I am extremely new to Plex and pretty inexperienced with networking related tech, though I am getting around! However, I’ve run into a problem and after trying to fix it for half a day, I decided to ask here.
I want to use Plex from outside my home, however, I am getting the “Double Nat” problem that many have posted about already. Since even with those threads I still couldn’t figure it out, here is my situation:
I have a modem from my ISP and a Netgear R7000 router. I am using the Netgear because the ISP’s modem doesn’t have sufficient coverage in my home and it’s also quite slow. I’ve read that one of the options to solve the double NAT issue is putting my ISP’s modem in bridge mode. The reason I can’t/don’t want to do that is because there is a wired set-top box connected to it and connecting it directly to my router is nigh impossible. According to my ISP, putting the modem in bridge mode will disable all LAN ports accept for the one that connects to my router, which I assume is normal.
The next solution I came across which seemed viable is manually forwarding a port from my modem to my router, and then forwarding that same port to the media server (this is the thread I am referring to: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/244207/how-do-i-enable-remote-access-on-a-double-nat-network). However, I cannot get it to work. Is this something that could solve my problem? And if yes, what do I fill in where?
ISP modem settings
Netgear R7000 settings
Plex Media Server settings
If this won’t work, is there any other solution?
Thanks in advance for your help!
EDIT 04/06/18: Attached a zip of server logs after restarting and waiting a bit. Please read my next comments for some more information/context.
I’ve read that one of the options to solve the double NAT issue is putting my ISP’s modem in bridge mode. The reason I can’t/don’t want to do that is because there is a wired set-top box connected to it and connecting it directly to my router is nigh impossible. According to my ISP, putting the modem in bridge mode will disable all LAN ports accept for the one that connects to my router, which I assume is normal.
Why not put your set top box into YOUR router?
Then you could go the Bridge direction?
BTW the only way I could get plex working remotely was to get a static IP address!
But i do live in a 3rd world country where all things technical are way behind the real world.
I’ve read that one of the options to solve the double NAT issue is putting my ISP’s modem in bridge mode. The reason I can’t/don’t want to do that is because there is a wired set-top box connected to it and connecting it directly to my router is nigh impossible. According to my ISP, putting the modem in bridge mode will disable all LAN ports accept for the one that connects to my router, which I assume is normal.
Why not put your set top box into YOUR router?
Then you could go the Bridge direction?
BTW the only way I could get plex working remotely was to get a static IP address!
But i do live in a 3rd world country where all things technical are way behind the real world.
Unfortunately, since they are a floor apart and not located directly underneath each other it would require the cable to go through the ceiling and several walls which at the moment is not a viable option, because I do not have the tools nor the time do it.
A static ip is set up by your ISP usually at an extra cost - for me its $20.
They are likely to be involved !
My 2nd router (Asus) then gets that ip and does all the routing .
@Peter_W said:
Why not dumb down your router to a switch, it doesn’t have to act as a DHCP and NAT stuff. Or isn’t it possible on your model?
Could you please elaborate further on the setup of this? Currently, I have the NAS that I am using as media server plugged in to my switch which goes is connected to my router of course. It’s a TP-Link switch. The reason I bought is that my PC and gaming consoles are wired to my router and I didn’t have any LAN ports left.
I was just saying that if you cannot dumb your modem/router combo due to reasons, why not do the same procedure with your Netgear? Just do the exact same thing as you thought you’d be doing on that modem - but on the other router you bought. Turn off DHCP, put it in Bridge mode or what it might be called for your specific model.
Ah I see. I should’ve mentioned that I’ve actually tried that, but I ran into 2 issues. The first one was that when I had my router in Bridge/AP mode, speeds over wired LAN were very slow for some reason (according to speed I went from 400mbit to 35). It was fine on Wi-Fi though.
Second, and more problematic, I couldn’t reach my Plex server when it was in AP mode and since it was like 3 am, I didn’t have the energy to find out why. I had access to my NAS just fine though.
When trying AP mode on my router, Chrome gives me a connection refused error when trying to access the Plex Server, but I can access my Synology NAS where it’s installed just fine. The firewall on there is turned off by the way.
The way things stand now, let’s say bridging either my modem or router isn’t an option right now, are there any other solutions left? For example the thread I linked in my OP about port forwarding?
Yet another update! I added an exception for port 32400 in Windows Firewall, and now Plex actually shows “Fully accessible outside your network” (I don’t understand why Windows Firewall has an effect though, since Plex is installed on my NAS, not my PC. Perhaps someone can elaborate?) which would mean it is working. I didn’t bridge anything and unchecked manually setting a specific port in Plex (it also works if I check it and use 32400).
**However…**when trying to connect to the server from my phone (Galaxy S8+) on 4G+, it says Direct Connection unavailable. It does work if I just use my home’s WiFi network. Any ideas?
EDIT 1: I’m pretty sure something is messed up now. I disabled the Firewall rules and restarted both my modem and router, and Plex still shows that it’s fully accessible, which makes no sense. I am extremely confused now.
I’m getting the same error on my NAS. PMS says it’s fully accessible, but when I go to it on my phone on 4G, it says direct connection unavailable. I haven’t changed any settings and it just started this morning. I’m using a ■■■■ router that Optimum gives you through their configuration. The server has worked fine for months with no issue on this setup. Why is it NOW having issues?
@apennismightier said:
I’m getting the same error on my NAS. PMS says it’s fully accessible, but when I go to it on my phone on 4G, it says direct connection unavailable. I haven’t changed any settings and it just started this morning.
Mine hasn’t worked from the beginning, so it might be a different problem. Hopefully someone gets back to us soon!
EDIT 1: More strange stuff piling up. So to recap, I pretty much reversed everything I tried: I removed the port forwards, I removed the firewall rules and my router is in router mode, nothing is bridged. Plex showed I was able to connect from outside of my network.
Now, the only thing I did was restarting my router, and Plex showed that it wasn’t able to connect from outside anymore, without the double NAT error however. Then, I only the apply button, and now it once again says that I can access it from outside. What is going on :neutral:…
EDIT 2: attached server logs to original post and this one.
I think there is an issue with the testing of remote access working properly. I have my router and my AirPort Extreme set up correctly but every time I click on the retry button it comes back saying the same thing “Not available outside your network.” Yet I nor my friends have had any issue with connecting remotely. I went through everything again today and still the same “Not available outside your network.” There’s gotta be something wrong. I opened Egis which shows every connection to your computer. I look to the Plex section which had a lot but what I looked for was the port# 32400 and there they were. 3 connections in green and 1 listening connection in blue. I then went to the settings for Plex server and hit the retry button: still “Not available outside your network” It must be something in the programming and even though it’s working correctly it’s not reporting that it is. So, if you’re having that problem I would check your computer and see what connections it had with something like Egis or probably Little Snitch would work,. You need to make sure that it’s truly not working.
I had the same problem and then I came to the conclusion that it’s better to plug my Plex server (iMac) directly into the modem, instead of server>hub>switch>router (mesh wifi node)>modem, that worked sometimes but usually not even with double port forwarding (Plex sees this set up as Double-NAT)
With my server directly connected to my modem (server>hub>modem) I have no problems anymore with Plex Remote Access.
