I have a plex server located “off site”. I’ve come home and wanted to watch something and I connected to my WIFI. It tested the connection and it said the connection is indirect. I disabled WIFI on my android and turn on mobile data and it connects directly with no issues. Further more: Friend A on his own connection has a direct connection, Friend B on his own network has an indirect connection.
So it seems that the server is not the issue, but something in the networks. What could it be?
Server Version#: Version 1.18.4.2171
Player Version#: Web app
If a network uses a bad DNS service, you will get either no, or outdated information about the current public IP of your server. There are some ISP’s which don’t handle this like they should.
If you know the administrator of that WiFi, ask them to set their DNS server to Google 8.8.8.8
Unfortunately this will be an exercise in futility when we’re talking about public WiFi of restaurants or hotels. They usually have the administration of their networks outsourced and also have strict filtering in place which often interferes with Plex’s way of doing things.
The chances will get a bit better, yes. But some DNS servers are flat-out refusing to resolve domains in the .direct TLD (which is what Plex is using, atm). So success is not guaranteed, unfortunately.
You could try to set up an own domain name (plus fitting, publicly trusted, cryptographic security certificate), on a different TLD. (think “DynDNS”)
You can then inform plex.tv of this different, additional URL for your server under
Settings - Network - ‘Show Advanced’ - “Custom server access URLs”
This might actually be cheaper than the static public IP.
