Connection here at home. Nothing I’ve tried has fixed the issue.
