I’m currently unable to remotely access my Plex server. Troubleshooting with MXToolBox shows the plex.direct DNS servers aren’t responding. This is similar to the outage that occurred in July.
Which DNS server are you using? The one from your ISP, or Google, or Cloudflare etc?
If mxtoolbox is a tool for testing the MX record of a domain, then yes it is expected that *.plex.direct don’t have any mx records. Because you don’t send or receive emails with your Plex server.
OpenDNS. All their world-wide servers are unable to connect to the plex.direct DNS servers. See https://cachecheck.opendns.com/, which returns “NO RESPONSE” when querying plex.direct or any sub-domains.
Google DNS also reports no response via Query: plex.direct - Google Public DNS.
MXToolBox allows querying of any DNS parameter, not just MX records.
Operations is on the case.
So far it appears to be an issue with OpenDNS only.
Try 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 as alternatives.
Unfortunately, I don’t have admin access to change the DNS servers on my corporate system.
Operations is asking if you could send the output of this shell script
for ns in 208.67.220.220 208.67.222.222;do dig @${ns} +short 1-2-3-4.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.plex.direct;done
and
for ns in $(dig NS plex.direct +short);do echo "Testing $ns";dig @${ns} +short 1-2-3-4.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.plex.direct;done
This is intended for a UNIX-style shell. There might be a way to perform it on Windows, but the how is unknown.
Keep also in mind that corporate firewalls/proxies usually employ dynamic “block lists”, which prevent access to known streaming / entertainment sites.
1-2-3-4.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.plex.direct@208.67.220.220: 1-2-3-4.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.plex.direct. 604800 IN A 1.2.3.4
1-2-3-4.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.plex.direct@208.67.222.222: 1-2-3-4.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.plex.direct. 604800 IN A 1.2.3.4
A lookups aren’t the problem. SOA lookups time out.
Where are your Plex clients located?
On the corporate system?
If they are outside of said corporate system, it doesn’t matter what the coprate network is using as DNS.
All that matters is what the client devices are using.
How do you suppose to successfully host a Plex server if it is located in a corporate network which is probably locked down and doesn’t allow you to create a port forwarding from the public gateway to your server VM?
You misunderstand. I’m using the web client on my corporate system to access my Plex server at home. On the corporate system, the DNS servers are locked to OpenDNS, and I can’t change these settings.
Please try the curl I am sending you per PM.
It does work fine from plex central, so your server is accessible in general.
If it isn’t accessible from inside your company’s network, you’ll have to get to know the network admins better 
No need, OpenDNS now resolves plex.direct subdomains.
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