CGNAT local/remote access

Plex Media Server Remote Access
1

Let’s face the facts my ISP changed the network and I am sitting behind a cgnat now.

Current settings:
Router with external IP: 10.x.x.x
Devices with “external” IP: 2.x.x.x
I own a domain plex.example.com which points to the 10.x.x.x ip with port forwarding which lets me access the plex web app remotely and locally.

If I start a stream on a Fire Stick it is considered as remote access and only works with the Plex Relay activated. If I deactivate the Plex Relay I cannot connect anymore.
However if I access the Plex Web app from the local network I can stream and is considered as a local stream.

How can I change the setup especially the network setup to ensure streams on the same wifi are considered as local (on Fire Sticks, Smartphones, Laptops) and that I can connect through plex.example.com remotely?!

Thanks for any information. My ISP does not offer paying for a static IPv4 address.

2

Do you have IPv6 (this is usually the reason ISPs put people behind CG-NAT)? You can (manually) configure Plex to serve over IPv6 instead, so then you can still have remote access. Create an AAAA record for plex.example.com pointing to the stable IPv6 address of your server and that should point clients to the right direction again, regardless of whether they’re inside or outside the LAN. (of course, if you have a firewall on your router blocking port 32400, then you have to open that first).

For the local streams, go to PMS, Settings, Network:

  • turn on Local Network Discovery (GDM), this makes Plex broadcast itself over the LAN for every Plex client to pick up
  • under LAN Networks: set your local internal network, for example 192.168.1.1/24 if your LAN devices all have 192.168.1.*, this makes Plex treat clients with those addresses as LAN clients in terms of bandwidth restrictions, etc.
1 Like
3

Thanks for the reply.

No, I am connected through the mobile network. I do not have an IPv6 address.

I (re-)activated the GDM option and added the address as suggested. My Fire TV Sticks are using now the LAN connection. For no reason one is using a secure connection the other is not able to establish a connection if secure is forced but at least an unsecure connection is possible.

For streaming with Alexa I probably still need the Plex Relay but I will play around a little further with the settings. Thanks a lot.

4

I do not see how this is possible. 10.0.0.0/8 is a private IP network and is not routable over the internet.

5

Indeed, in this case plex.example.com would only work for clients on the LAN, not outside of it.

I (re-)activated the GDM option and added the address as suggested. My Fire TV Sticks are using now the LAN connection.

That’s great! You won’t get secure connections that way, yes - since you’re not using DNS on the LAN.

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