Ok. I have tried for a year. If you can help me fix my issue, I will Venmo you $20. Cool?
My Plex is not accessible outside my network. It is also not assessable with Amazon Alexa.
My Setup:
Windows 10 dedicated pc
private internet access (VPN).
Fiber optic internet with supplied modem/router. I have the supplied router muted.
Google WiFi router. Main google WiFi node connected to the modem and everything else is “down stream” via an 8 port switch.
Plex server is connected to 8 port switch.
I realize that my problem lays somewhere between having a company supplied modem/router… having my own router… and (most complex) running a VPN on the server.
I need step by step instructions (if I need to setup a port, etc). If I get it going… I will Venmo you $20 (I am at my wits end).
Ports and firewalls. You have a lot stuff networked together. each with its own ports and firewalls stoping you. Then you have the vpn to deal with.
You need to look up what you local network sever Ip is, What port it is using. and open that it up in all device until you get to the WAN aka your internet. Then connecting from outside you will be using the VPN WAN Ip aka your ip address give to you from your vpn. (should you have plex set up to use it the vpn.)
Then you still may have issues with the getting to plex as the vpn vs normal ISP given ip may be causing issues.
Then you may have antivirus or window firewalls to deal with for port forwarding too.
THis is just an overview of what you need to track down.
You ping different devices with user settings to see how far out you can go. Draw a map of how you have things connect. internet>VPN>ISP router>Google wife>switch>windows>antivirus/os firewall>plex
You have 2 routers, so that means that you will need to either:
Port forward TCP port 32400 through both routers. This means that the one connected directly to the internet will need to forward it to the other router. The other router will need to port forward it to your Plex server.
Put the router connected directly to the internet in “bridge” mode. This means that your other router will then get the IP address from the ISP. Some ISP provided devices call this something like “IP Passthrough” where you basically forward everything to the MAC address of the router that you want to get the ISP IP address on (your router).
If your Plex server is getting its IP address from DHCP, then you need to make a static reservation in the DHCP server (Your router probably) so that its IP address never changes. If the IP address should change, then it will break remote access untill you update the address in port forwarding. A static reservation will avoid this situation.
If you go with option 1 above, then you will also need to make sure the ISP router has a DHCP static reservation for your router so its IP address never changes.
I am guessing that the Plex server will be installed on the Windows 10 dedicated PC that has the VPN connection? In that case, you will need to make sure that split tunneling is enabled in the VPN client settings if you want devices on your network to be able to access your Plex server locally rather than through the internet. Beware though that split tunneling can be prohibited by the VPN provider.
Also make sure that TCP port 32400 is allowed through any firewall you have on the Server (Windows 10 PC).
Ahhh, OK. Then that means all his local clients will have to go out to the internet to connect to the server. It depends on how PIA enforces the policy. It might be possibly to get around it by having a second NIC on the PMS PC with a static IP address and no default gateway for local client access.
There are ways around it but it’s tricky. Easiest method is to stop running VPN on the Plex server which is a bad idea. Put it in a VM with the software that needs it.
I have always ran VPN (site-to-site) on my router myself, but I have never used a public VPN service. Depending on the type of VPN and client requirements, it may require it to run on another computer with a special client.
Of course if privacy is that much of a concern for you, then you should not do port forwarding at all. You should roll your own VPN server (could be your router) and require everyone to use VPN to connect to you. In that case, everyone can appear to be local. Of course, this is much less user-friendly due to clients having connect a VPN client first.
