PIA Split Tunneling with Emby does NOT work right

[Polyglot 2]

Hi,

I'm having a problem I'm hoping this fine community can help me solve.

For a long time, I used Emby Server behind PIA with no issues. No split tunneling, no problems. I was able to enjoy my content both locally and over the internet.

Well, I can't remember if I updated Emby, or if I updated PIA, but when I physically relocated my server, I updated something.

Well, now whenever I watch Emby behind the VPN it gets weird. Occasionally, playback starts to get choppy. Usually, I can just skip the episode it happens to, and the next one plays just fine. I know it's not the content because if I skip, then go back, it will work as expected. But given enough time, the playback will get choppy and pauses frequently.

I fought with this for a long while until I realized it might be the VPN affecting things. Turned it off and viola. Emby has no more issues. Well, I need my VPN active on my server. So I decided to add Emby as an exception via Split Tunneling. I never really cared of Emby was or wasn't behind the VPN but I accepted it while it was possible. So, Emby should now be bypassing my VPN, right?

Wrong. It still does that weird choppy and frequent pausing thing, and it only goes away whenever I disable my VPN. My problem is, I added Emby as an exception, so why in the world is it still acting like it's behind the VPN? And why does it start fine, then descent into a broken state when it worked behind by VPN for all this time with no issues in the first place?

Does anyone else use PIA? Emby works fine without PIA, so maybe the best course of action would be to ask the PIA guys why this is happening?

It doesn't seem to be happening with any other application I have split tunneled, though. Just Emby. So I figured I'd come here first, since it might be an Emby thing.

And if I managed to post this into the wrong section, my apologies. Move it to the appropriate place if you would!

[Abobader 3464]

Hello Polyglot,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 42078]

HI, the most likely reason is that the VPN software has only implemented their exceptions for ipv4 network requests, but not ipv6.

[Polyglot 2]

33 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI, the most likely reason is that the VPN software has only implemented their exceptions for ipv4 network requests, but not ipv6.

Oh I see. Okay, so it might totally be on PIA then. Figures. After looking into it, it seems that they actually block ipv6 requests while the VPN is active, tunnel or no. Do you think this could be causing the issues with Emby?

I think updating PIA caused this, as it seems like a newer update has changed the way they handled ipv6. Previously, they just let ipv6 requests leak to your ISP to handle. I might consider downgrading the software if it will get my configuration back to working order.

Luke, I can tell you're super helpful around here, so my next request is not a slight against you. And I appreciate you helping me look into this.

Is there anyone with PIA's latest version who has managed to solve this issue with Emby? Reading around doesn't give me much optimism that PIA is the solution for me moving forward if a software update bricks my ability to use Emby, because they decided that I don't need to use ipv6. There are other VPN providers  But there's only one Emby, and I wont give it up.

[Luke 42078]

How did you determine that? I think that is more likely to cause requests to fail outright rather than revert to ipv4.

[Clackdor 109]

If I may offer a suggestion, it would be far more ideal to offload VPN duties to your router/gateway if possible. VPN clients on a host machine have a tendency to break local network connectivity in weird ways, especially when it comes to local devices accessing services on that machine or vice versa. 

You're just as likely to have similar issues with any other VPN client installed on your server since they all make changes to the routing table and default gateway. 

[yocker 1248]

1 hour ago, Clackdor said:

If I may offer a suggestion, it would be far more ideal to offload VPN duties to your router/gateway if possible. VPN clients on a host machine have a tendency to break local network connectivity in weird ways, especially when it comes to local devices accessing services on that machine or vice versa. 

You're just as likely to have similar issues with any other VPN client installed on your server since they all make changes to the routing table and default gateway. 

 

Sadly many routers are way under powered for VPNs if you want any decent speed.

[Polyglot 2]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

How did you determine that? I think that is more likely to cause requests to fail outright rather than revert to ipv4.

Unless I am mistaken, I gathered the information from PIA's help desk here: https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/kb/articles/why-do-you-block-ipv6-2

Further reading on Reddit around PIA and ipv6 (I know, not a very authoritative source) seems to validate my theory that my ipv6 traffic is indeed being disabled while connected to the VPN. I'm just not sure if this would impact Emby's operation at all.
 

@Clackdor, I don't want my entire network behind a VPN, when I run it for just one application. Also, prior to me updating PIA, I actually had about 2 years of flawless service behind the VPN, local and over the internet. I do think the cause is the way PIA changed handling ipv6 requests. I didn't update PIA from when I first bought it back in like, 2018. But, when I physically relocated my server, I tried a different VPN service I didn't like (other reasons not related to this) and I went back to PIA, which caused me to download and install the latest version. PIA describes the change in how they handle ipv6 requests around 2021, which makes sense, since I was running a version from 2018 and didn't update to the latest version until a few months ago.

Furthermore, I am not having trouble with local connectivity, as if I connect to the server using a local address, I have no issues. I'm only seeing these issues when I access the service over the internet.

Edited January 9, 2025 by Polyglot

[ryvanzandt 1]

I use Emby and PIA with no issues, but I use the split tunnelling different. I select the items I want using the VPN and everything else gets through. External access through caddy. 

[Lessaj 467]

I use PIA on my pfSense rather than on my servers but I'm struggling to understand how the VPN client would cause this because the VPN would only be used for outgoing connections made by the server, not incoming connections from external clients. Incoming connections should come in through your WAN gateway. The VPN client also creates its own network interface, since it needs to have its own IP/gateway/DNS defined, and this is where routing can get changed but shouldn't be relevant here because it will reply back through the interface the connection was made from based on my understanding.

Are you sure the incoming connection is coming from your WAN and not a PIA port forward? Is the remote IP shown on the dashboard your WAN or PIA IP? Sorry you didn't mention how exactly you're accessing your server remotely, if that's with Emby Connect or via a domain name, just trying to understand the flow.

[Polyglot 2]

Hey everyone!

I came back to report in that everyone was right to dismiss the VPN client as the potential issue.

I forgot that I had configured a remote proxy for my sever (derp) and I only started thinking about it when Emby further deteriorated, even after opting to turn the VPN off permanently.

I had to get in touch with my server host to fix the issue. It was all on their end!

If anyone is curious as to what was happening, I have the transcript with tech support where they shared some logs with me. I can share it upon request. It's uninteresting, and has nothing to do with Emby, however. In short, my host had to replace a node in their network, and whatever was wrong with their old switch was causing random packet losses to my server.

Sorry, this issue had nothing to do with my VPN client. But I really appreciate all of you gathering to try and help me. You guys are awesome!