{"id":100,"date":"2025-04-09T10:51:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T16:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/?p=100"},"modified":"2025-04-16T18:41:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T00:41:45","slug":"split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


This week I didn\u2019t deploy anything major\u2014but I definitely put out some small fires and tightened a few screws behind the scenes.

\ud83c\udfaf The big win: I finalized my Plex custom server string for consistent access across all networks: http:\/\/192.168.1.xxx:32400<\/a>,http:\/\/localnashostname.lan:32400,https:\/\/plex.mydomain.com<\/a>

This approach now gives me:
\u2705 Local fallback via LAN IP and hostname
\u2705 External access via Cloudflare Tunnel
\u2705 Full control without relying on Plex\u2019s remote access relays

\ud83d\udd10 On the Cloudflare front, I also:
–\u00a0Tested Zero Trust + WARP DNS for mobile devices using a secured subdomain (mydns.mydomain.com<\/a>)
–\u00a0Verified that VPN-connected mobile clients could route DNS through Pi-hole, but noticed ad filtering inconsistencies, likely due to DoH fallback or device behavior
–\u00a0Checked Avahi and mDNS behavior post-tunnel container tweaks\u2014still stable across VLANs

\ud83d\udca5 Meanwhile, my Pi-hole Web Admin suddenly broke and had to be manually recovered. No data loss, but another good reminder of the importance of local dashboards being tied to container or web server quirks.
\ud83d\udce1 Bonus chaos: A Unifi update quietly downgraded IoT devices through a new “IoT connectivity improvement” setting to Wi-Fi 4, affecting things like Chromecast. Still testing whether this bottlenecks 4K Plex streams on 2.4GHz.

\ud83e\udde0 Key Lessons:
–\u00a0Split DNS only works when fallback options are solid
–\u00a0WARP DNS filtering sounds cool\u2014until you hit device-level DoH exceptions
–\u00a0When the Pi-hole dashboard disappears, you really feel the value of good internal tools

Homelabs are 10% setup, 90% detective work. Progress doesn\u2019t always mean deploying\u2014it sometimes means restoring what shouldn\u2019t have broken in the first place.
hashtag#homelab<\/a> hashtag#plex<\/a> hashtag#cloudflare<\/a> hashtag#pihole<\/a> hashtag#warp<\/a> hashtag#dns<\/a> hashtag#sysadmin<\/a> hashtag#selfhosting<\/a> hashtag#vitaltech<\/a> hashtag#zerotrust<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I didn\u2019t deploy anything major\u2014but I definitely put out some small fires and tightened a few screws behind the scenes. \ud83c\udfaf The big win: I finalized my Plex custom server string for consistent access across all networks: http:\/\/192.168.1.xxx:32400,http:\/\/localnashostname.lan:32400,https:\/\/plex.mydomain.com This approach now gives me:\u2705 Local fallback via LAN IP and hostname\u2705 External access via […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,14,17,16,15,19,20],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cloudflare","tag-homelab","tag-pihole","tag-plex","tag-splitdns","tag-subnetting","tag-vitaltech"],"yoast_head":"\n\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery - Vitaltech<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery - Vitaltech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week I didn\u2019t deploy anything major\u2014but I definitely put out some small fires and tightened a few screws behind the scenes. \ud83c\udfaf The big win: I finalized my Plex custom server string for consistent access across all networks: http:\/\/192.168.1.xxx:32400,http:\/\/localnashostname.lan:32400,https:\/\/plex.mydomain.com This approach now gives me:\u2705 Local fallback via LAN IP and hostname\u2705 External access via […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vitaltech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VitalZign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-09T16:51:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-17T00:41:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f597f479240aa518506d7f142eaceb59\"},\"headline\":\"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-09T16:51:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-17T00:41:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":295,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"cloudflare\",\"homelab\",\"pihole\",\"plex\",\"splitdns\",\"subnetting\",\"vitaltech\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/\",\"name\":\"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery - Vitaltech\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-09T16:51:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-17T00:41:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/09\\\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/\",\"name\":\"Vitaltech\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Vitaltech\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/wordpress-square-logo-200.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/wordpress-square-logo-200.png\",\"width\":48,\"height\":48,\"caption\":\"Vitaltech\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f597f479240aa518506d7f142eaceb59\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/200f0e1b8ea6b55d93fcad3e4ae1039480e9e8c4217b0e324c072f00cba28849?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/200f0e1b8ea6b55d93fcad3e4ae1039480e9e8c4217b0e324c072f00cba28849?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/200f0e1b8ea6b55d93fcad3e4ae1039480e9e8c4217b0e324c072f00cba28849?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/vitaltech.us\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/VitalZign\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/jeremeyburba\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vitaltech.us\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/admin_ob3anetu\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery - Vitaltech","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery - Vitaltech","og_description":"This week I didn\u2019t deploy anything major\u2014but I definitely put out some small fires and tightened a few screws behind the scenes. \ud83c\udfaf The big win: I finalized my Plex custom server string for consistent access across all networks: http:\/\/192.168.1.xxx:32400,http:\/\/localnashostname.lan:32400,https:\/\/plex.mydomain.com This approach now gives me:\u2705 Local fallback via LAN IP and hostname\u2705 External access via […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/","og_site_name":"Vitaltech","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VitalZign\/","article_published_time":"2025-04-09T16:51:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-17T00:41:45+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#\/schema\/person\/f597f479240aa518506d7f142eaceb59"},"headline":"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery","datePublished":"2025-04-09T16:51:34+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-17T00:41:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/"},"wordCount":295,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#organization"},"keywords":["cloudflare","homelab","pihole","plex","splitdns","subnetting","vitaltech"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/","url":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/","name":"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery - Vitaltech","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-04-09T16:51:34+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-17T00:41:45+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/split-dns-subnet-shifts-the-quest-for-plex-peace\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\ud83e\udde0 A Week of Refinement in the Lab: Split DNS, Plex Stability & Pi-hole Recovery"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/","name":"Vitaltech","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#organization","name":"Vitaltech","url":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wordpress-square-logo-200.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/wordpress-square-logo-200.png","width":48,"height":48,"caption":"Vitaltech"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/#\/schema\/person\/f597f479240aa518506d7f142eaceb59","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/200f0e1b8ea6b55d93fcad3e4ae1039480e9e8c4217b0e324c072f00cba28849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/200f0e1b8ea6b55d93fcad3e4ae1039480e9e8c4217b0e324c072f00cba28849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/200f0e1b8ea6b55d93fcad3e4ae1039480e9e8c4217b0e324c072f00cba28849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/vitaltech.us","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VitalZign\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jeremeyburba\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/author\/admin_ob3anetu\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitaltech.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}