Internet drops on friends VPN and connections to server

[MatteRB26]

So my friend has a server on his home network with a static IP that I have frequent access to which I use for game servers, file hosting etc. And a while ago he setup a VPN via his network so I can access his local network remotely. This worked fine for a few weeks, but then noticed that when I'm on the VPN my PC will lose all internet access after a few minutes (anywhere from 5-20 mins or so) and I can't access the internet or his local resources.

I've also just clicked that we've been having issues streaming content from his server too as I use it as a remote file store. After a similar time frame (without the VPN) all streaming will just stop like we've lost connection to the server.

We've had this setup for many years now, the static IP is relatively new (last 2 years or so) but only the last few weeks has this been an issue. He says that nothing has changed on his end, there's no general connectivity issues on his end (he's on gigabit, can't remember the provider). There's no general connectivity issues on our end (150mb/30mb BT).

Unsure where to really go for diagnosis when neither end has any general issues, and nobody else has this problem when connecting to his network. Could it even be BT on our end restricting the traffic ? We had a similar issue many years ago where connections to his streaming server was horrifically slow, I rang BT who said "there's no throttling going on" but as soon as we changed to Sky - all problems disappeared. We were back with BT for a couple of years without any problems though.

Apologies for the incoherent ramblings, bit of a late-night brain dump after a very frustrating 2 hours of frequent file streaming cutouts.

 

[Avalon]

No UK ISP that I am aware of throttles anymore, it was a thing back in the day, but now you get traffic shaping/QoS at most, and honestly even that is generally minimal (eg ICMP and VoIP traffic get a higher priority in some cases).

You mention a ‘VPN’ but omit almost all details about it. What type, encryption standard used, is it on the router or running on PC, have you tried a different option? There’s a world of difference between something quite resource heavy and single threaded like OpenVPN that can be hardware accelerated on a modern PC or will suck done in software on a SoC without an FPU, Wireguard or Tailscale are more modern and much more efficient options and should easily saturate 150Mbit down.

 

[ChrisD.]

Yup. More detail required.

 

[MatteRB26]

The VPN itself is a PPTP VPN setup on his side with (as far as I'm aware) minimal encryption, not sure if it's running on his server or router - I can get more detail on the VPN if needed. The VPN was a means to allow me access to the server(s) without him needing to open up more ports on his end for me to RDP etc.

We get the same cutting-out behaviour connecting without the VPN too, there's a few of us that utilise Plex on the server and nobody else seems to have any trouble with it unless all of us are streaming content at once, which can occasionally cause buffering, but never an outright loss of connection. The issues with streaming occurs on multiple devices - PCs, laptop, and even our TV, every 5-10 mins the feed drops until you restart the stream.

 

[ChrisD.]

First of, stop using PPTP.

Secondly, why aren't you using Plex cloud servers as a proxy?

Third, buffering sounds like the Plex Server is transcoding, or it's playing more streams than it can handle, or the upload speed where the server is hosted is greater than available internet bandwidth.

 

[MatteRB26]

First of, stop using PPTP.

Secondly, why aren't you using Plex cloud servers as a proxy?

Third, buffering sounds like the Plex Server is transcoding, or it's playing more streams than it can handle, or the upload speed where the server is hosted is greater than available internet bandwidth.

I'll have a chat with him to see what the server stats look like and other VPN options for remote access to servers. I believe he's on 1gb up & down. The reason it strikes me as odd is we're the only ones with the frequent Plex issues, and this happened before then vanished after I talked to BT.

I'll see how the VPN behaves on other devices as well because that reliably cuts out very quickly.

 

[ChrisD.]

I'll have a chat with him to see what the server stats look like and other VPN options for remote access to servers. I believe he's on 1gb up & down. The reason it strikes me as odd is we're the only ones with the frequent Plex issues, and this happened before then vanished after I talked to BT.

It depends entirely on the content (and I guess more importantly, the clients). If loads of people are playing remux 4k DD/HDR with Atmos soundtrack, 1 Gbps will soon run out of puff, and if the server is transcoding in software as an example, well, that's jut a disaster. I don't know of any major ISP who would throttle traffic so I don't see how whether you're with Sky or BT matters. With that said, I don't know the DHCP ranges of Sky and BT routers, if Sky is different than your friends DHCP range and BT is the same that could be one issue (ie, you're both on the same LAN IP range and there are IP conflicts).

