I've been trying for days to get my TV to notice the server (PC) sitting on my desk five feet away.

Hello all, I’ve been a Plex pass subscriber for a few years now, but recently built a new PC and am just getting around to setting this all up again. It worked fine for me in the past with a Roku app. I’ve retired the Roku and can’t get it to work with TV apps (LG and PS4).

Server version: 1.3.0.3059-6277334

OS: Win 10 Pro

Clients:

Plex for Android Xperia Z5 v5.1.4.365,
Plex for Android SHIELD Tablet K1 v5.1.4.365,
Plex for Sony (PlayStation 4 01.40) v2.11.1,
Plex for LG (webOS 04.30.40) v2.12.1

My TV apps cannot connect to the server. At first, I was getting a message saying that the server can’t be reached securely so I changed the setting in the web app to allow unsecure settings. Now I’m getting a message saying "we tried to connect to x.x.x.x, you are signed in as xxxx. A friend shares his library with me, and I can access his server from the other side of the planet with no problems, but I can’t access my own content from the same room.

Things I have tried:

Rolled back to v1.2.7, no change.
Disabled firewall and av (they are set to allow the server through anyway, but I disabled them completely to test, no change.
Port forwarded the default 32400.
Everything is definitely on the same subnet and gateway.
Router is nothing fancy, not dealing with pfsense.
Plex is definitely listening. TCP 192.168.1.70:32400 192.168.1.70:64325 ESTABLISHED
Changed my DNS settings on my PC to the Google public ones and tested that it works, tested fine.
Checked my plex.tv resources info with a token and my server showed up in the XML file like it’s supposed to.
Remote access works fine, I can connect to my server with my phone over 4G but not wireless.
Signed out of server, apps, restarted, uninstalled, deleted registry keys, rebooted, reinstalled several times, no change.

I have to be missing something but I don’t know what. I’m getting really frustrated. Any ideas??

Your TV, what is the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway?
What about the same info on the server?

Server:
IP: 192.168.1.70
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.254

TV
IP: 192.168.1.71
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.254

PS4
IP: 192.168.1.72
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.254

Can you ping the TV IP from your server?

Pinging 192.168.1.71 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.71:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)

Is one of these devices wired to the router and the other wireless? Some routers have an option to separate wireless clients from wired, so that people that come to visit can’t get access to the rest of the network. You will have to look at the router’s documentation to see if this option is available for that model or not.

^^^ especially if your wireless devices are connecting on the “guest” network. That will give access to the internet, but not to the rest of you LAN.

Everything is wireless, I don’t have access to the router. (I rent, the router owner is on the other side of a wall, internet is included in my rent).

It isn’t a guest access account, I use the same SSID he does.

Also fwiw: I know nothing about networking and I don’t know if this is relevant info or not:

Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Not relevant in this case. 127.0.0.1 is a special IP address that means localhost (the same device you are on).

Try pinging 192.168.1.254

I bet the owner is blocking local access so you cannot see the other people (neighbors) on the same network.

Your situation is one that is going to be very hard to set up Plex and make functional. Without access to the router itself, and be able to wire things together, I honestly don’t see how you are going to make this work.

You will need to get your own internet service in order to make this work. As he controls the hardware, the limitations are in his control…

Pinging 192.168.1.254 didn’t work.

I can get the owner to make changes to router settings, unless the only answer is DMZ. He’s a reasonable guy, he’s port forwarded for me before. The one thing I cannot do is a wired connection.

The router I’m dealing with: http://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/2277471~9ba5c62f3288a3fbc2ceb7aff17cc2ef/T3200M_UserManual_0535_0043_000.pdf

Is it possible that the router owner has enabled MAC address filtering? If so, you’ll need to provide him with the wireless MAC addresses for all the new devices that are trying to access the network.

Probably not, but just a thought.

If you cannot ping your default gateway but you can access the internet he is doing some sort of blocking.
I would ask him to look at the router, grab the mac address of the devices and give them static addresses.
Then ask him to allow all traffic between those static addresses.
Test

Sounds like the landlord has isolated the WiFi network, similar to how hotels, airports and other public places have it. You can ask hi to turn this off, which he probably won’t do as it exposes his network. You can try using a network bridge which will allow you to have your own local network but still use your landlords connection to reach the internet. Something like https://www.amazon.com/Edimax-CV-7428nS-Wireless-Universal-Consoles/dp/B00BZQLBG0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481142832&sr=8-2&keywords=gaming+network+bridge.

If the landlord is willing to do what I stated above, I think that will fix his issue. Assuming the landlord understands routing. He may need to do another lease to static addresses on a seperate VLAN.
I would just ask him for what I said above.

@beckfield said:
Is it possible that the router owner has enabled MAC address filtering? If so, you’ll need to provide him with the wireless MAC addresses for all the new devices that are trying to access the network.

Probably not, but just a thought.

This definitely isn’t it, he let me at his router yesterday and I checked it out. He has mac filtering off.

@benplace said:
If you cannot ping your default gateway but you can access the internet he is doing some sort of blocking.
I would ask him to look at the router, grab the mac address of the devices and give them static addresses.
Then ask him to allow all traffic between those static addresses.
Test

Next step, I’ll try this when he gets home. He understands routing about as much as I do (in other words, barely). Google will help me figure it out.

As for purchasing a bridge, would I have to wire up my devices for it to work? Also, will it bypass a NAT wall?

This seems like a good case to treat the local network like a hotel/motel WIFI hot spot. What I would try is getting a travel router and connecting it to the apartment’s network and then connect everything local to the travel router. This would even allow many devices to be connected wired and you can then even use a switch to increase the number of hardwired ports if needed.

The only real drawback would be that there would be a double NAT situation but the major problem that might cause is a problem with remote access and remote access does not matter if Plex does not work in the first place.

The travel router (or any router that can use a WIFI signal as an internet connection) can also setup its own completely separate wireless network and thereby isolate all local devices from everyone using the apartments WIFI.

The other advantage would be that should the apartment’s WIFI fail the local network would continue to function and Plex would continue to work locally.

I think that may be the best way to get everything working.

I have access to his router settings. Good guy, like I said… Anyway. I’m not sure if I’m doing the right things or not, but I went into a section called DHCP reservation, added the mac addresses of all my stuff and assigned them all an ip. Does that mean my ip’s are now static? I rebooted everything and still can’t connect to my server from anything. What else do I need to do? Near as I can tell, nothing is being blocked at the router.

@Elijah_Baley said:
This seems like a good case to treat the local network like a hotel/motel WIFI hot spot. What I would try is getting a travel router and connecting it to the apartment’s network and then connect everything local to the travel router. This would even allow many devices to be connected wired and you can then even use a switch to increase the number of hardwired ports if needed.

If I can’t fix this at the router level, I have my own router for when I’m traveling for work, I’ll try this next if I have to.