Server Version#: 1.21.0.3616
Player Version#: Plex Web - 4.47.1
I’m getting tired of this happening again and again and would like to get to the bottom of this for the friends who are using my Plex Server. It seems that Remote Access keeps getting disabled and for unknown reasons.
First, let me see if I understand enabling remote access. When enabled I believe that Plex merely registers my Plex Server, my current WAN IP address of my router, and what port I’m using. If I haven’t set the manual port to use then port number 32400 will be used. Plex then registers my Plex server, port, and external WAN IP address and then uses UPnP to configure the router to forward packets coming to my WAN IP address on port 32400 to the internal IP address where my Plex server is running. When an external user goes to app.plex.tv looks up my server and says “Yeah, well that Plex Server is at :” and sends the external user there. When they hit my WAN IP address the router is configured to port forward to my PMS on my LAN at port 32400. Is that about right?
What I see when I enable Remote Access: It briefly flickers that remote access is available but within about 1/2 second it flips back to Not available outside your network:
As you can see it says that my Plex Server is not available outside my network (but it is! See below) and it also says it’s using the Public IP address of 70.32.6.102! What is this IP address as it is not the WAN IP address of my router (which is 184.182.63.133 according to canyouseeme.org and places like Open Port Check Tool : Network Tools : Tools : NetworkAppers)? Is it a server owned by Plex that performs the lookup of my PMS and forwards the user there? When I use canyouseeme.org I cannot switch the IP address away from 184.182.63.133 and when I test port 32400 it says blocked. On the other service, I tested both IP addresses at port 32400 and both said they were blocked.
As for remote access, the users I support seem to be able to access my server remotely without issue (sometimes - other times they can’t) and I can use my cell phone, turn off wifi so that I’m not using my internal LAN and using the Sprint network and I can get into my Plex server with no issue. If I click Disable Remote Access as shown in the picture then my cell phone can no longer access my PMS from the Sprint cellular network. So It sure seems to me that my testing remote access using Sprint cellular data is a valid test for remote access.
Questions
Is my guesswork about how remote access works close?
Why does my Plex Server list the IP address of 70.32.6.102? Is that some sort of Plex relay server?
Why doesn’t Remote Access stay green and indicate that it works remotely but instead says that remote access outside my network is not available when it is?
Is there any reliable way to set this up such that remote access always works or when it is not working it says so and when it is working it doesn’t say it’s not working?
No I don’t. As I said, it already works… sometimes. It just keeps breaking for reasons beyond me. If I really needed to port forward in the router’s admin section then it would never work without that.
BTW My ISP does not allow you to port forward. Instead it sends you to wifi.cox.com to do the port forwarding there and that has since been disabled meaning you have to now call up Cox support and have them do it meaning you probably need to justify to them why you need the port forwarded and I’m trying to avoid that.
Another alternative is to use a VPN service for your Plex server. You would need to find a VPN provider that supports Port Forwarding, and it introduces other costs and complexities.
By “My ISP does not allow you to port forward” I mean to allow you to port forward yourself. You have to call. And I worry about calling them and asking “Hey can you dudes port forward port 32400 to cause my friends are having a problem accessing my Plex server”. I fear they will simply say that’s not allowed. Instead, I thought of asking to forward some other port because my security cam requires that then manually configure that port to Plex. I don’t have a security cam but I’ve heard that that’s one of the things they will port forward for.
Another solution is to buy my own router and supplant the ISP’s router with one of my own.
I have not resorted to these more drastic steps yet for one reason - often it works for my remote users! I’m not sure what you mean by “Full remote access” but it’s my understanding that in computers and networking things either work or they don’t work. IOW if my remote users can stream from Plex server and if I have not changed anything like the config, etc. then that condition should remain and my users should be able to continue to access my Plex server. But that’s not the case here as it is constantly breaking as Lihme says - it was working properly for a while and then breaks.
I do not wish to get into Plex Relaying unless I have to.
I have a VPN provider, Private Internet Access (PIA), and I am using it. In Synology there’s a section for configuring the VPN provider and I have set that up. It was my understanding that that ensures that processes running on the Synology go out through the VPN but that doesn’t do anything WRT processes trying to get into the Synology.
