Plex server remote access through OpenVPN not working

Plex Media Server Remote Access
1

Server Version#: 1.21.1.3830
Player Version#: 4.49.2

Hello,

I am trying to enable remote access to PMS while having a VPN (configured using OpenVPN on Debian) running on the server. I have attempted to follow the various guides on how to allow this.

Currently, I have adding a route in my OpenVPN config with

route plex.tv 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1

I have also tried various combinations of plex.tv/app.plex.tv/my.plex.tv etc. and with using 255.255.255.255 as the subnet mask with no success.

I have confirmed that remote access works with the VPN turned off. But when turned on, there is something still preventing remote access from working. Using iftop, and with the VPN turned on, I can see that there is traffic coming in on port 32400 to the server, but I’m guessing that there is still something not bypassing the VPN that needs to. I’ve made sure port 32400 is also being forwarded by my router to the correct iP and iftop has confirmed that traffic coming through to the server.

Should setting the bypass this way in my VPN config work as expected? (i.e. allowing all traffic from plex.tv to bypass the VPN)?

Thanks for any help/info. Been stuck awhile on this.

2

Through a VPN has always been problematic at best, impossible for most.

  1. PMS gets the WAN IP of service (ISP modem/router / edge device
  2. It reports this by default.

You need to tell PMS the desired path, which might indeed be through your VPN.

I’ve found the easiest way is to:

  1. Setup a DDNS updater for a FQDN
  2. Have that address updated when the VPN activates.
  3. In Settings - Server - Network, give PMS that alternate FQDN to publish as the Access URL.
3

Thanks for this info. I did as you suggest and registered a FQDN through no-ip.com and setup the updater. I’ve set the FQDN the as a custom access URL in PMS. Unfortunately, I’m still seeing the same behaviour.

I think traffic over 32400 is being routed correctly, as I can see it using iftop coming in when I try to access with a device on a separate network, but for some reason it cannot fully connect. The only difference I can see is that without VPN, some requests from amazonaws.com are made to port 32400, but with VPN, these requests are blocked. Not sure if that’s part of the problem or not, but thought it was worth mentioning.

4

Part of Plex’s cloud is with AmazonAWS.

If that traffic is being blocked by your VPN provider then there’s nothing which can be done except search out a new provider who doesn’t block

5

I see, okay. Do you happen to know if there an up to date list of IPs that Plex uses that I can whitelist/bypass on my VPN?

Thanks for your help.

Edit: Actually I see there are a few topics on IPs related to this topic. I’ll check those out. Thanks again.

6

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.