Unable to gain access outside of my network. Servers on a PC. I’ve disabled the firewall in order to troubleshoot and am using my Custom Server URL with my actual private address and my public address in the following format:https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:32400,https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:32400. Am I doing this incorrectly? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Note: My internet access is offered by my community. It is wireless and I have no control over the router. canyouseeme.org tells me Error: I could not see your service on xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx on port (32400 ). I have tried using Cloudflare but I have trouble with the installation. I do have a sub to NordVPN if that helps me find a solution, but it is currently disabled for troubleshooting on this device.
Are you using a router of your own to connect to your provided internet service, or are you connecting just the machine to a wall jack in an apartment, for example?
Are you receiving a publicly-routable IP address on your own equipment you are connecting to the wall jack? Or a private IP?
This VPN might be able to help you. Can you port forward on it?
No router of my own-just the community access. It is wireless, but I suppose I could connect a router to it if the need arose.
It is wireless, but it amounts to a wall jack, I suppose. It is more or less set up like a hotel would be, with certain things being made unavailable without a VPN.
I honestly never thought of that. I have a sub to Nord. How would that work, exactly? I know that Meshnet is available with the sub, though I haven’t figured out how to use that to my advantage in this instance.
Update: It looks like Nord doesn’t offer port forwarding. “Unfortunately, at the current moment, we do not offer port forwarding, as multiple customers are using the same servers.”
No. That would just add another layer of NAT. The only reason to add another router here would be if you were unable to direct play locally because of the wireless being configured for no intra-BSS traffic – which it should be for security reasons if it’s a network people from multiple dwelling units all share. If you have your own personal wireless network name that’s not a concern.
Sounds like you have no real direct access to the internet, which is why you are having this issue. If you are not able to get any ports forwarded by whoever manages the property’s network you’re going to be rather stuck. Note: Don’t request the default Plex port. It would be better to pick a more random port number to request. It’s not really unusual for you to need a port forward as a residential internet access user. Many people today work from home and need a VPN server running on their side as part of their employer’s security/support setup. Or they have home security cameras and those need a port for the remote monitoring to work. But asking for a port forward will also make the network admin wonder it you’re doing torrenting or other things they don’t want creating lots of traffic.
You’d put the Plex server through the VPN to get it past the property’s network, and have a port forwarded that is configured on the Plex server for the remote-access listening port. Logically you want an endpoint fairly close to you for reduced impact on your speeds in remote-usage. I can’t tell you how well this works, as I’ve never tried it myself. But it is one way people have tried to get past situations where they have double-NAT or Carrier Grade NAT in their internet connection.
I have subscribed to a second VPN that does have port forwarding. It took a couple of attempts, but I got the opened port connecting successfully on canyouseeme.org. However, I still cannot connect directly to my Plex server (can through relay) and the Remote page is still telling me there is a problem.
If the remote access page on the Plex settings are displaying your remote IP address on the VPN connection, and the port you’re forwarding is the one you have set on the remote access page, I don’t know what the issue is. If canyouseeme is saying the port is open then it sounds like the forward is working right.
I am not sure, but this application is useless without the remote function. Remote shows a connection for about 20 seconds, then it disappears. never functions on the app without the relay, though. Canyouseeme still shows the port as open even after reboot.
I’m gonna have to disagree with you there. Plex’s main use for me is to allow accessing my media on other devices in my home easily.
Before this I was running PS3 Media Server on my main desktop PC, and then accessing stuff over DLNA on my blu-ray player in the living room. Stuff that could not be direct streamed was transcoded to MPEG2, which ballooned the stream size so much it would often not play back smoothly due to my router’s wi-fi bandwidth (keep in mind this is like a decade back). There was no fancy UI and metadata, either. Just browsing directories on the BD player’s interface. So the Plex experience was a step up for me even if I only had like 3 Mbps upload at the time and could not really stream video remote.
Ah, I think I saw someone else having an issue like this in another thread (the remote connection showing green and then dropping out after less than a minute). I’ll have to look around and see if I can find the thread.
Unfortunately with your Internet service setup I also don’t think you running a VPN server from your end and to it to make your remote access local access would be possible either.
Per this thread, Plex will turn the indicator green initially simply from you enabling remote access, so possible it is not working at all, and Plex is just delayed in indicating that. Also ChuckPa recommends a VPN connection using Wireguard protocol for better fault tolerance.
Not sure if you’ve looked at Plex’s document on troubleshooting this issue.
You may not have control over your routing on your service, but you should reach out to the support people for your service and inquire about if it’s possible to get off the Carrier Grade/Double NAT setup so you get a direct public IP address. They might require you to subscribe to a static IP service and charge a fee for this, and you would want to install your own broadband router as the device that gets that connection (since the Plex server needs to be on private IP anyway).
If you’re getting access via Relay that’s plenty of bandwidth for music streaming at least.
I have to say I’d be suspicious of any solution that involves a third-party company and doesn’t cost you anything beside the VPS thing (I think there may still be free AWS instances, but they recently dropped public IPs on those iirc. They are also carrier grade NAT now if you’re a free user.
Getting a direct IP of your own is still the real solution here.
There won’t be any possibility of getting any changes made on the ISP and I’m not sure that getting my own satellite link would be worth it. The free application would do that in my current environment, but I’m trying to share documentaries with my father, who is in another state and can’t get out on his own. The paid version appears to not function for me. It won’t let him join my server, either, so there are clearly some issues with that email invite that need to be ironed out. However, I was sent here and there doesn’t seem to be a resolution even after getting my own issues sorted. At this point, I’m not sure what to do. I’ll read the threads you pointed out. Thank you for your help.
Apologies. I was under the impression that the mobile apps could not be used on his tablet or phone and that I could not use the hardware acceleration unless I got the Plex Pass. I guess that was money well spent.
Mobile apps can be unlocked for normal usage for a one-time $5 fee, which covers all instances of the app on that platform (so a single $5 fee paid from an Android device would cover Android phones and Android tablets on the same Google Account, but not iOS devices you use). If you are a Plex Pass account holder signing in will unlock the app regardless, it counts as having paid for all platforms.
Downloading for offline use on mobile Plex (and Plexamp) does require an active Plex Pass, so that would be another way Plex Pass helps with your trouble streaming remotely from the server.
I don’t need hardware acceleration personally, but I do like Skip Intro, another Plex Pass feature.
It appears that I have resolved the issue just by using the same port for both public and private. For some reason, instead of using my private IP, 127.0.0.1 is making it clone the public IP. It has been working for days, but I am going to move it to a new network and retest next week. More to come.
