Do I need a VPN for Plex remote access?
· 4y You shouldn't need a VPN to share via Plex, assuming you are sending the content over SSL which is the vast majority of use cases. Just to speak generally, if you were to send data to someone over the VPN it would be the people on the other end receiving the data in an unencrypted format.
How to enable remote access on Plex Media Server?
Remote Access
- Quick Guide. If Remote Access is currently disabled, then use the Enable Remote Access button to trigger your server to try to configure a connection.
- Normal Settings. The information displayed by default will depend on the current state of the Plex Media Server. ...
- Advanced Settings. ...
How to setup pfSense OpenVPN for remote access?
PFSense creates the OpenVPN Client, using VPN – OpenVPN and selecting the Clients tab, then selecting the option ‘+Add’ to add a user. Open the VPN clientedit section of the menu, and there are five sections: general information, authentication settings, user affinity settings, cryptographic settings, and tunnel settings.
How to fix remote access error in Plex Media Server?
What causes Plex Remote Access not to Work?
- Solution 1: Updating to the Latest Version. ...
- Solution 2: Power cycling for Glitch Resolution. ...
- Solution 3: Fixing Slow Internet Connection. ...
- Solution 4: Disabling Advanced Firewalls. ...
- Solution 5: Checking the Automatic Configuration. ...
- Solution 6: Manually Forwarding Port. ...
- Solution 7: Manually Port Forwarding Multiple Servers. ...
Enabling Remote Access for Plex
Once I had it all done and configured I noticed that my plex server was reporting as unreachable to the outside world.. Not ideal, if I want to watch a movie from my collection while I’m traveling. It didn’t take long to realize that pfSense had UPnP disabled by default..
Fixing Indirect Access on the LAN
I thought it was all great then I noticed that when I accessed Plex from my local network it was showing up as indirect, which caused it to transcode everything like it was coming from the internet.
Bingo! Direct & Secure LAN Connection
I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out the solution to this and while I have mostly written up this post to help me remember how I got this working, I hope this helps someone else waste a little less time.
How to find the IP address of a Plex server?
Go to your Plex Server webui and look in Remote Access. You should find the public IP address is that of your non-VPN WAN connection.
How to create a port forwarding rule in Plex?
Go to Firewall=>NAT=>Port Forward and create a new rule, ensuring the port is the correct one you have specified in the Plex Server webui and it's pointing to your Plex Server IP address. This will also automatically create a corresponding inbound firewall rule directing external connections from WAN to your Plex server.
GateToTheFuture
Its really not recommended to NAT across subnets, it will put the router under a LOT of strain as it needs to handle the bandwidth of Plex streaming + your Internet. It also makes it more complicated as Plex broadcasts itself to the LAN and you can't afaik forward that. However if you insist, what you might be missing here are NAT, Outbound rules to allow the LAN to NAT to the IoT client.
Alex Atkin UK
It was a subnetting issue. I'm not worried about the extra strain on this firewall. I push gigabit with IPS and traffic filtering and the CPU doesn't even hit 5%. In addition to this, I also have layer 3 switching happening ahead of this so really not my full concern. Thanks for the tip though.
GateToTheFuture
Can you be more specific? Its good to have details in case someone in the future runs into the same issue.
Alex Atkin UK
The local lan subnet was set with the wrong CIDR. It’s has since been rectified.
