Emby theater wont connect to local server running VPN

[BGLZ 0]

Im experiencing difficulty with my setup which has been rock solid for years, nothing on my end has recently changed (other than Emby doing automatic updates) and honestly im not network savvy so go easy on me.

 

I have a local HTPC running win 8.1 with WMC & Emby theater which cannot connect to my local WHS2011 running Emby Server when Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN is running just on the server. All the equipment is wired into the same router.

 

For the last couple of years its connected without a problem with a VPN running.

When I say cannot connect, I mean I click on the emby icon in WMC and wait about 30 seconds and it eventually comes up with a screen saying "Welcome to Emby for WMC" and has a PIN number. 
It allows a manual login at the bottom left occasionally, I would say manual login works 50% of the time.

 

This setup has been rock solid for years just as a plug and play setup without having to set anything up (apart from basic networking)

 

If I disable the VPN on the server, emby eventually connects after a 30 second wait after clicking on the icon... this used to work after only a 1-2 second delay so im wondering if there is something wrong with my install.

Ive done clean emby installs on all machines to eliminate that root cause.

 

My PIA VPN allows some setting configuration changes, but I honestly dont know what to change (if anything). 

 

PIA VPN settings

Connection Type: UDP

Remote Port : Auto

Local Port :8096

Port Forwarding : (box unchecked)

VPN Kill Switch : (box unchecked)

DNS Leak Protection : (box unchecked)

IPv6 Leak Protection : (box checked)

 

Any help would be great, this has been driving me crazy for 2 weeks.

 

[BGLZ 0]

Bump! Anyone else had this problem?

[BGLZ 0]

Ive found the following on the emby dashboard

 

Normal operation (With VPN disconnected)

Server shows - Local Access: http://192.168.1.8:8096

 

When VPN is running (I cant locally log in from anything other than chrome)

Server shows - Local Access: http://10.191.1.6:8096

 

When I remote desktop into the server and do a ipconfig I get 2 Ethernet adaptors, one with iPv4 address... 10.191.1.6, the other with 192.168.1.8

 

With the VPN running, If I click on Emby in WMC I get a Emby Connect Screen with a pin, if I manual login with 192.168.1.8 I can successfully log into Emby. Only downside is I have to do this every time I log in and out of it in WMC. Is there any way of permanently allowing emby to look at 192.168.1.8 regardless of if Im running a VPN or not?

 

Log Files attached

Log.txt

[mjktg99 34]

Emby has been known to have trouble dealing with servers that have multiple NIC's or IP's.  The only advise I can give you is to look into getting a VPN Router that handles your VPN and not using a soft VPN on the server.

[scope99 7]

I am having this same problem was fine until yesterday when I ran the latest server update 3.0.5911. The VPN is on Emby Server. Emby Theater won't connect on on any of the local clients (even emby theater running on the server does not connect).

Edited April 1, 2016 by scope99

[BGLZ 0]

A auto EMBY server update happened around the first week of march 2016, ive had my VPN running with EMBY for at least 3 years as is with no emby connection problems, and then whatever EMBY server update occurred at that time caused this problem.

 

any help guys?

 

is there any way to automatically force a wmc emby to connect to a static local ip address? like is there a registry value i can over-ride? currently auto detect doesnt work and i can manually enter it every time i log into the wmc emby app but this is getting annoying.

[Luke 37067]

have you tried just manually entering the server address into emby theater?