I'm at a loss here

Plex Media Server Remote Access
1

Server Version#:3.108.2
Player Version#: Multiple

I have a Plex instance running on a Server 2012 R2 (VMWare ESXi) VM, This VM had been running without issues for almost 6 years now. In the past 6 months I’ve had nothing but remote access issues where Rokus (multiple different versions) IOS/Android apps, and even plex.tv cannot directly connect to the server (relayed still works).

If I directly connect to the DDNS hostname and log into the web server server via the manually forwarded port I can see that in the “Remote Access” section the dreaded message “Not available outside your network” message is displayed, yet without changing a single setting and just clicking “Retry” the message goes away and everything goes back to normal.

The server is behind a pfSense virtual firewall, the VM is on a subnet with direct L3 access to the firewall interface (the firewall has multiple subnets in it, plex has its own) which does NAT (single not double) to the WAN interface but I have UPnP disabled (hence the manually forwarded port).

I’ve tried looking for troubleshooting steps and all I’ve found is how to get NAT configured no real “check this” other than open a thread on the forums and post your logs.

So here I am, anyone have any suggestions on what to look at?

2

You need to account for DNS Rebind protection that is enabled by default in pfSense. Read this page and take note of the section at the end that discusses DNS Rebinding.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/206225077-how-to-use-secure-server-connections/

3

I’m running into the same issue, and DNS rebind checks along with http redirect checks are disabled.

After several hours of diagnosing, I temporarily went as far as setting up an inbound WAN rule from anything to anything directly to the plex server, and have disabled the windows firewall completely!

I tried getting this working a few months back, and its supposed to be simple…

4

@kcasner I would need more info to assist you. Have you checked the TCP port number that is port forwarded in your setup to make sure its available? You can do this at www.canyouseeme.org.

5

Yes, if the port was wrong I wouldn’t be able to login from the outside using the ddns address to fix the issue.

Let me know if you need anything else.

6

I just added the custom option listed in the article to my pfSense dns resolver. Since it’s pretty random I’ll keep an eye on it and see what happens after the change

7

Checking the port was not meant for you but rather @kcasner.

8

If you are using the pfSense DNS Resolver (Unbound) and DNS Rebind Protection is enabled (by default it is), that will be the root cause for your issue.

1 Like
9

Adding the advanced option listed on the docs you linked didn’t do the trick, the issue is still there.

I’ve gone ahead and disabled the resolver. I’ll check back in after figuring out if that did the trick or not.

Thanks @Achilles

10

@Achilles Thanks for the link, that led me down the right path to find a NAT reflection setting I had wrong, so my issue ended up being different.

All is well on my end.

1 Like
11

So I checked the server this morning and the settings stated that it was unreachable from the outside again even though I have disabled the pfsense resolver so I guess that was not the issue.

12

@kcasner can you share the link you used for nat reflection? Maybe that’s the issue I have as well.

13

Are you running a VPN?

14

@Achilles The pfSense instance does run an OpenVPN server for external access to the inside LANs, plus I have site to site IPSEC VPNs to connect different sites of my lab together.

However, access to the Plex server is always done via the outside interface. None of the clients are local to the plex subnet nor do they have L3 routed access other than the WAN.

15

I also noticed something stra ge just now. The server has the message stating not available outside your network. Yet, there is 3 sessions actively streaming.

16

That could be due to some async issue between your PMS and plex.tv that @ChuckPa could better explain

17

Are they direct or relaying?

18

Yep, Nvm they’re indirect.

19

I feel your pain since last update no android devices of mine stream within constant buffering. No Google anything tablets smart phones fire sticks fire TV. All my android stopped working normal. All apple devices as firefox browser work fine. I feel there some deal with apple all the sudden

20

Can you disable secure connections and see if you can direct play?