Working solution to CG NAT - looking to optimize

Plex Media Server Remote Access
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Server Version#: 4.53.0
Player Version#: 8.14.1.23548 (Android)

I have a pretty good solution to my Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT) problem. Please take a look at my picture.

Plex Setup

I have setup a mesh network using Tailscale between all components of my setup. I have an AWS Lightsail instance running Nginx Proxy Manager. The reverse proxy securely exposes my Plex server on my private LAN to my Plex instances on the internet. All seems to work fine.

I have all my media direct playable by all clients. However, if necessary, like for a browser, it can still transcode.

I would like to understand Direct play a little better, the documentation is great, but it doesn’t answer my question. When a player is found by Plex to be able to direct play some media, does the Plex server offer the player the direct link to the media, or is the Plex server always proxying the stream?

Since I pay for any network traffic overages in AWS, I am hoping I can coax the Plex server into allowing the Plex client to directly connect to the source media over my mesh VPN. This would bypass the AWS reverse proxy during media playback thus saving on my network traffic bill.

Any thoughts are welcome. :slight_smile:

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The data always go through Plex Server.

(btw the term “Direct Play” has nothing to do with the direct conectivity between server and client. It does refer to whether transcoding is needed or not.)

(Please drag your picture into the message editor of this forum. Hosting it on GDrive doesn’t make much sense.)

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Data always flows from the Plex server to the Plex client.

The Plex server may use SMB, NFS, WebDAV, or whatever to communicate with the file server (if drives are not local).

The Plex server then sends the data to the client on port TCP/32400, or whichever port is designated for remote access.

Direct Play / Direct Stream / Transcode describes actions taken by the Plex Server. It has nothing to do with the network path taken by the data.

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Thank you both. Excellent explanations. :slight_smile: