Question about VLAN Usage

[vaise 340]

My wife has an issue on her iPad (but not her iPhone), that needs an iPad restart each night when she wants to watch emby.

i was deleting the emby app and re-installing it, but then found a power off/On fixed it instead.  

she just gets a spinning circle otherwise on playback of any media.  Same media opens in her iPhone.  Both updated to latest iOS and latest emby.

its a pain, but at least she is not bothering me any more about it.

[vaise 340]

Just reporting back on  the wifes issue with this.

All my I devices are on a different vlan to my server devices.

There are the normal firewall rules to allow traffic - evident as this ipad always actually starts emaby and you can scroll around its just the media playback that had the spinnign circle......and it always plays back media after a restart.

HOWEVER, I accidentally found that if i attach it to the wifi on the same lan as the server, then it always plays back instantly.

I have other ipads and her iphone that ALWAYS work fine n the same VLAN config.  I have no idea what is so special with this one - its the same Ios, the same emby app etc etc.

For now, to keep her happy, I am moving leaving this to the main lan while I work on this some more.

 

 

[vaise 340]

I have an ipad side by sside, same os, same media file playing back.  

Same vlan.  Its got me stumped.

They both have local network ticked off and one.

This one ipad is possessed.

 

 

[Luke 42077]

Maybe one is not connected to the same vlan?

[vaise 340]

47 minutes ago, Luke said:

Maybe one is not connected to the same vlan?

checked IP address on the ipads themselves, and checked the IP addresses showing in the unifi console - both in the same subnet for this vlan - 10.10.20.x.

I spent a long time on this before giving up and putting this device on the same lan as the servers full time.

Even considering a total network rethink around this one issue - i.e move all iphones, ipads and TV's to the main server network.  Leaving only the laptops (where most malware would be got anyway) to the vlan and secured from all except allowed services.  Still may go there but need time to do all that.

[Luke 42077]

OK please let us know if you find anything. Thanks.

[rbjtech 5282]

Why not simply put Emby on the IoT network along with all the other media devices ?    For core 'trusted' devices containing more personal files etc (laptops/PC's) then put those on an isolated vlan and simply allow tcp 8096 through via the f/w or switch.   I've never had an issue with emby/vlan's.   FYI, discovery will not work over vlan's unless you also implement further UDP discovery services.

Edited December 17, 2025 by rbjtech

[vaise 340]

Not sure where you got that from?  Iot has no media devices.  Iot is just for untrusted iot stuff for home automation.  Nothing media related.

The home vlan IS for iphones/ipads/laptops/playback devices and it’s been configured fine forever.  I have prob 20 emby playback devices all working fine on the vlan like this, just ine ipad tvat does not.  Note, it loads emby, can access the app, search media, do everything on it (so not firewall issue as all that users server/port fine).  And after a trstart, it also plays media too……  but eventually stops being able to play media.

the main lan has all networking equipment and two unraid servers.  Emby is a docker container on these (one prod, one backup).  I dont just run emby, i have shedloads of things.  The media is also on this server.  I have run like this for many years, i guess more than a decade by now!

my unifi fw allows access to only the services that are needed by the home devices over vlans.  Along with other stuff.

 

 

[Q-Droid 989]

Do you have any MAC filtering on the LAN/VLAN and/or MAC randomization on the iPad?

 

[vaise 340]

Nope.  And I always disable the Mac randomisation so I can give the devices a hardcoded ip address so they can be firewalled accordingly.

[vaise 340]

To re-iterate.  I confirmed the device ip address in the wifi settings, and the device details in the UniFi console.

i spent a long while trying to sort/fault find this…..  time consuming process.

I have moved to other stuff now however and will come back to this when I get more time.

[rbjtech 5282]

1 hour ago, vaise said:

Not sure where you got that from?  Iot has no media devices.  Iot is just for untrusted iot stuff for home automation.  Nothing media related.

The home vlan IS for iphones/ipads/laptops/playback devices and it’s been configured fine forever.  I have prob 20 emby playback devices all working fine on the vlan like this, just ine ipad tvat does not.  Note, it loads emby, can access the app, search media, do everything on it (so not firewall issue as all that users server/port fine).  And after a trstart, it also plays media too……  but eventually stops being able to play media.

the main lan has all networking equipment and two unraid servers.  Emby is a docker container on these (one prod, one backup).  I dont just run emby, i have shedloads of things.  The media is also on this server.  I have run like this for many years, i guess more than a decade by now!

my unifi fw allows access to only the services that are needed by the home devices over vlans.  Along with other stuff.

 

 

Sure, I'm not saying you are wrong and clearly you are on the right path -  I'm simply making a suggestion. 

IoT is for anything untrusted - Including Emby server and any Emby client (FireTV's, Nvidia Shields, TV's) - to me they are ALL untrusted as I didn't build them and they contain no PII data, so they all sit on an IoT network.  Perimeter proxies and f/w sit in a DMZ vlan.   I also happen to have an automation vlan/network - that is seperate from IoT as it's even less trusted and can largely sit in isolation.  You don't put your network management on the core vlan, you have a dedicated vlan (usually the default lan-VLAN 1) so in the event of any issue - you can get to the management interfaces without the need for VLAN configuration ...   btw, I have run corporate enterprise network systems for many years - so while this may seem obsessive in a home environment, I'm just following good security practice.

[vaise 340]

Apart from the media playback devices not being on the IOT, I pretty much have the same design.  

But - I am not questioning my vlans here - they have been operational for like - forever.

There is something with this ipad device when on the vlan that causes this issue.  Seeing as its all on its own with this issue, my bet is the ipad itself - id love to wipe it and start again on it - but the wife uses it every night since we removed the TV from the bedroom.