Cloudflare tunnel slow speeds

[JuelJasper 0]

Hi everyone,

I am running an Emby server on macOS, which I use to stream movies locally on my network. Now, I am trying to expand access to my server to a small group of friends without using port forwarding, as my ISP only provides a private IP.

I have successfully set up a Cloudflare Tunnel and DNS, but I am experiencing very low speeds when trying to stream movies. The speeds are around ~4Mbps, which is significantly lower than expected. This issue only occurs when using the Cloudflare Tunnel to stream and not when streaming remotely with a VPN like Tailscale. I prefer not to use Tailscale VPN for sharing because I don’t want to grant access to my entire machine—just the Emby server—and to make it more accessible to devices like LG TVs that don’t support Tailscale services.

I have verified that my Emby server is properly configured and that other aspects of my network seem to be functioning correctly (I have 400Mbps upload speed). The speed issue persists even when accessing the server from different locations and devices using the Cloudflare Tunnel.

I’ve checked for any ongoing maintenance or issues with Cloudflare but couldn’t find any specific reports that would explain this slow speed. I have also attached a speed test result from Cloudflare Speed Observatory, testing emby.mydomain.uk.

Has anyone else experienced similar issues with Cloudflare Tunnel or have suggestions on how to improve the connection speed? Any advice on troubleshooting or optimizing the setup would be greatly appreciated.

[JuelJasper 0]

I am using cloudflare's free plan

[Happy2Play 9780]

I will guess Cloudflare connection is seen as remote and VPN TailScale connection is seen as local, correct? 

As the ~4Mbps connections sound like the Remote access hardcode fallback value of Auto quality set on the client.

But would need specific examples to include server and ffmpegs.

 

[JuelJasper 0]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

I will guess Cloudflare connection is seen as remote and VPN TailScale connection is seen as local, correct? 

As the ~4Mbps connections sound like the Remote access hardcode fallback value of Auto quality set on the client.

But would need specific examples to include server and ffmpegs.

 

I Would think the cloudflare connection is seen as remote yes, however that could not be the issue seeing as when i connect remotely using a ngrok tunnel i can stream 4k video at 60mbps with no problems. Ngrok is not a viable option since it has a 1gb per month bandwith limit and uses an intermediate website making it impossible to connect using the emby app.

[Happy2Play 9780]

In the end you need to provide specific example and logs as the logs, ffmpeg log will provide a reason as I will guess they are transconding to that lower value.  But the majority of the time it the client AUTO quality setting as it will most of the time remotely fallback to hardcoded 4Mbps.