Ty I’ll check it out after work
No you do not need a public static ip from your ISP
You do need to set a static ip in your router. This is just the internal IP address of the computer your Plex server is on
I don’t know if your nephew did that but you need to log into the router and double check that and the port forwarding rules
Ok tyvm
Why are your port numbers different? Does that work?
Should Disable Video Stream Transcoding be turned off?
I had 2 servers running a long time ago, so needed two different port numbers. Down to one now but I left the different port numbers. You can use almost any port number.
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I would leave it on, just in case you have a client that cannot direct play/stream.
I’m just wondering considering the original question
The OP had a different issue, which I hope the help provided here will solve his issue. All but 1 of my users can direct play - even 4K HDR content. That 1 user is in Kenya (I’m in the UK) can direct play 1080p, but does sometimes transcodes if the bitrate is too high. Hence I leave the transcoding on. Thankfully that user hardly uses my server. I may have to look at removing them - of course I’ll ask first!
I have mine set to numbers in the 55000’s! Been that way for years and never failed. Port 32400 is the default for Plex, and it’s pretty common knowledge. I don’t know if it’s a security threat of any kind, but a long time ago it was suggested to use different ports, just to make it a little tougher for someone to gain unauthorized access.
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You all have provided me with a lot of info when I get home tonight I have to sort through it all hopefully I’ll be up and running 
To chime in here on the use of different ports for WAN. Below is an extract from Plex support pages.
As leelynds stated it could be an act of inconvenience to a hacker, other than that no real advantage.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200931138-troubleshooting-remote-access/
Just as a suggestion… If you have highly compressed files to save space, hardware transcoding can actually produce a worse image than software transcoding. They can look pretty good as a direct play, but awful when viewing remotely and transcoding.
I imagine newer CPU’s might not have this issue, but just something to be aware of.
One thing that I didn’t see mentioned (maybe it was but I didn’t see it), but if the IP address of the internal server keeps changing because it is on a dynamic DHCP lease, your port forwarding may work for a while and then stop becauase it is forwarding to an out-of-date address. Give your server a static IP or static DHCP lease and then forward to that internal IP.
Some newer routers are smart enough to follow the internal server using its MAC address, but by no means all.
If your router’s UPnP implementation is good, then you do not need to set up port forwarding at all. (I have 2 PLEX servers sitting behind a single dynamic public IP and UPnP gives them both direct streaming access on different external ports and it works flawlessly.)
I just have the video files in folders on an external, I’m told that the vids look ok but I’m sure they would be better if I solve this issue. I’m almost off work I’m going to get at it when I get home. Thx for the help
Your starting to lose me a bit. I think what would be really helpful is if someone could screenshot what they think my plex settings and router settings should look like. I’d be grateful I always relied on my nephew but even he couldn’t fix this.
From what I saw, your server settings are fine. At this point, we need to fix getting external access working. To do that, you must do port forwarding in your router. Without knowing what kind of router you have, we can’t even begin to give you instructions or screenshots on how to do this.
Did you do as I said, and googled your router model + the words “port forwarding”? It should tell you how to do port forwarding. What you need to do is forward port 32400 to the internal IP address (and port) of 192.168.1.5 port 32400 (the same port).
Yes, you say external access is working, but only because your server is unable to work properly. So Plex (the company) steps in, and uses their existing servers to relay the traffic through your router for you, but they restrict video streams to ~2 Mbps which will almost certainly cause a transcode. To avoid transcoding, you fix your server access problem yourself, allowing it to send files as fast as your own ISP provides you with.
Here is where i am at. I turned my VPN off. I tried to change the port forward in my router and was given an error message (see pic). I had my brother log into my plex, initially the remote access was green then it turned red in a short time. Whether it was green or red, he now was getting direct play (see pic), with an indirect error message (also in pic). Im just happy he was finally getting a direct play (quality) without transcoding. Suggestions from this point? Contact my Provider about the port forwarding??? sounds like an issue there. Anything else? Thank you again everyone! 
Ah, very good to see we’re almost there. Can you show a screenshot of your router’s port forwarding interface without that error? Black out any information in there you feel might be sensitive information if you like. It sounds like you might have entered the wrong information in the wrong field. The error sounds like you have setup a port forwarding already for that particular port (32400) to a different computer. Routers can’t forward traffic to two different computers at once.
Your brother can view files direct-play, because it looks like your videos (720p) are small enough to fit within the Plex relay’s ~2 Mbps speed limit. Anything bigger or uncompressed will not fit, and will transcode.
It’s standard for the Plex server to show a “green, external is working” color, before changing to red a second later. I’m not sure why the Plex devs did it, but they have it give out false hope for a second before it ACTUALLY checks to see if external access works, which fails, and changes to red.
I’ll get the router info in a sec. Just for the hell of it i unclicked the manually specify public port button and it has stayed green and not turned red…
