Roku doesn't play with local server

Plex Media Server
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1

I’ve got a local Plex server, built new a few months back. Windows 10, Ryzen5 chip, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD for the OS, 8 TB NAS HDD on SATA in the box. (It’s an NAS drive, but there’s no separate NAS) This box is connected to the router through ethernet, but I’ve also tried wireless and had both connected, with no difference in the following issue.

Everything plays fine on the server, everything plays fine on my laptop over wifi using both the browser app and the downloaded Plex app.

I have 3 roku players in the house with the Plex app on them. All 3 of those will connect to Plex servers located in other parts of the city (Friends also have servers) and play content off of those servers without fail or any sort of issues. When I try and play media off my local server using the rokus. I run into severe buffering issues and can’t play anything at all off the local server. The roku typically will tell me that my connection is not fast enough to stream that content, but when I check speeds using the roku settings, it typically will show speeds anywhere between 25 and 50 Mbps. This happens regardless of the quality I try and stream; it doesn’t matter if it’s below SD quality or all the way up to 4k. The same issue shows up on 3 different roku boxes regardless of their proximity to the wifi router and regardless of whether they’re connected to the 2.4 or 5 ghz channel.

Can anyone point me in a direction that might prevent the rokus from connecting to the local server, but have zero issues connecting to servers 30 miles away?

Server Version#: Version 1.23.2.4656 (I think?)
Roku Plex Version#: 6.8 Build 3

2

I made a change yesterday and unplugged the ethernet cable. The wifi obviously took over and everything seems to be running smoothly now. Why would the ethernet cable be running ridiculously slow? Is there maybe a port I should look at opening, or a setting in the router that’s not letting the wire side communicate with the wifi side?

3

Could be a bad cable somewhere in the mix. Try swapping ethernet cables around and see if that improves. You could also check the switch (I’m assuming there’s one involved) - bad ports happen.

If you detail a bit of your network setup\topology might get some other suggestions as well.

4

A strong 5G WiFi connection will be faster than wired - by a mile.

Depends on what was being played at the time. 100Mbps bit rate might not pass over healthy wired, but can easily pass over healthy 5G WiFi.

Check the health of the wired system to the failure point, but if the WiFi is working - it’s working. You may not need to overthink it…lol

5

I’ve seen the same issue with different cables.
Network setup is basic. Spectrum Cable modem, Linksys AC2600, Cat6 cable, 1 computer plugged in, probably 10 rokus/laptops/phones on the wifi. No repeaters, no mesh, just the single router.

The wired system seems to be healthy. Drivers are up to date, speeds are where they should be going out and from computer to computer across the network.

I’ve had issues before with it working over the wifi though. So I’m really confused why it’s working now.

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