I am having renewed issues with my plex web server shutting down again. I previously posted issues here, but it is not clear to me if these are related. To be honest, it seems like the issue had cleared up.
Recently I did get a new modem and I did not really play with the remote access settings, but more often than not, it is still remotely accessible. There is this warning on my remote access section.
OK, I am working my way through this. I have found the MAC address for my QNAP NAS. But looking through my router’s advanced settings, I cannot see where to assign a static IP. I’m with Bell in Canada. I have found a DHCP Lease table but seemingly I cannot add anything there. I have found the port forwarding page, but it simply says I need to assign a static IP. Any advice?
You’ll want to manually assign the IP address to the QNAP NAS.
In your router, look for the DHCP settings. There should be a setting for the “DHCP Pool” (or similar name). That is the range of addresses the router assigns to devices when they join the network.
For the QNAP, pick an IP address outside of the DHCP pool. The router will never try to assign that address to another device.
Ping the address before assigning it to the QNAP, to make sure it is not already used by another device. If not in use, you’ll see a “destination unavailable” type message.
Here’s screenshots from my AT&T router. Yours will be different, but it will give you an idea of how things look.
The IP address of the router is 192.168.1.254.
The DHCP Pool is 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253.
I used 192.168.1.50 for my Synology NAS. It is outside the DHCP pool, so the router will never assign that address to another device.
I can successfully ping the router, 192.168.1.254.
Pings to 192.168.1.30 fail. It is unused and outside the DHCP pool, so I could use that address for another NAS, Plex Server, etc. if needed.
Ping Example
c:\>ping 192.168.1.254
Pinging 192.168.1.254 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.254: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.254: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.254: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.254: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.254:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
c:\>
c:\>ping 192.168.1.30
Pinging 192.168.1.30 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.30:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
c:\>
Here’s the network interface configuration on the Synology NAS.
IP Address: 192.168.1.50 (as mentioned above)
Gateway: 192.168.1.254 (IP address of my router)
DNS Server: 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare. Google, 8.8.8.8, is another option).
After you assign a fixed IP address to the NAS, you’ll need to configure a port forward in the router.
Port forward configuration is different for every router manufacturer. You can probably Google the router make/model + port forward to find a guide. Your ISP may be able to help as well.
Here’s a port forward from an Asus router (easier to understand than from an AT&T router). Your router will look different, but this gives you an idea of the necessary info.
External Port: Default is 32400. Can change if desired. Must match Plex remote access setting. I used 42445 at the time I took the screenshot.
Internal Port: Always 32400.
Internal IP Address: The IP address of the Plex server.
Protocol: TCP. Plex uses TCP. If you choose TCP + UDP it still works, but the UDP is never used.
Source IP: Empty/All/None. You want to allow all IP addresses, since you will not always know the IP address of the remote device (ex: mobile phone moving across cells). Not all routers have a Source IP field.
Plex Remote Access Settings
These settings align with the above port forward configuration.
