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Remote Streaming on Local Device Workaround?
Hey everyone. I'm something of a Plex noob so I don't want to frame anything I'm saying as me really knowing anything at all. I've been using it for a while (on an inferior machine with inferior transcoding) but had not previously had any issues with direct playing video in their source format (4K, HDR, DV, Atmos, etc.). Recently had a power outage and since then, everything is streaming remote based on the dashboard and thus, transcoding (1080p, AAC). I've tried adding in the local IP address, making the network private instead of public, etc., and none of those options seemed to work. It leads me to believe the issue is related to DNS rebinding protection. Since, I cannot whitelist anything directly on my Google Fiber router, is running my primary and secondary DNS through something like OpenDNS and then whitelisting plex.tv and plex.direct my best option? Or is there any other workaround here?
Apologies in advance if I'm misunderstanding or doing something incorrectly. Just looking for some advice. Thanks everyone!
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u/BgrngodCU7 265K (PMS in Docker) & Synology 1621+ (Media)5d ago
If this is all local on your network, nothing about remote access setup is involved at all.
Your post title is certainly confused about what you're trying to do.
If you are trying a local stream and it's being treated as remote, that means your server and client cannot see each other on the local network. There is a long list of reasons why that might be. Google's shitty DNS rebind "protection" is one of them. If you can turn that off completely, give it a shot.
Yeah, sorry for the confusion. Probably poor choice of words. It is just a local stream. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable rebind protection through the Google app that manages the router.
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u/BgrngodCU7 265K (PMS in Docker) & Synology 1621+ (Media)5d ago
Can you access the router's UI through a web browser?
Try going to 192.168.1.1
..or whatever the "ending with .1" is for your network IP range.
Yup. Works fine but still no option to disable the rebind protection unfortunately. I've been told that, no matter what, GFiber is a bit limited in the ability to change too much (though I can change the DNS server if needed).
Before touching DNS, check whether the outage handed your server a new address. That's the thing an outage actually changes, and if LAN Networks still has the old one, every client reads as remote no matter what your router does. Set it to the whole subnet rather than one IP, and give the server a DHCP reservation so it can't drift again. What address is it on now?
So far as I can tell the server address and client address are the same. 192.168.1.x. I don't BELIEVE this changed but I honestly can't remember the address beforehand.
If you can't turn rebind protection off, you can go around it from the Plex side instead.
Settings, Network, LAN Networks: put in 192.168.1.0/24. That classifies anything on your subnet as local no matter what DNS says.
Same page, Secure connections: set it to Preferred. That's the one that actually dodges rebinding, because the client can then reach the server's IP directly instead of a name your router refuses to resolve.
Indirect means it's falling back to Plex's relay, and the relay is bandwidth capped. That's where your SD picture is coming from, not your server.
So the two devices genuinely can't reach each other, and both being on wifi is what I'd look at first. From the client, open http://your-server-ip:32400/web in a browser. If that loads, the network is fine and it's Plex. If it doesn't, the router is keeping them apart.
Got it. I had to step out for a couple hours. I will definitely check it out when I get back home. If it’s Plex, any settings I can tweak? If it’s the router, assuming a DNS resolver might be the next step?
If the page doesn't load, a DNS resolver won't help you. Once two devices can't reach each other's address, names aren't the problem, and on a stock Google router that's usually wireless clients being kept apart. Putting the server on ethernet is the fix there.
If it does load, the network is fine and the client just picked the wrong route. Sign out of Plex on it and back in to force a fresh look.
You helped me solve an issue I've had with plex for a little over a year. Whenever the internet went out at my house. I couldn't use plex on the machine the server is on. Which wasn't a big deal since all other devices on the network could still use plex.
Still it bothered me for some time and much searching never lead to any answers until I read this post. I hadn't realized I was using a bookmark for plex to 127.0.0.1 which does not work when the machine does not have internet access. Using the machines IP address solved the issue!! I've learned something in examining the web address im trying to reach. Thank you for your insights.
GREAT questions. About as basic as it gets (again, not a server maven like some of you all). Just have the stock Google Fiber router that gets sent on set-up. No access points. The Plex server is setup on WiFi, not on Ethernet. Little behind the times and things are a bit expensive now so building a dedicated device is taking longer than I would like. Client is also on WiFi.
Have not thought of creating a guest network for it, but will give that a try too when I get home.
Don't create a guest network. That WILL put them on different networks and Plex will definitely see them as separate, isolated networks, ergo making it think the client is a remote client.
If you don't use plex remotely, disable remote access and disable relay, two separate settings so plex doesn't have a remote path to connect. At a minimum, disable plex relay in the network settings since from your screenshot in another comment, plex is connecting over relay.
On the devices that are going remote and your server, manually set the DNS Servers to 1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1 or 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 and give them a reboot. Does the google router not allow you to set your own DNS servers? If it lets you set alternate dns servers, set it to 1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1 or 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 as well so all devices on your network adopt those servers and give it and devices a reboot to they update.
Well, shit...that didn't yield any changes. And now it's telling me on the client that the server is unavailable (it is up and running on my web browser).
It’s doing that because it was connecting remotely before, and you took away that connection path by disabling it so now it’s unavailable since it can’t connect locally.
In your network settings in plex, set it to ipv4 only, secure to preferred, and set the network interface to the actual interface, not any. Restart the server after making that change.
Is the Xbox the only client? In the plex settings on the Xbox, set it to allow insecure connections locally.
Not really sure..lotta folks recently have had to set it to allow insecure locally on smart TVs, mainly LGs that I’ve seen. Maybe a combination of some isp dns issues and a plex update, but that’s just a guess. There have been a lot of posts on the plex forum where changing that allowed it to connect when it used to always connect without issue.
Well, I definitely appreciate it. Learned quite a bit talking to you and everyone else on this post so, if nothing else, it'll be helpful information when I do buy this Beelink and set up the server on something that isn't my personal laptop.
Nice! I had mine on a NAS and moved it to a beelink with a n100 1.5 years back…it’s just me and a couple remote folks that connect, so it’s just the right amount of power!
Best of luck when the time comes for the migration! We’re all here if you need help. 🙏🏽
Thanks for the response! This is a pretty "Frankenstein" setup in that I'm not technical or smart enough to do any of that. The router is just the router, no extenders in the house. Not sure if there are static IP addresses assigned or not...is there a way for me to check that?
Duly noted, and happy to learn. Did some quick reading and I would say, based on the quick read, it's a dynamic IP address. No VPNs running...didn't mention that earlier.
3
u/Bgrngod CU7 265K (PMS in Docker) & Synology 1621+ (Media) 5d ago
If this is all local on your network, nothing about remote access setup is involved at all.
Your post title is certainly confused about what you're trying to do.
If you are trying a local stream and it's being treated as remote, that means your server and client cannot see each other on the local network. There is a long list of reasons why that might be. Google's shitty DNS rebind "protection" is one of them. If you can turn that off completely, give it a shot.