I am Plex newbie and trying to get Plex on my TV.
I have three questions.
1. I have a monthly download limit from my ISP of 25Gb, will Plex will be using it when I play media on hard drives connected to my PC.
2. My media server (PC) is connected to the home router through ethernet cable. And the TV is connected to the router by Wifi.
3. Is my library exposed to internet?
Sorry if this question has been asked already. Thanks for your time. :)
1 No internet is not used when you play local media.
3 Your library is not exposed to the internet unless you give acces by myPlex
There is some threads with concerns about myPlex but its a bit over my head.
If you play your media from your local box to a tablet or smartphone or whatever when you are NOT at home via MyPlex... that is the time that it would use your bandwidth (unless you are a PlexPass Member using PlexSync to transcode in advance and take content with you). The concerns elsewhere were largely around anonymous usage data being transmitted and a script for analytics. Both of those concerns have been obviated by a change/fix to Plex/Web that sees it obey the privacy settings correctly.
As an extension on this question: When myPlex provides you a link to your server's Plex/Web, it uses the public IP address, even if you are on the same local network. Will traffic over this connection use up bandwidth with your ISP? Or since it is "loopback" traffic, does it not make it far enough to be counted?
It's possible that when accessing your public IP address locally that your ISP could count it, but probably not. All traffic "should" stay within your local router, unless the public IP address is not assigned to your router. That would be a question for your ISP. To be safe, just access it using the local address.
Note that Plex will use bandwidth from your internet connection to download metadata, images, etc., when scanning and indexing your local media, but you would need a relatively large library for that traffic to get close to 25Gb (25 Gigabits, or around 3 Gigabytes) of metadata. Unless you meant 25GB (25 Gigabytes) -- then you would need an absolutely massive library to hit that much metadata.
so if im connected to WLAN at home with an android tablet it doesnt use any bandwith when playing from plex?
I have plex media server and recently got Verizon home fusion broadband (I live in the country)…I can stream my media without issues but Verizon emailed me to let me know I just blew my data cap outta the water, so after some investigation I discovered when I stream movies its charged against my data cap. Any ideas what would cause that?
Any ideas what would cause that?
Well the obvious would be the statement that came just before your question. "I discovered when I stream movies it's charged against my data cap"
Are you streaming on mobile?
I just blew my data cap outta the water, so after some investigation I discovered when I stream movies its charged against my data cap. Any ideas what would cause that?
I'm very new to Plex as well and have found the same problem. I find that Plex is eating away at my data. Even if i select "Direct Play" it still seems to use my data. What's weird is on the FAQ page about Direct Play, Direct Stream, Transcoding it says "Providing the perfect stream" So my question is it always streaming? Also does my computer need to be connected by Ethernet cable to my router for it to not use data? As of right now my computer is connected by wifi to my router and so is my TV (this is because my cable router is in the other room, away from all my stuff)
Thanks for reading this, any advice would be appreciated! Just on a minimal internet usage plan and need to watch my data usage.
Cheers!
I'm very new to Plex as well and have found the same problem. I find that Plex is eating away at my data. Even if i select "Direct Play" it still seems to use my data. What's weird is on the FAQ page about Direct Play, Direct Stream, Transcoding it says "Providing the perfect stream" So my question is it always streaming? Also does my computer need to be connected by Ethernet cable to my router for it to not use data? As of right now my computer is connected by wifi to my router and so is my TV (this is because my cable router is in the other room, away from all my stuff)
Thanks for reading this, any advice would be appreciated! Just on a minimal internet usage plan and need to watch my data usage.
Cheers!
If you player device is connected to the same lan as your PMS then you should not be using any internet data. wifi connection is fine, does not need to be ethernet.
What device are you using as a player ?
If you player device is connected to the same lan as your PMS then you should not be using any internet data. wifi connection is fine, does not need to be ethernet.
What device are you using as a player ?
Not sure how to check if my PMS is connected to the same Lan as my Computer (I assume it is as i am able to play the media from my computer).
I'm running Plex from my iMac desktop, which connects to the Plex App on my Samsung smart tv.
Thanks for the reply!
That sounds like a local connection, try disconnecting your router from the internet, Plex should continue to play your media on your TV.
What makes you think its Plex using up your internet downloads ?
Would Plex be using my upload bandwidth if I'm playing locally?
I have the same set up, except I have two PCs - PC(1) is PMS, I use Chromecast and my iPhone to cast it to my TV in the living room.
I've noticed, whenever someone is watching a TV Show from my PMS outside and I'm playing League of Legends, I get random ping spikes on PC(2) every 60 - 120 seconds.
I recently installed Netlimiter 4 on PC(1) and limited PMS to 200kB/s upload and that seems to reduce the spikes.
Based on what I've read, I'm using my local network to watch TV in the living room and it shouldn't cause these lag spikes when playing League of Legends on in the bedroom using PC(2).
Edit: My internet connection speed is 100mbps/15mbps download/upload with Cox.
PC(1) and PC(2) are both hardwired into router/modem.
Plex will use a little bit of data to talk to Plex.tv, but it would not be much. The CC also uses up some data when it first starts to talk back to Google, again this should not be much.
The way Plex works is to send the data in batches so you will see spikes. Limiting the outgoing speed should help in that it will slow down the batch job to an almost continuous stream. If your gaming is a higher priority, I would look into your router and turning on QOS if it supports it. This allows you to set what applications get priority and should prevent the lags you see without having to limit Plex manually.
How the ISP will see the traffic that came from streaming via MyPlex ?
found this on reddit : http://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/2e15t2/can_anyone_see_what_is_being_streamed_from_a_plex/
Plex is making fool of its customers. This is the most stupid app of the decade.
It silently uses all your internet bandwidth and never actually uses the local Wifi network.
If you have extra money then please go for it and pay extra internet bills, otherwise just uninstall it and have a safe life.
I am too kissing goodbye to it. Thanks Plex *&^%$#@!@#$% for killing my precious time, energy and money.
Plex is making fool of its customers. This is the most stupid app of the decade.
It silently uses all your internet bandwidth and never actually uses the local Wifi network.
If you have extra money then please go for it and pay extra internet bills, otherwise just uninstall it and have a safe life.
I am too kissing goodbye to it. Thanks Plex *&^%$#@!@#$% for killing my precious time, energy and money.
You need to check what you are doing because Plex uses hardly any internet bandwidth unless you are remote streaming.
I have recently noticed that my data usage is about 380 MB per hour and could not for the life of me figure out why this is. I had turned off all devices (tablets, smart TV's, laptops etc) but still had my PC on and Plex server running and this continued. I spoke with my brother who is in IT and asked what it could be and he advised to go through my PC and stop programs one by one until I saw a change. When I stopped my Plex Server my data usage dropped to about 3 MB per hour. I was not streaming or watching anything via my Plex server and the 380 MB Data usage was happening in the middle of the night and during the day whilst at work.
He said Plex maybe updating the Metadata for Plex Library but didn't think it would use this much data. Any Plex guru's out there that can clarify the above.
Thank you
Check your server settings under scheduled tasks. The metadata it downloads can be a lot since it downloads full size images for poster, background art, episode images, etc. Depending on the size of your library, all the metadata could get up to several GB in size.
Check your server settings under scheduled tasks. The metadata it downloads can be a lot since it downloads full size images for poster, background art, episode images, etc. Depending on the size of your library, all the metadata could get up to several GB in size.
Thanks MovieFan. It was a setting....... Unticked it and now it's no longer doing it. Thanks for your help :)
