I have connected devices in my home which run the official plex client app. I have a few android smart phones, a kindle fire tablet, and an amazon tv fire stick. None of them are rooted/jailbroken. When I open the plex app on any given device, it prompts me to “sign in” to plex.tv, which I do. The devices then connect to my media server via a connection going out over the internet. It would be much faster and less laggy if I could connect directly to the media server on my home LAN. Is there a setting somewhere which I can configure that would allow my in-home devices (smart phones, tablets, TV’s) to access my media server directly when they run the plex app?
I openly apologize if this is a redundant question. I haven’t been able to find an answer via google or forum search (yet), and this is my first time posting here to the community forum. Please be gentle 
@networkspeedy said:
The devices then connect to my media server via a connection going out over the internet.
No, they don’t. They ask plex.tv for the IP adresses of your server. plex.tv answers with a list of IP adresses. This list contains both the public and the private (local) IP adress of your server. If the plex client in question can reach your server on its private adress, it will connect directly.
This is the normal operation and it works in 95% of cases.
There is a situation, where this strategy will fail:
- When you ‘require’ SSL on the server (Settings - Server - Network - Secure connection) and
- your router supresses DNS rebinding
When these 2 conditions meet, a local, direct connection won’t be possible, because the certificate won’t match.
Either set secure connections to ‘preferred’ or tell your router to allow DNS rebinding for the domain plex.direct
More information on this specific topic
This is also the reason why you should never, ever use an own local domain name for your server.
Always use either the local (private) IP or go to plex.tv and press ‘Launch’
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200288666-Opening-Plex-Web-App
Thanks for the tips re- ssl and dns rebinding. Very intriguing. I appreciate the detailed answer!
