Just talked to my ISP - Static, public or dynamic IP not available, but they would be willing to open a port. What port would I ask them to open?
I told them I wanted to use an IP camera. I see port 32400 is default and I can specify any port.
Always wonder how safe to open port, but I guess that is just one layer of NAT being opened?
using ISP provided router/modem at the moment, hoping to use my own router.
If that is the case, then you still can’t use remote access.
An open port won’t make a difference.
You need a publicly-accessible IPv4 address. AND a port forwarding through your router.
Unless, what you have there is not actually CG-NAT, but just regular NAT in an ISP-controlled router.
Appears to be CGNAT. I’m waiting for a call back from the engineering department.
I guess if they open a port I can configure in the router…
I see. not easy. I think it’s possible they may offer IPV6
Running my Plex server with IPv6-only, as I’m on CGNAT as well.
It works really well on Apple devices but forget Android as the Android Plex app doesn’t seem to support IPv6 for some reason. Fallback I found is casting on the Android device from an iOS one.
Not too sure about using IPV6 if offered. Would something like Android TV app work?
May just have to use the server locally for now.
The CGNAT operates as a secondary router in this case, so I believe this should still work. Plex would be connecting as:
Actual public IP:ISP-PF to User’s own router.
User router: ISP-PF forwarded to Plex Local IP:32400.
I used to support WISPs and this was a way people would get things like cameras online for remote access.
Waiting for a call back, If I want to try this should I just request a random port like 35000?
I assume any high port number should work (above 1024 and below 49152, not assigned to something else). I just let Plex set the port through UPnP.
If Plex is already connected and has its own forward set up on your router’s side, I would ask for that port number it’s using now to avoid having to re-configuring things.
Got the callback, they say I have a public IP already, they will come exchange the current router/modem tomorrow with something called an ONU that will allow me to use my own router, they say the device I have cannot be put into bridge mode.
So I guess it was some sort of router based cgnat.
OMG, so they had a gateway installed and their own front-line support people didn’t understand this? What a clown operation.
It’s working! Always a bit of language barrier. They have been great…
My goofy TP-Link router automatically enabled UPnP and listed Plex Media Server Internal 32400 external 12569.
Should I disable UPnP and just use 32400 for internal and external ports?
Will look into a better router soon, maybe Glinet.
Disable UPnP, yes
Use 32400 as external port, no.
The reasons are 1) some routers delete port forwardings which were established per UPnP after a while (usually ~1 day).
And 2) some public networks will try to block Plex traffic by simply blocking the well-known Plex port 32400. So use something else. Either a totally random number between 20000 – 50000. Or a well known port of an unsuspicious service, like 8080 for a http proxy or somesuch. But the latter may require some experimentation.
That worked, thank you. ended up using a random port in the 20000 range.
I still can’t grasp “public IP” I mean still looks like they are using a router on their end, so how am I not double natted?
much better using my own router, I only used this as a access point a few years ago, never as a router. will replace soon. thanks again
A router doesn’t necessarily perform NAT.
makes sense! always thought it would require NAT to dole out hundreds of connections. I still have a lot to learn. I did see an unknown PC listed in the router at first, gone now, odd.
out of the scope of Plex but with the new ONU my local network doesn’t show up so far. shows up on the older Win10 machine. Maybe because SMB 1.0 is not enabled?
If Windows recognizes a new network (and it does interpret a different router as a new network), it does switch the connection type from “private” to “public”.
This means not only that the “network neighborhood” doesn’t work anymore, but also Plex server is not accessible directly – even by client devices on the local network.
So make sure to switch that back to “private”.
Unless you are using some seriously outdated hardware on your local network, leave that off. Microsoft is right in disabling it by default. It is a security risk.
It’s set to Private, I think it may just be Windows 11 24H2 thing. tried a few fixes using gpedit etc, nothing yet. Sever works! lol