 

[MatteRB26]

It depends entirely on the content (and I guess more importantly, the clients). If loads of people are playing remux 4k DD/HDR with Atmos soundtrack, 1 Gbps will soon run out of puff, and if the server is transcoding in software as an example, well, that's jut a disaster. I don't know of any major ISP who would throttle traffic so I don't see how whether you're with Sky or BT matters. With that said, I don't know the DHCP ranges of Sky and BT routers, if Sky is different than your friends DHCP range and BT is the same that could be one issue (ie, you're both on the same LAN IP range and there are IP conflicts).

Content is a good shout on the Plex side actually. I recall him saying before to stop streaming stuff at lower quality because the base is 1080p or something and it's stressing the GPU. I'll double check.

As for IP ranges, the local IP ranges for his and mine are different - mines 192.168.0, his is 192.168.1 so I don't _think_ that would cause a conflict? But as you've probably guessed, networking isn't exactly my strongest area

 

[ChrisD.]

Content is a good shout on the Plex side actually. I recall him saying before to stop streaming stuff at lower quality because the base is 1080p or something and it's stressing the GPU. I'll double check.

As for IP ranges, the local IP ranges for his and mine are different - mines 192.168.0, his is 192.168.1 so I don't _think_ that would cause a conflict? But as you've probably guessed, networking isn't exactly my strongest area

That should be fine if you are on different ranges.

As @Avalon suggested, use a modern & secure VPN such as Wireguard, and then once that is done ask your friend to run iperf3 as a server on the box hosting Plex, and then from your client run a test to it with 8 threads. This will tell you the network speed from client to server. If that is steady and consistent, then it's likely to be a Plex related issue.

Also, I assume the testing you have done is cabled and not over Wi-Fi? As it could also be local issues and nothing to do with the wider connection or server.

These details matter, otherwise we might as well put our finger in the air and guess the issue.

 

[MatteRB26]

That should be fine if you are on different ranges.

As @Avalon suggested, use a modern & secure VPN such as Wireguard, and then once that is done ask your friend to run iperf3 as a server on the box hosting Plex, and then from your client run a test to it with 8 threads. This will tell you the network speed from client to server. If that is steady and consistent, then it's likely to be a Plex related issue.

Also, I assume the testing you have done is cabled and not over Wi-Fi? As it could also be local issues and nothing to do with the wider connection or server.

These details matter, otherwise we might as well put our finger in the air and guess the issue.

I'll work with him when we both get time I guess and watch stats from both sides. Plex issues are over WiFi, but used WiFi on our end for Plex for years. Other streaming services are fine over WiFi on all the wireless devices - YT, iPlayer, IPTV etc. I'll have a go with Plex via wired as well though.

VPN side, my PC is wired via a switch I've been using for about a year, and general connectivity is flawless off-VPN. When it falls apart on the VPN though I lose internet access as well as access to the "local" resources on his end.

Thanks for your time! It sounds like I need to debug it with him at the same time to see what's going on at both ends and if something is just chugging.

 

[Avalon]

The VPN itself is a PPTP VPN setup on his side with (as far as I'm aware) minimal encryption, not sure if it's running on his server or router - I can get more detail on the VPN if needed. The VPN was a means to allow me access to the server(s) without him needing to open up more ports on his end for me to RDP etc.

We get the same cutting-out behaviour connecting without the VPN too, there's a few of us that utilise Plex on the server and nobody else seems to have any trouble with it unless all of us are streaming content at once, which can occasionally cause buffering, but never an outright loss of connection. The issues with streaming occurs on multiple devices - PCs, laptop, and even our TV, every 5-10 mins the feed drops until you restart the stream.

If it does the same without VPN (and honestly, the VPN type makes me grimace), then the issue isn't VPN related. Presumably your friend has PlexPass and is doing hardware transcoding to RAM/NVMe and not doing something silly like trying to read/write transcode from a mechanical drive? Just from what you describe, this is not a VPN issue, but a Plex issue.