Very Random Network Issues

[pauledelkamp 0]

I am having an issue with Emby seemingly randomly disconnecting from devices in my home. It's running on my home computer, same wifi network every day, same everything, absolutely nothing changes. Suddenyl, the living room TV can't connect to the network using the exact same settings is the day before, and every other device works fine. The next day my son's TV won't connect, and all the others work fine. It seems so completely random and is so beyond frustrating I've considered giving my money to someone else every month becuase, so far, I haven't had a lot of help. Can someone tell me what is going on and what I might do so that I don't have to ready myself for disappointment every time I simply want to sit down and watch TV?

[Abobader 3464]

Hello pauledelkamp,

** 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

[GrimReaper 4740]

Random issues like those are generally hardest to trace and subsequently troubleshoot. For starters, next time it occurs, try to capture server log and, if using Android, AndroidTV or Roku app(s) on your TV(s), grab/submit in-app log as well and attach them to your post. 

How to report a media playback issue

 

Edited May 25, 2025 by GrimReaper

[guytpetj 2]

Emby may show the symptoms, but the underlying illness could be your network itself. Please explain in detail your network setup, additional hardware and software you use in your network. Too many times, the item showing the symptoms get blamed, but the more hidden root cause is ignored.

When I had symptoms like you are experiencing, it turned out that I had DHCP issues, and these issues were of my own making. I installed a Pi-Hole as DHCP server and failed to switch off the DHCP in my router. I ended up with two captains trying to steer the ship in opposite directions. Emby (my Emby server) was protesting about this, so telling me that I had a problem somewhere.

 

Edited May 25, 2025 by guytpetj

[pauledelkamp 0]

The thing is I did nothing different. It worked yesterday and now, with everything exactly the same, it doesn't work in the living room. It works fine in my bedroom, on my tablet, in my son's room, etc. Next week, it will stop working in my room. This has been an ongoing thing.

 

But, for the setup in question;  I'm using a dual-band router, the Emby computer is on the 2.4ghz channel (because it also has to talk to the printer which is kind of crap), as well as the television (Samsung). The computer is set to fixed IP (192.168.0.101). I would bother to check if there is a firewall exception to port 8096 (I don't think there is) but, if not, it was fine yesterday, so why not today? Absolutely nothing has changed.

 

I'll attach the log. This first started happening last night around 6:00 PM I believe.

embyserver.txt

[pwhodges 2012]

9 hours ago, pauledelkamp said:

Absolutely nothing has changed.

You say that as if it makes the problem Emby's fault.  But if Emby hasn't changed, then how can it be?

Network problems can come and go, because connections, IP assignments, and so on can be changing at any time, so "nothing has changed" cannot be said with any confidence.

Your log contains a lot of portmapper errors.  Portmapping shouldn't be relevant for LAN connections, but maybe if your wireless bands are segregated, there might be something.  I would try turning off uPNP portmapping in the Network settings (you can also remove the plugin that implements it).  If this creates more problems we can look at the reasons for that, and whether a router setting would fix it.  

Alternatively, the portmapper might be irrelevant - I note that the log you post stops around 5:50pm, a little before the 6pm you mentioned.  Or maybe someone else will see something I missed in the log.

Paul

[Luke 42078]

20 hours ago, pauledelkamp said:

I am having an issue with Emby seemingly randomly disconnecting from devices in my home. It's running on my home computer, same wifi network every day, same everything, absolutely nothing changes. Suddenyl, the living room TV can't connect to the network using the exact same settings is the day before, and every other device works fine. The next day my son's TV won't connect, and all the others work fine. It seems so completely random and is so beyond frustrating I've considered giving my money to someone else every month becuase, so far, I haven't had a lot of help. Can someone tell me what is going on and what I might do so that I don't have to ready myself for disappointment every time I simply want to sit down and watch TV?

Hi, what exactly happens when you try to connect?

[pauledelkamp 0]

In a nutshell, rather than the usual screen (Continue Watching, Latest Media, etc), it asks me which server I would like to connect to, with only one option, the only server. It will not connect to that server. I've even tried the other options such as waking it (never works) but I usually end up removing the server, manually entering the exact same info and, about half the time, that works. I've found I can remove Emby from the device and reinstall it, log in, and that works some of the time. The rest of the time, I have to uninstall Emby from my computer, reinstall, and set it up from scratch. What I'm wondering is why does it always eventually work using the same info but after all the above silliness?

[Luke 42078]

What exactly happens when you try to connect to that server?

[pauledelkamp 0]

It just says it can't connect to that server.

[Luke 42078]

56 minutes ago, pauledelkamp said:

It just says it can't connect to that server.

And then what did you do? One thing you could try at that point is doing a new server connection by clicking add server and then manually entering the server ip address. 

Maybe your server ip address is changing on your LAN. Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[pauledelkamp 0]

That's usually the first thing I do. The Emby computer is set to a fixed IP on my home network. I check Emby to make sure it's still sitting on the same IP, enter that info, and it says the network is unavailable.

 

I don't know if this helps but I noticed some options in the Emby network section to specify the server IP and set a range of IP's Emby likes - 192.168.0.102/255 as all of my devices are 102 and above - so I don't know if that's overkill. I also set firewall exceptions to allow all incoming and outgoing traffic on the two ports Emby uses, turned off port forwarding, and added a split tunnel to allow Emby to bypass my VPN. I feel a lot of that was unnecessary but I'll try anything to keep it running another week.

[Neminem 1518]

4 hours ago, pauledelkamp said:

192.168.0.102/255

I would try this in stead

192.168.0.0/24

That should apply to all devices on your 192.168.0.X ip range.

[pauledelkamp 0]

Really? That's interesting. I'll assume I read it wrong and 102/255 seemed like the logical answer but wouldn't ask "why?" as that would kind of be going off topic. I'll definitely make that change.

[Neminem 1518]

Just to show an example.

IP Subnet Calculator

[Q-Droid 989]

It doesn't have to be /24 but that is the most common and if the one in Emby was indeed /255 that's not a valid mask. Make sure /24 (255.255.255.0) matches the netmask given out by your DHCP server/router.

 

 

 

[pwhodges 2012]

1 hour ago, pauledelkamp said:

Really? That's interesting. I'll assume I read it wrong and 102/255 seemed like the logical answer but wouldn't ask "why?" as that would kind of be going off topic. I'll definitely make that change.

As to why - that notation defines a subnet, and a subnet is a specific thing, not just any limited range of addresses.  The number after the "/" specifies how many bits of the preceding 32-bit address are significant.  I can't say whether specifying values other than 0 for the non-significant bits (as you did) is actually forbidden, but it will not have the effect you expect, and I would avoid doing it as it could lead to confusion.

Paul