Issues with connecting to PMS locally on Drobo 5N2

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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I am having some very strange behavior recently with my PMS on Drobo. The drobo is currently plugged into a managed switch to bond the two NICs. If I open the Drobo panel and click on Plex, I can access it via localhost (IP:32400) no problem. Media plays back great (it’s set to play everything in original because the CPU is too weak to transcode on the fly; but I’m 1gb up and down so streaming HD in original bitrate is not an issue). I have a Samsung Smart TV (UN65NU8500) and have been trying to use the Plex player on Samsung but it will ONLY connect to my server via the remote option (it’s available from outside the network just fine). If I enter a manual server (same IP address and port that I am able to access via any web browser in my house) it cannot connect to it although I have enabled both the server and the Samsung player to use insecure connections when on the same network. Can’t figure that one out. So here’s the first issue: if I use the Plex app on Amazon Fire Stick, media plays back fine (pulling from local network). And, yes, both the Drobo and all of my devices inside my network are on the same subnet mask so the Samsung shouldn’t have a problem. The second issue: if I open up the Plex app on my iPhone (11 Pro Max with all the latest updates installed) when connected to my home wifi (the same network as the Drobo), I get an error that there is not enough available bandwidth for upload to playback any of my media which doesn’t make any sense given that I have a 1gbps upload (running speed tests from my Google WiFi shows 700mbps but still…). Clearly, though, its pulling remotely and not locally. I just pinged the IP address of my PMS using one of the available IPs (the 5N2 has 2 NICs) and it finds it just fine.

Server Version#: 1.19.1.2645
Player Version#: always the latest and greatest from whatever device

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Just to add some more color, I have connected the Drobo5N2 to a managed switch in order to employ Link Aggregation on the two NICs. This is so that a security appliance in my network (Firewalla Blue) can better manage the port forward. When the two Drobo NICs are just connected to a switch, the Firewalla sees them in competition (even if they have different IPs) and will continually erase the port forward. Once the Drobo was connected to the managed switch (Netgear GS308T) this issue resolved itself and made the Drobo available outside the network all the time. But I am wondering if the switch’s configuration (with a default VLAN) is causing some interruption in connecting through the local network, although that wouldn’t explain why I can access the server locally through the browser.

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