SOLVED No remote access to Plex on FreeNAS after changing ISP.

[nemo1478]

I am having a strange problem with remote access to Plex on FreeNAS which from all my troubleshooting seems to point to a problem with FreeNAS.

I had a Cable connection to the Internet which I used to access Plex on FreeNAS remotely and stream all my media perfectly. No problems whatsoever.

I needed more bandwidth so I go a FTTH connection from another ISP with almost 8 times the upload of the Cable so I was very excited to switch my FreeNAS box to this new connection and stream at much higher quality.

However, when I made the switch, although FreeNAS had Internet connectivity I could not establish remote connectivity via the Plex plugin. Plex refuses to enable remote access.

I double checked all my port forwarding settings, I tried UPnP, I disabled UPnP and set up manual rules but still nothing.

I set up a Plex server on a Win7 laptop and connected it to the Internet via the FTTH connection and immediately remote access was established and I was able to stream a movie remotely. I switched back to the FreeNAS box, changed the IP of the server in the port forwarding settings but nothing. Plex refuses to enable remote access. I put the FreeNAS back on the Cable connection and it works perfectly as before.

I thought it could have been an ISP firewall issue but I ruled that out when I got the Win 7 Plex server working without a sweat. I also called the ISP leaving nothing to chance and they also confirmed that there is no firewall.

I am left to speculate that the problem is with FreeNAS itself or with the implemetation of Plex on FreeNAS. I am open to any suggestions. This one has got me beat.

 

[nemo1478]

It's been almost a week now since I got this new FTTH connection and I am yet to use it for it's intended purpose.

 

[pirateghost]

Have you verified the connection works internally to the Plex web GUI?

Are you sure your jail is not set to NAT?

Have you gotten into the console on the jail and verified it has network connectivity?

It sounds to me like you basically didn't do any troubleshooting aside from installing Plex on a windows box somewhere. If you did do some troubleshooting, you didn't inform us of such.

 

[SweetAndLow]

The Plex web ui shows you exactly what needs to be done. What does it tell you?

 

[nemo1478]

The ones web ui shows you exactly what needs to be done. What does it tell you?

What do you mean by 'the ones web ui'?

 

[SweetAndLow]

typo, updated post.

 

[nemo1478]

The Plex web ui shows you exactly what needs to be done. What does it tell you?

Well it tells me that remote access is not enabled and when I attempt to enable it while using the FTTH connection it takes a while trying then it fails.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Well it tells me that remote access is not enabled and when I attempt to enable it while using the FTTH connection it takes a while trying then it fails.

Does it tell you to log in or fix port forwarding?

 

[nemo1478]

Well I would say it indicates a problem with port forwarding. I am able to log in to Plex without any problem.

 

[pirateghost]

And again, I repeat myself....

Have you verified the jail has network connectivity?

Have you verified its gateway?

 

[nemo1478]

From the web gui for the jail I can confirm that NAT is disabled and I manually added the gateway since it is not there by default. I will test for network connectivity as soon as I can figure out how to access the jail via SSH.

Some research on the forum seems to point to a possible bug that doesn't update network changes to the jails when changes are made to freeNAS itself.

https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/3758

 

[pirateghost]

From the web gui for the jail I can confirm that NAT is disabled and I manually added the gateway since it is not there by default. I will test for network connectivity as soon as I can figure out how to access the jail via SSH.

Some research on the forum seems to point to a possible bug that doesn't update network changes to the jails when changes are made to freeNAS itself.

https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/3758

Ssh into the FreeNAS,
jls
jexec <jail number> tcsh

 

[nemo1478]

So following your instructions I was able to get into the jail and not surprisingly I do not have internet connectivity. I had a look at the /etc/resolv.conf and noticed that only the DNS servers for the Cable connection are listed.

I feel happy to finally see where the problem is. I have to find a way now to edit this file and add DNS servers for my FTTH connection. Some of the threads I've read so far recommended that this file not be edited manually. I will see what further info I come up with and report back to you guys.

 

[nemo1478]

SOLUTION

I am happy to report that my issue has been resolved. The problem was related to a known bug in FreeNAS.
https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/3758

DNS changes made to FreeNAS itself are not automatically propagated to the jails so when I switched to the new FTTH link and made DNS changes, although FreeNAS had Internet connectivity, the Plex jail within FreeNAS still maintained the old DNS information and as a result had no Internet connectivity and could not allow remote access.

I edited the /etc/resolv.conf file and added the DNS information for the FTTH link and Internet connectivity was restored to Plex.

I wish to thank everyone who took the time to read and offer any sort of advice, especially to pirateghost for his assistance and help in teaching me some new stuff.

 

[Mega Man]

this just fixed my jail.

thanks !

 

[MikeO1981]

Fixed my jail too! Thanks :)

 

[lmannyr]

My plex went down too after switching ISP. Would be better to just remove the pluggin and jail for plex and reinstall? Or is editing the file be just as good of way to fix this issue. Just thinking in terms of total FreeNAS health of future updates. I don't like messing with files if it can be done through the GUI.

THANKS..

 

[CP Waite]

This fixed my issues too! Thanks so much OP for posting this. Such a simple (and non-obvious) solution to such an annoying problem.