Before I expose my problem and as an introduction, I mention that I spent quite a large amount of time crawling in the forum and the support pages but I was not able to find (or understand) what could be the solution to my problem.
So by advance, thanks to the members who would take a few minutes to try to help me
I am a non-techy user so my knowledge about networks is quite basic and based on what I read here or on the web, I hope my post will be “understandable”
So…
I have Plex server installed on my Synology NAS for a few years now and until recently, I was able to watch my movies through an Amazon Fire TV (with the Plex app,) plugged on my TV.
But now, when I try to open a movie, Plex tells me that I try to access to my server remotely and that I need to purchase a Plex Pass.
I won’t, because I am 100% using it locally, so my problem is just a configuration problem, I am aware of that but I wasn’t able to find the solution until now.
About my installation:
One end of the configuration: Amazon Fire TV on myTV, connected to my local wifi provided by my router (Tp-Link MR600).
On the other end: my Synology NAS with the last version of Plex server installed, back to its “original configuration” (when everything was working fine a few weeks ago) after trying to change different parameters.
In the middle: my router receiving my internet connexion via the fiber, providing a wifi network where the Amazon Fire TV connects to, and a direct wired connection where my NAS is connected (my NAS doesn’t have wifi).
Both wired and wifi connection are on the same network IP range with the same submask: from a network perspective, I was thinking they were in the exact same network, but from a Plex point of view, they don’t.
So when I try to open a Movie on my Fire TV connected to wifi, Plex app connects to Plex server on my NAS connected to the wired connection, and Plex think this is a remote access
Is there a trick/configuration/whatever that could help me to solve the problem and continue to use Plex at home? I guess that the solution is related to have both these networks considered as a unique one by Plex, but I wasn’t able to identify the solution if it is already exists here.
Huge thanks in advance if you have any idea and take the time to drop a clue here
It appears that at least #4 applies to you, since you seem to have used an arbitrary IP address range for your home network – i.e. one which is not designated for private use.
I was expecting to deal with very techy answers that I don’t understand but no.
I still don’t understand how you supposed that I was using a customized IP address range for my home network but that was exactly that.
For me, a local network was “home network” so I was wrong to think that we could use freely any available range, I was not aware there was specific ones to use.
So this is maybe one of the only clues I haven’t explored at all before (I was more thinking to NAT, UPnP and a lot of more complicated things).
Thanks for the link, I learnt something today ^^
And huge thanks for your help, everything is now back to normal and I will be able to watch my movies again You rock!!
I think this Ninja is able to look at your server’s reported “private” (the technical term for a local-only IP address) network IP that it sends up to Plex. They (the company, Plex) have access to the information your server has to send to the company in order for the company to help facilitate remote access to your server from anywhere in the world.
TLDR: Just some boring networking info to follow, in case you wish to broaden your horizons.
Just a note about IP ranges. The great internet agency (or at least a handful of dudes that agreed upon a set of rules to make sure that the internet can work) set aside a bunch of IP ranges that are designated for local/private use only. The reason for this is so that you can have some IP addresses for your own devices that will NEVER be used/allocated by any other machine out there on the internet. If you use a public (global) IP address range internally - say - the same as some Amazon server is given, you will be unable to reach it, as your own router will send any request meant for Amazon to your own device instead. Which will of course fail to return a webpage full of toilet papers for sale.
Another interesting tidbit about IP addresses in the local/private range: Routers will REFUSE to send a request to connect to one of these over the internet itself. That means that if I expose my own computer’s IP address of 192.168.0.10 to you, there is no way in tarnation that your computer (or any hacker) could ever reach it. Any attempt by you to reach that address would hit your router, bounce around inside your network a bit (if even then), and eventually time out and fail.
This is why it is always safe to announce your internal network IP range if someone asks for it for support, such as here on the forums. In the case of your problem, Plex uses “public” and “private” addresses slightly differently. When they implemented a charge for streaming over the internet, they decided that any IP address that ISN’T in the “private/local” IP ranges must be a trick by you to get around the restriction. Thus, an immediate message to pay up, even though your server and your player are both on the same network.
