As best I can tell it seems to be pretty accurate. Using a port checker, it seems to be down when it shows as down. I can easily tell when remote isn’t working by the stream and what device is being used and if transcoding is occurring.
I recreated the rules and recreated the logs as the time sync was off when the others were generated and I know some devices are very sensitive to time deviations. I also completely deleted and recreated the nics in the plex server and recreated the firewall rules since I am assuming the firewall rules are based on mac addresses. I also added port 32401 in a firewall rule since I saw it being mentioned in the plex logs. Just in case. The logs are attached. Starting at 11:17 EST, I tried “retry” and disabling re-enabling remote access several times. I doubt anything has changed but at least I know I am starting with a clean system.
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-03-16_11-21-10.zip (3.9 MB)
Sorry for all of the posts. Just some other things I have tried. I put the plex server in the DMZ of the firewalla which should theoretically avoid any rules. It didn’t work. I also tried putting the plex server in “emergency” mode which in terms of firewalla, means all the firewall rules for the plex server are bypassed including the default rule blocking all incoming internet traffic. It also didn’t work. None of those would ever be ideal solutions. I initially thought this was all related to replacing my FIOS router with the firewalla but I am sketical remote access was working consistently on the FIOS router. even though it had a similar port forwarding rule. I can always try to switch back to the FIOS router and do some verification. I am running out of things to try.
That indicator stays green as long as the polling between plex.tv and the server. is not interrupted.
Interesting. I just don’t know what could interrupt it. The ESXi host goes into a network switch which is directly connected to the Firewalla. The Windows OS firewall(s) are all down. There really isn’t anything else in the path.
Mostly I would think it’s an external delay between the Plex.tv servers and your connection, When I see that indicator out I usually still have users connected remotely. Seems to be at the busiest times for the internet.
I have seriously been at this all times of day and night. I really don’t want to do it because I like the device, but I might have to swap out the firewalla and go back to my fios router. It seemed to allow remote access 24/7 with no problems. I am still not completely convinced the isssue is the firewala but that is the only thing that has changed and their support hasn’t replied to me in 2 days.
Apologize in advanced as I didn’t fully read every post, but skimmed through.
I am also on FIOS Gigabit and I’m running a pfSense firewall, so not the standard FIOS setup which is a similarity to yours.
Couple of questions for you.
@Volts I believe mentioned the multiple network interfaces. In your Plex install, have you specified under Settings → Network the Preferred network interface? It’s possible if you are letting it auto pick it could be causing an issue. I run Plex via Docker on a CentOS 7 server and I have multiple network interfaces so along time ago I set that to my preferred interface and haven’t had any issues since (I don’t remember what issues I was having but they were related to that at the time).
Second question, are you letting Plex auto configure the forwarded port, which realizes on UPnP? Or are you manually specifying a port on the remote access page under your server settings?
I personally have UPnP turned off on my firewall and don’t want it on so I went with manually specifying a port and to me that seems like a much more stable setup.
Not sure if any of that will help but worth a shot for you to try (if you haven’t already).
-Shark2k
I am definitely picking the proper interface under network settings.
I have tried both UPNP and manually specifying the port. Neither stays active. Even on my FIOS router, UPNP would not stay active. I was only ever able to keep it active by manually specifying a port and creating a port forwarding rule which is exactly what I am trying to do with the firewalla gold.
All of these were covered earlier in the thread Just being silly.
Alright, since I know nothing about the Firewalla Gold appliance and I just looked up directions on port forwarding for it, do you have the “Allow on Firewall” setting turned on or off for your rule for Plex? Based on what I am reading, you would actually want that setting to be turned on in order for anything outside your network to be able to access it. Again, not being familiar with Firewalla I don’t know if that is turned off by default and it needs to be turned on when creating the rule.
-Shark2k
The rules are similar for most firewalls. Essentially any traffic hitting the firewall on port 32400 is directed to port 32400 on the plex server. Possibly found a solution. The firewalls comes with a default rule blocking all incoming traffic from the internet. There was a second rule essentially doing the same thing. Because of how firewalls does rules (it’s almost like a trickle down thing), I thought they were the same rule. For example when you create a rule on NAT - port forwarding to a specific device, it also shows up on that specific device when you drill down. I assumed that the rule I just mentioned was why there were two rules blocking everything coming from the internet. So far so good and the port shows as open when using a remote port checker.
I also verified other ports were not accidently opened, leaving me even more exposed. All looking good.
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