Manually-specified port on VPS

[tomkirby]

Server Version#: 1.40.2.8395
Player Version#: 4.129.1 (web)

I run my Plex server on an Ubuntu VPS, hosted in the cloud.

When I try to change to a manually-specified port, it is unable to connect. The port in question is open on the VPS’s firewall (ufw).

There is no other firewall involved: my VPS has a public IP and connects directly to the Internet.

I have tried a few different ports, but no joy.

The reason for doing this is that my work refuse to allow outbound connections on port 32400. If I could change the port to a more commonly-allowed port (such as 43, 80, or 8080), I might be able to access Plex at work. (My work have no problem with me using Plex, but they refuse to open ports on their firewall for me.)

[FordGuy61]

You will need something to re-map the port - the equivalent of a port forward statement in a router.

Manually specifying a different port does not change the port used by Plex Media Server. It always uses TCP/32400 to communicate with clients.

When you pick a different port, Plex expects that something (router, firewall, etc.) is remapping the advertised port to 32400.

A quick Google search for “Ubuntu remap port” returned several possibilities.

Here’s one that uses iptables: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-port-redirection-with-iptables/

It has an example that redirects inbound traffic on port 80 to port 8123. You could try modifying that as needed to redirect the desired inbound port to 32400.

[tomkirby]

Thank you for this. I solved it by:

Add this to the top of /etc/ufw/before.rules:

*nat
:PREROUTING ACCEPT [0:0]
-A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-port 32400
COMMIT

Uncomment in /etc/sysctl.conf:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

and

net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1

Manually specify remote access on port 443.

Now I just need to test it when I get back to work…