Probably a really stupid question.........

Dev Community Apps & Creations
1

Dear All,

 

First of all I would like to say a massive thanks to the Plex team as they have a great product.

 

So my problem is that whilst I can get Trailers to work, connecting to a Linux server running plex media server and plexconnect, my Apple TV can no longer communicate with its normal services e.g. NetFlix. I assume that this is due to specifying the DNS server manually and pointing it at the IP address of my Linux box (rather than automatic)?

 

Is this the normal way Apple TV + Plex are meant to work (via Trailers), i.e. each time you want to use "normal" Apple TV features you have to set the DNS back to automatic?

 

See, I told you this was a stupid question.

 

Hope you can help with my brain burp.

 

Cheers, Jon

2

No, as long as PlexConnect is running, any non-trailers traffic gets redirected to the correct server via the PlexConnect DNS server (by default it will use Google's DNS server for these lookups).

Have you been changing things in settings.cfg?

3

Thanks foobar! Nothing changed in config.cfg.

Okay - so something is wrong with my firewall configuration on the linux server. If I take down the firewall on the server then I can have everything - Trailers access to Plex, Netflix, normal Apple TV stuff etc. As soon as I bring the firewall up (sudo ufw enable) then boom - it's all gone.

I think I have added all the necessary exceptions for PlexMediaServer (http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions#What_network_ports_do_I_need_to_allow_through_my_firewall_to_enable_access.3F), but I guess DNS access through PlexConnect is a special case....?

Any ideas/hints about ports to allow for this?

Best wishes,

Jon

4

Well, DNS runs on port 53 so maybe verify that inbound 53 is not blocked? That would be a start, but can't say for sure with your setup.

5

Make sure there are TCP and UDP inbound rules for Python.

6

Hi,

Thanks for your help - so I have added the following firewall rules to my system (using ufw on ubuntu server 12.04 LTS).

Allow TCP,UDP from machines on my network to port 53 (for DNS lookups)

Allow TCP from machines on my network to port 80

I read that PlexConnect puts up a webserver on port 80, and that this is the main mechanism for access via Apple TV/Trailers.

At present I have a functioning Apple TV box - it can "see" Netflix etc, but Trailers isn't working.....

I haven't tried rebooting the system, so will do this now and see if that "fixes" anything!

Cheers, Jon

7

you need port 443 as well, for aTV's first request over https/SSL.

8

Ah - I guess there could be another level of complication in that my router might be filtering internal traffic (but that would be weird).......

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=213473#p213473

Thanks for the tip about 443 - I will open than and allow local traffic unfettered access......

Cheers, Jon

9

Ooops I’ve broken it and I don’t know how to fox it :slight_smile:


I changed the ip_pms in Settings.cfg from an IP address I didn’t recognise to be the IP address of my PMS server and now it can’t find my server. Can I get it back?



It was something like 192.168.70.180 which isn’t on my network…


Cheers


Jon

10

If plexgdm is true then the ip PMS is ignored

11

If is is “True” (no quotes but note the capital N) and auto discovery works it will override and hard coded IP.

You can always delete settings.cfg and start then shutdown PlexConnect gracefully to create a new one.

12

Okay so I think something deeper must be wrong, as I've tried connecting via browser to http://mypmsserver:32400 - no joy.

This has previously worked fine, and I guess should be completely independent of PlexConnect (?). I've also tried taking down the firewall completely, still didn't fix it.

Guess it's time to start from scratch again?

The only thing I can think of that might have caused a problem is that I ran apt-get upgrade and it installed a couple of updates prior to me adding exceptions to the firewall (i.e. ports 53, 80, 443). Ever since then I've had no PMS - though I am able to "see" PlexConnect via Trailers (so probably just a problem with PMS).

Anyone else having issues?

Cheers, Jon

13

Still stuck. 

With the firewall *UP* on my server, and allowing traffic on ports 443, 80, 53 (and some others for PMS) I can: 

(1) browse my plex media server using http://myserver:32400/web/ from a computer on my domain.

