Server Version#: 1.21.0.3616
Player Version#:N/A
I happened to notice some random bandwidth usage on my server machine, and decided to figure out where it was coming from. Turns out, the Plex media server.exe was connecting to an unfamiliar IP address. In this instance, it appeared as though it were streaming to 5.196.53.110 which is in France (I am in the USA). I am not sharing my libraries with anyone in France.
Another address it was connecting to was 85.190.152.118 (Los Angeles).
My dashboard did not indicate that anyone on my friends list was streaming at the time I observed these metrics. It seems as though at the time of this writing, Plex was sending a constant stream at around 30,000 B/sec despite being idle. No server updates available. No users watching anything, etc.
While normally I wouldn’t be overly concerned with this activity, Comcast (My current ISP) recently announced they will be instituting Data caps and charging extra if we go over said cap.
I need to determine if this is normal functionality of Plex, or if someone is being shady.
It could have been some bot trying to get into your server, but ultimately failed.
But it could also have been one of your legit shared users, experimenting with a VPN.
30,000 b/s is 30 kbps. That’s about as much as what an old modem could do over an analog phone line, some 30 years ago. The traffic volume you can amass with this not very high. Just watching one Youtube video a month could create the same traffic volume.
also… geo-mapping of IP addresses is a long shot at best. IP addresses are not associated by region (like ZIP codes). Even if you’re known to be located in CA, you can assign your IP addresses to servers all over the world – or get other IP bundles that might be considered to “belong elsewhere”.
Was Plex making outbound connections to those IP addresses? If so they are PROBABLY Plex cloud servers, but I don’t know how to confirm that by IP address. Plex doesn’t make outbound connections to remote player clients.
Amusingly, circularly, viewing the status dashboard uses bandwidth. I’ve seen about 10Kbps, give or take.
Anybody on the Internet can ping your server, can load the Plex Web app from your Plex Server, etc. But they can’t stream any media from you unless you’re sharing with them.
In that case it is just your server making connectivity tests to various nodes of the Plex cloud. These are distributed across the globe. The goal is to find the one with the best connectivity.
At the same time the cloud will store your server’s public IP and the fact that it is available for remote connections.
This information can be used by your own Plex clients (and those of people with whom you share your server). A few diagnostic messages are also transmitted.
Not sure I buy all that.
My Plex is sitting idle, no media scan and no connected clients.
It’s got live connections to a dozen or so IP.s Some on my local LAN, like that 192.168.1.255 which doesn’t exist and mostly external including that bell.ca address.
