Emby Client on Different Subnet from Server

[Q-Droid 989]

Yes. Redacted screenshots and logs showing the different client activity. There's an option to anonymize logs in the server log viewer. 

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

This is what I've got going on. WAN requests are handle by nginx on a separate machine that points to the emby server, and certificates are handled by that. My local clients access via domain name, which works. I'm going to attempt to sign in via IP address on the Google TV box in this room to see if that makes any difference (it didn't)

embyserver (debug).txt

Edited June 14, 2025 by EarlyOnsetPooka
updated info

[Q-Droid 989]

The log doesn't have any slow response entries so once connected it appears to be good.

Is the LAN IP in the dashboard correct? Are the subnets in the LAN network settings correct and cover all of your vlans? If you have multiple local DNS servers they should resolve the local name to same IP or forward the query to one that does. I think you said this is consistent. 

The thing is once the clients connect to your server for the first time they should use the connect details that match the dashboard for subsequent connections. The clients fetch and save the connect info. I wonder if the vlan is making the client (not server) behave like it's on a separate/remote network. Are phone apps doing the same thing for the same user? Do they work differently on LAN vs. WAN?

 

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

1 hour ago, Q-Droid said:

The log doesn't have any slow response entries so once connected it appears to be good.

Is the LAN IP in the dashboard correct? Are the subnets in the LAN network settings correct and cover all of your vlans? If you have multiple local DNS servers they should resolve the local name to same IP or forward the query to one that does. I think you said this is consistent. 

The thing is once the clients connect to your server for the first time they should use the connect details that match the dashboard for subsequent connections. The clients fetch and save the connect info. I wonder if the vlan is making the client (not server) behave like it's on a separate/remote network. Are phone apps doing the same thing for the same user? Do they work differently on LAN vs. WAN?

 

I don't use the phone apps, because I can't stand watching movies and TV on my phone, but I'll download and try it out, since my phone can actually show me what an incoming WAN app attempt looks like. For science

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

Funny thing, the phone app over 5g connects faster than the android TV client on the LAN. And my android TV clients didn't even know the remote address to try to use it, so it can't be trying to go out and come back in. Unless the Emby connect option pulls that into from the server after the first time it connects

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

So it appears that my client is indeed pulling the server address from Emby Connect. This is making me think that my firewall/VLAN rules are messed up somehow.

 

I've logged out if connect and manually entered my local named Emby server, and it still says it can't connect to the configured server, then it does connect and I find that Emby Connect has been signed back in. Must be using the remote address after all, and I need to go look into it tomorrow or Monday because tomorrow is a busy day

[Q-Droid 989]

If you get a chance then also stream some video from the TV clients and the phone app. You can try the phone app both on LAN and WAN. Then upload the server log from the time period with the streaming sessions.

Are you actually using Emby Connect and does the same happen if you use an account that is not linked to Emby Connect?

 

 

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

7 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

If you get a chance then also stream some video from the TV clients and the phone app. You can try the phone app both on LAN and WAN. Then upload the server log from the time period with the streaming sessions.

Are you actually using Emby Connect and does the same happen if you use an account that is not linked to Emby Connect?

 

 

Streaming video from the TV and phone app both show local IP addresses as the source VLAN.

I'm not intentionally using Emby Connect. If I sign out of Connect and set the startup option in the app as "show login screen", it doesn't use Emby Connect at all after several connections and disconnects. As soon as I set it to "remember last user" or "log in as this user" it uses Emby Connect without me signing back in.

 

Is Emby Connect a required part of the premiere account? I would honestly just prefer it if Connect never was used, but I can't get it to stay signed out. If the only way to auto login is through Connect then I guess I'll keep it because the minor delay and warning toast are less inconvenience for the family members than having to connect and then click again for their user name

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

I haven't had a chance to fire up the PC and grab logs. Not sure if I even can today, 

 

I was more just noticing that Connect automatically signs itself back in if I choose to use anything or than a login screen on startup. 

[Neminem 1517]

28 minutes ago, EarlyOnsetPooka said:

I would honestly just prefer it if Connect never was used

You could delete the email on you user, then is should not use connect.

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

43 minutes ago, Neminem said:

You could delete the email on you user, then is should not use connect.

None of my users have anything in that email field, my own included. Perhaps an uninstall and reinstall of the app will help with that, because I can't find the "clear storage" and "clear cache" on my Google TV streamer

Edited June 15, 2025 by EarlyOnsetPooka
Typo

[EarlyOnsetPooka 1]

After some arguing with the streamer box for a few minutes, I was able to get data/cache cleared taken care of. It works great with local discovery, and now I just need to do that on the rest of them

 

Talk about frustrating. Thank you all for wasting so much time on this zombie thread. Huge apologies

Edited June 15, 2025 by EarlyOnsetPooka
Added content

[Q-Droid 989]

Emby Connect is an optional feature for servers that don't have public DNS names. As pointed out if you haven't linked user accounts with email addresses then Connect is not in use.  To use it you would also need to login using an Emby site account, not Emby server local account.

Maybe I confused things when I wrote "connect info" in a previous post. That should have been "connection info" or details. Apps save that info because of their mobile origins and allow you to login/resume from LAN or WAN without having to redo the server settings on the client. And I'm wondering if the vlans are somehow interfering with this feature on the client by not appearing to be local due to a subnet mismatch from the saved settings between client and server.