(2) run "normal" apple tv stuff e.g. netflix (Apple TV 3)

with the firewall *DOWN* I can do the above plus

(3) access my PMS via PlexConnect

So something else must be blocking PlexConnect, but I haven't got a clue what that could be.

Can anyone suggest any troubleshooting steps I could follow, as I haven't really supplied much useful information so far?

Best,

Jon

14

a - current log?

b - IPs?

c - what does aTV show?

15

At work at the moment, so I will do most from memory, with a little bit of ssh.....

Server is 192.168.1.104 (Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS, running on an HP Microserver with a weedy CPU Athlon N36L)

aTV is 192.168.1.17 (I think)

Log (hope this is the right one)....../usr/local/bin/PlexConnect-master/PlexConnect.log

00:01:30 WebServer: started: 00:01:30
00:01:30 WebServer: ***
00:01:30 WebServer: WebServer: Serving HTTP on 192.168.1.104 port 80.
00:01:30 WebServer: ***
00:01:30 WebServer: started: 00:01:30
00:01:30 WebServer: ***
00:01:30 WebServer: WebServer: Serving HTTPS on 192.168.1.104 port 443.
00:01:30 WebServer: ***
00:07:53 PlexAPI: ***
00:07:53 PlexAPI: looking up Plex Media Server
00:07:53 PlexAPI: ***
00:07:54 PlexAPI: GDM: Servers discovered: 1
00:07:54 PlexAPI: Servers (local+MyPlex): 1
20:29:56 PlexAPI: ***
20:29:56 PlexAPI: looking up Plex Media Server
20:29:56 PlexAPI: ***
20:29:57 PlexAPI: GDM: No servers discovered
20:29:57 PlexAPI: Servers (local+MyPlex): 0
20:43:47 PlexAPI: ***
20:43:47 PlexAPI: looking up Plex Media Server
20:43:47 PlexAPI: ***
20:43:48 PlexAPI: GDM: No servers discovered
20:43:48 PlexAPI: Servers (local+MyPlex): 0

Here is Settings.cfg:

[PlexConnect]
port_pms = 32400
port_webserver = 80
ip_plexconnect = 192.168.1.104
certfile = ./assets/certificates/trailers.pem
ip_dnsmaster = 192.168.1.1
loglevel = Normal
enable_dnsserver = True
logpath = .
ip_pms = 192.168.178.10
enable_plexgdm = True
hosttointercept = trailers.apple.com
port_ssl = 443
enable_webserver_ssl = True
prevent_atv_update = True
port_dnsserver = 53
enable_plexconnect_autodetect = True

So it looks like PlexConnect isn't finding my PMS - which is weird since they're on the same machine, and from earlier discussions (in this thread) I shouldn't have to manually specify ip_pms.

If I change enable_plexgdm to False, and specify ip_pms manually (i.e. 192.168.1.104) - this is what happens......

sudo service plexconnect stop

sudo vi Settings.cfg (make changes)

sudo service plexconnect start

Now PlexConnect.log:

17:26:20 PlexConnect: started: 17:26:20
17:26:20 PlexConnect: IP_self: 192.168.1.104
17:26:20 DNSServer: started: 17:26:20
17:26:20 DNSServer: ***
17:26:20 DNSServer: DNSServer: Serving DNS on 192.168.1.104 port 53.
17:26:20 DNSServer: ***
17:26:20 WebServer: started: 17:26:20
17:26:20 WebServer: ***
17:26:20 WebServer: WebServer: Serving HTTP on 192.168.1.104 port 80.
17:26:20 WebServer: ***
17:26:20 WebServer: started: 17:26:20
17:26:20 WebServer: ***
17:26:20 WebServer: WebServer: Serving HTTPS on 192.168.1.104 port 443.
17:26:20 WebServer: ***
17:31:27 PlexAPI: Servers (local+MyPlex): 1
 
And everything is now working, with the firewall definitely UP! :-) Had to get the missus to do this remotely!
 
I'm still not sure what would happen if I took the firewall down and brought it back up - it might kill any existing connections, so this might be why it's been a bit hit or miss.
 
Cheers, Jon
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