PMS ignoring 'local networks' setting

Server Version#: 1.18.2.2058
Player Version#: Web Client 4.8.4

I normally use Plex on an Apple TV, and haven’t seen any transcoding there for a long time. Today, I’ve gone to use Plex on my desktop PC, and for some reason it’s trying to apply my 4Mbps per-stream remote access limit to local clients.

I have the “LAN Networks” setting set to 10.0.0.0/8. My PMS is at 10.0.101.60, and the client connecting is 10.0.103.80, as seen here:

Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.220 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - Request: [10.0.103.80:13590 (WAN)] GET /video/:/transcode/universal/....

(First clue - why does it think 10.0.103.80 is WAN?)

Then, here’s the MDE decision:

Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.225 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 73281
Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.225 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - MDE: E1 - Episode 1: Direct Play is disabled
Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.225 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - MDE: E1 - Episode 1: media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.225 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - MDE: E1 - Episode 1: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.225 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - MDE: E1 - Episode 1: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/aac
Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.225 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - MDE: The End of the F***ing World - S2 E1 - Episode 1: selected media 0 / 73281
Dec 15, 2019 14:48:03.226 [0x7f6f2cff9700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 4576kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 4000kbps

Any ideas? I’ve tried setting LAN networks to contain just “10.0.103.80” and the same thing happens. tcpdump on my Plex server confirms my desktop is communicating with PMS over the LAN rather than going out to the internet and back in.

If I disable “Limit Remote Stream Bitrate” on the ‘Remote Access’ tab, then this issue goes away and I can stream direct play. Seems like this is an issue with PMS not correctly reading the ‘LAN Networks’ value?

Format: 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0

Hey @ChuckPa.

Good to know! I actually have mine set to CIDR notation (192.168.1.0/20) and it is working.

Any idea where the discrepancy is?

Interesting. I’m not sure why I needed to change to the full netmask rather than CIDR notation, but things seem to be working as expected now.

My Plex setup has been working fine for the last 2 years or so with 10.0.0.0/8 set, and only recently has this come about.

Additionally, when set to 10.0.0.0/8, why would an Apple TV client at 10.0.103.81 and an Android TV at 10.0.104.20 be able to stream high bitrate 4K content without getting hit with the bandwidth cap, but my Plex Web client at 10.0.103.80 be treated as a WAN client? Is this possibly some sort of obscure Plex Web bug?

A lot changed underneath with the start of the IPv6 support additions.
It’s entirely possible something was regressed.

Did it fix the problem writing it this way?

Yes, changing to 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 seems to have resolved the issue. Remote clients are correctly limited, LAN clients (both Plex Web and Apple TV) are allowed to Direct Play.

If it helps, my Plex server does have an IPv6 address and I have “Enable Server Support for IPv6” ticked in PMS.

Update: No, this didn’t fix it.

If I had IPv6 at the WAN address, I could test that and see what’s going wrong.
Unfortunately, I don’t so can’t setup v6 inside.

Update 1: Nevermind. I just went on to the next episode of a series in Plex Web (with 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 set) and I’m back to being detected as a WAN client and forced to transcode.

Update 2: De-selecting “Enable IPv6 Server Support” and restarting PMS seems to have resolved the issue, interestingly.

Update 3: Nevermind, the next episode I went on to fell back to being detected as WAN and forcing transcoding. It seems like I’ll get away with being detected as a LAN client for the first ~10 minutes of the server being up, and after that it requires a restart to properly detect local Plex Web clients again? (Apple TV & Android clients have worked correctly and as expected throughout all of this).

Update 4: Also, actually changing the “Limit Remote Streaming Bitrate” option doesn’t seem to take effect until I restart PMS. Just set it to “Original (No Limit)” and I’m still being forced to transcode. Restarting PMS seems to correctly apply the ‘No Limit’ setting.

Probably need the IPv6 equiv of the local LAN segment in the list too but I’ve no experience with it.

Tried that too, I also was connecting directly in my browser via the PMS’ IPv4 address so traffic would’ve been going over v4 anyway. Regardless, disabling the v6 support in PMS doesn’t resolve the issue.

I know IPv6 isn’t complete in the server. Plex.tv services themselves are still IPv4. Stay on v4 as long as you can.

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