My Plex library is unreachable when I am connected to my work’s wifi or VPN. I can watch Plex’s content, but not my own. Anyone know of a way around this? I don’t think it’s being blocked, but something with the way it’s connected. I don’t have admin access on my work computer, so may be limited on what I can install.
To try and actually address the question, I’m going to assume the OP is an adult and willing to take the consequences, if any actually exist. Have you considered running NGINX as a reverse proxy on the same server? This would allow you to get rid of the 32400 port requirement and access it over plain ol’ http/https ports 80/443.
I do this myself as I got tired of random places blocking access to port 32400. Now I can stream virtually anywhere.
Circumventing your work place security is probably a great way to lose your job. On the plus side you wouldn’t have to worry about their VPN.
Weird to see so many rude replies.
An easy solution for you is to set a domain name and run Plex over https port 443. No way to distinguish such Plex traffic from any other encrypted https traffic other than heuristics.
Have you set up the Plex server so that it you are able to connect to Plex from outside your network? This is regardless of the VPN aspect. If you have a personal device, are you able to access your Plex content when outside of your home? When at home, I can connect to my Plex content from my work computer when on the VPN.
Then again, it may just be security settings on your company’s VPN.
No, you have no access to bypass their established firewalls.
If they block streaming traffic, doesn’t matter where its from nor how encrypted it is, that traffic isn’t allowed in. Such is the life of network security.
If you really really really want access to plex at work, you have 3 options.
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Use a tethering device like your phone to use your personal data
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Sync the stuff you want to watch at home and bring it with you to work.
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Get really close to someone in IT, befriend them, and then convince them to whitelist your plex server IP… might need to suck a few dicks (literal and/or figurative) for this one to work.
First, working in cyber security, I’m just going to say that trying to circumvent the VPN is a good way to get canned and be looking for a new job.
With that said, you could look at setting up a VM on your machine. Depending on the VPN setup and EDR solution, you may be able to bypass it simply with that. But if it’s still blocked, then within that VM, connect to your own VPN of your choosing. That should allow you to connect to whatever you want.
This assumes you would be able to install something like VMWare Workstation. If not, since you’re most likely on a Pro or Enterprise license, then you could possibly enable Hyper-V and set up a VM that way. But it would depend on whether they have Hyper-V locked down with group policy or not.
I had the same issue. I use UNRAID. I installed nginx proxy manger. Made my Plex use my domain name, so plex.website.com. I went to remote and disabled remote access. I can now access it at work.
I have had the same problem. I could login to plex.tv and watch their uninteresting content, but my server were nowhere to be found. Solved it by reverse proxying Plex on my own domain. Now, if I login at app.plex.tv on my work computer it won’t find my server, but if I visit plex.mydomain.com it’s all there.
So my employer obviously don’t block the Plex.tv domain, but they do block something in regards to that, but it’s something that does not impact my own domain.
This just screams terrible idea. I work in compliance and if I found a user was actively attempting to do this on company assets, that would be an immediate grounds for dismissal. That being said, I give a cyber safety briefing every month at work. My first statement involving company assets is “if you don’t do it on company equipment, you can’t get caught / in trouble for it”. I then take out my personal cell phone and say “I understand we all need a break, or distraction, or background noise etc. whatever helps you get through the day if needed. That being said, use this (points to phone). Do NOT use this (points to company PC).”
If you want to use Plex at work, either use your own data or cache/download stuff on your personal device.
If you’re using a VPN back to your house the local ip range isn’t correct for local play. But even then you should have indirect connection ability through plex relay. I’ve had this issue in the past due to port forwarding issues.
It’s really hard to answer this without understanding the technical reason it’s being blocked and company policy behind that. There are a lot of potential reasons it’s not working, and those might be intentional on your company’s part, or an unintended side effect of some other protection they have set up. Best to ask them for details, if you work in a place where they’re open about these things
I managed to circumvent my company wifi firewall to watch Plex and do a variety of other things that were blocked. To be clear, my work wifi allows for public (no password) login, but it does have annoying firewall rules that block Plex and other services.
I set up a travel router (Gl-iNet Mango) as a repeater and connected it to my work wifi. My travel router is set up to log in to my NordVPN account. Then, I connect my iPhone and iPad to my travel router and I have zero issues accessing these previously blocked services.
You can also try one other of this approach that I have also done. I have ZeroTier installed on my Plex server and on my iPhone. I can point my iPhone (or iPad) to the ZeroTier ip address of my Plex server and watch content that way. It should behave as if you were watching locally, but you may still need something like a travel router hooked up to VPN to get around your work firewall.
I would gone tailscale a shot. If it isn’t also blocked, it should be able to act as a proxy, you’ll just have to to to the assigned IP manually instead of the regular webpage
If they are blocking that port, just change the port forward settings on your router. I for example changed the port forward from 32400 to another more common port that won’t normally break things. You just need to change the port in the plex server settings, and you need to port forward on your router from to the internal IP and port 32400.
At least the last time I set it up plex must have 32400 as the port on the server itself, but the external port on the router can be anything. The bonus to this is you need not install anything on your work computer. You can just navigate to plex.tv, or however you normally access it.
This is the actual real answer.
The likelihood is that the workplace blocks all ports other than 80 and 443 (amongst other necessary ports) and aren’t specifically targeting Plex.
Running your Plex behind a reverse proxy will get you through this and likely won’t be breaking and work policies if other streaming sites aren’t specifically blocked. But if they have put in place these sort of blocks there will likely be some sort of work place documentation about the policies that you should check before you get yourself fired.
Apart from that, syncing content or using a hotspot would be the only other “approved” methods
YouTube, Disney, Netflix, Prime and Plex’s shitty content all work fine on my work computer. I’m just talking about tweaking Plex settings so I can get access to my personal content too. Let’s not be dramatic.
That might be an option.
xenago - I agree. I wish people would not offer suggestions or solutions unless they have a specific correct solution. I have the same plex issue. Works fine remote, at home over lan, at my older brothers house streaming content from my Movies folder. Once VPN is connect at home, it drops. I have a cisco VPN to use from work, want to just let my home router direct traffic for plex to plex and ignore the vpn. ? That would have nothing to do with work connection.
Yes, have Plex Premium. I can watch my Plex content on my phone with cellular data, but the second I connect to the work wifi can’t watch my content anymore. Streaming off my cell data is not an option as that would be too much data.