Remote access through PIA VPN

[KaraokeAmerica]

@jruddy09

Yes. Three ways.

Well…I did some experiments. But first I went back to the Reddit thread and re-ran the BAT file to make sure I didn’t miss any steps. Looked the same…

This is what I get from my traceroute:

Tracing route to dns.google [8.8.8.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1   143 ms   273 ms   145 ms  10.39.10.1
  2   146 ms   146 ms   228 ms  45.12.220.225

The 45.12.220.225 is my PIA server IP, not my gateway.

This is what I get from my routing:

 C:\Windows\System32>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
  4...00 ff 11 49 7e cb ......Private Internet Access Network Adapter
  8...08 62 66 47 46 2d ......Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
  1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.2.1    192.168.2.158     25
          0.0.0.0        128.0.0.0       10.39.10.5       10.39.10.6      3
       10.39.10.1  255.255.255.255       10.39.10.5       10.39.10.6      3
       10.39.10.4  255.255.255.252         On-link        10.39.10.6    259
       10.39.10.6  255.255.255.255         On-link        10.39.10.6    259
       10.39.10.7  255.255.255.255         On-link        10.39.10.6    259
    45.12.220.229  255.255.255.255      192.168.2.1    192.168.2.158     25
      99.80.231.0    255.255.255.0      192.168.2.1    192.168.2.158     26
      99.81.213.0    255.255.255.0      192.168.2.1    192.168.2.158     26
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
        128.0.0.0        128.0.0.0       10.39.10.5       10.39.10.6      3
      192.168.2.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.2.158    281
    192.168.2.158  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.2.158    281
    192.168.2.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.2.158    281
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link        10.39.10.6    259
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     192.168.2.158    281
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link        10.39.10.6    259
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.2.158    281
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  Network Address          Netmask  Gateway Address  Metric
      99.81.213.0    255.255.255.0      192.168.2.1       1
      99.80.231.0    255.255.255.0      192.168.2.1       1
==========================================================================

There are only two IP’s listed in my PermittedPlexIPs.txt file and they are the same as what is listed see above in my “persistent” hosts. If it matters I looked and this file didn’t exist prior to me running the batch file the first time.

If I try to traceroute to them I get:

C:\Windows\System32>tracert 99.81.213.0

Tracing route to ec2-99-81-213-0.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com [99.81.213.0]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1  General failure.

Trace complete.

I am at a loss…

[jruddy09]

I think we’re close. Those are network addresses in your route table, we just need get the specific host addresses in the table. If you look at mine again, you’ll see ones that don’t end in .0. That’s what we need in yours. Any (for the most part) IP address ending in .0 is a network address, which you can’t ping or trace to as it doesn’t belong to a specific host.

We need to get your route table matching mine. I’ll paste in here the exact batch files I used tomorrow morning and we’ll try again.

We’re close!!

[KaraokeAmerica]

My setup is a FiOS Actiontec MI424WR router. It has DHCP enabled, but wireless disabled. The only thing plugged into it is of my two Asus RT-AC68U connected in AIMesh mode. I have the DMZ on the Actiontec pointed to the IP of the primary Asus router. That Asus router is the only host on the Actiontec’s network.

with PIA connected or disconnected the internet connection works fine. I get a great direct connection to the server if I disconnect PIA. If I connect PIA it’s always a relay. I even tried forwarding the random external port from PIA into the manual Plex forwarding. If I do that it will connect directly for a few seconds then goes back to a relay connection.

[jruddy09]

These are all the batch files I ran. It uses different subnet masks for each one. Only one of them is correct, but I haven’t spent the time figuring out which one yet. Doesn’t hurt to run them all.

Download and rename to .bat , run as admin, then take a look at your routing table. Should be similar to mine, and the direct connection through PIA should work - hopefully! Still working fine for me.

VPN Bypass for Plex Media Server - 255.255.255.0.txt (3.2 KB) VPN Bypass for Plex Media Server - 255.255.255.252.txt (3.1 KB) VPN Bypass for Plex Media Server - 255.255.255.255.txt (3.1 KB) VPN Bypass for Plex Media Server - 255.0.0.0.txt (3.2 KB) VPN Bypass for Plex Media Server - 255.255.0.0.txt (3.2 KB)

[jruddy09]

@KaraokeAmerica how’s it going? I’m invested in this now lol, determined to get it working.

I’m going on like 2 weeks now of Direct Connection with PIA on all the time. I have the scripts run every day at like 2am.

[KaraokeAmerica]

@jruddy09

how’s it going? I’m invested in this now lol, determined to get it working.

OMG…I was up at 4AM today to try to find enough time to do everything! I just haven’t gotten to this yet, I apologize! Believe me I am as anxious to get this working as you are! LOL

[KaraokeAmerica]

@jruddy09

how’s it going? I’m invested in this now lol, determined to get it working

It’s going strangely. If I disconnect from PIA I get a screen that looks like this:

I ran all 5 BAT files as admin. They did modify that “permitted IP’s” file. None gave me the green “Fully accessible outside your network” when PIA was connected.

If I go to this URL:

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/plex-sidekiq-servers-list/sidekiqIPs.txt

Then copy/paste those IP’s to that file manually, I can get the green “Fully accessible outside your network” however, no IP’s are listed anywhere. I also don’t get the green check mark next to the “Remote Access” label on the left. It’s as if it’s a ghost connection:

I have a work laptop with a VPN on it. I tried connecting to my own server as I have a million times in the past, but it won’t let me see the Plex server with my corporate VPN running, I tried accessing it from my phone via cellular and it is connecting and playing. It’s transcoding under iOS, but that’s less of a concern than whether I can connect to begin with. I just have no way of really trying this on a non-phone device to see what happens.

I’m really lost on why no IP’s appear when I have this file in place and VPN connected.

In any case, I don’t think the actual BAT files did it for me beyond creating the file unless it does something else under the hood I’m unaware of.

I’m sure it’s something I’m doing wrong. lol