There is also a VPN client that one can install on the Synology but that looked like merely a way to get into your Synology for the purposes of remotely managing the Synology DiskStation itself. IOW run Task Managers, restart Docker instances, and check on disk space, etc. I didn’t want to set that up and have to worry about others getting into my Synology and doing bad things as I can get to my Synology from my local LAN and I was OK with that. Are you saying that using such a VPN client service on the Synology itself and use it to port forward under my ISP’s noses? If so point me to the support article that tells me how to do that!
Regardless of all that, and I do want to solve this problem, none of this explains the fact that 1) my users often get to and use my Plex server nonetheless but at times have problems, and 2) nobody has explained why even when the Remote Access section in PMS config says no remote access is available, that I can access the PMS through my cell phone on my cellular network which is remote. IOW why is it saying I can’t do something when I clearly can?
Volts, if my ISP was truly blocking all port forwarding or blocking at least this port forward, then I would be stuck and it would never work, right? And yet I just connected to my Plex server again using my cellular network on my phone and it worked. Therefore isn’t that evidence that my ISP is not blocking the UPnP port forward? If not then how is that working?
Also not explained - what is 70.32.6.102? My router’s IP address is 184.182.63.133.
Finally, would it be too much to ask that if the UPnP call that Plex makes to configure the router fails that it says that!?! To me “Not available outside your network” does not get to the real problem of “UPnP configuration setup failed”. That’d at least be clue.
And also, why flash the green “Remote access enabled” for a 1/2 second only to go red with “Not available outside your network”? IOW do the action and report success or failure properly with enough information in any error message to describe what actually happened and where exactly it failed.
Seems like a common problem. I’m pretty stuck. Just set up the server and now remote access doesn’t work unless I change ports (which only brings it on temporary, mobile access doesn’t work)
I’ll try setting up my VPN as I have PIA too but it’s just stressful. Wish there was an experienced mod responding to these with solutions/direct troubleshooting
Me too! Or perhaps a plex.tv webpage that you can use that tests whether or not your Plex Server is available remotely as well as perhaps additional testing, log file collection and troubleshooting steps specifice to your current configuration…
Happy Thanksgiving, folks who celebrate it. Happy Thursday, everybody else.
@adefaria - going back to your first message, yeah, you’ve got the flow.
Plex needs to be reachable on a Public address and port. This means the Public address must be identified and a port must be forwarded.
Plex starts listening on :32400 internally.
Plex uses UPnP/NAT-PMP to ask the gateway to forward a Public port.
(Plex always makes this request, and uses the response to learn about your network. If it fails or if UPnP/NAT-PMP aren’t enabled, manually configured port forwarding is fine too.)
Plex asks a helper server in the myPlex cloud to identify the apparent Public address of the Plex server.
Plex asks the helper server in the myPlex cloud to test a connection to the discovered Public address and forwarded port.
If everything validated, Plex registers the discovered IP addresses and ports with myPlex.
I believe that 70.32.6.102 is a VPN provider IP address, and later you mention that you have a VPN configured.
If Plex’s traffic is routed out a VPN, the VPN connection will be discovered as the Public address. If the VPN provider offers port forwarding, that can be a good solution to an ISP that doesn’t allow port forwarding. It also adds complexity - VPNs typically change Public addresses on each connection.
If you don’t want Plex traffic to use the VPN, your best bet is to exclude Plex from the VPN. This is commonly called “split tunneling”. Some VPN software offers that. I don’t know if it’s possible on your specific NAS.
@Lihme it might be helpful to ask your question in a different thread, share pictures and details - the same things @adefaria has done. The symptoms and details may be different.
On that point I totally agree. Hopes raised, then dashed the floor …
There have been bugs in Plex with how that displayed, too. In some cases everything worked, but it said “Not available …”. I believe that bug was fixed - I haven’t seen it in a while.
Still don’t understand this very simple fact - sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. The config/hardware/etc hasn’t changed. Why does that happen? Again, sorry to repeat but if my friends can access my Plex server on Monday but then can’t on Tuesday but can again on Thursday then the hypothesis of “well you need to do port forwarding” doesn’t wash. Because I also would have needed to use port forwarding on the days that my friends successfully accessed my Plex server.
WRT your description - how many times and at what time is the procedure done? Once? Every day? For every new connection request that comes in?
Re: VPNs. Yes PIA is my VPN provider. Yes PIA does support port forwarding. And I know that PIA supports exclusion as I use PIA on my Ubuntu Desktop and have configured Firefox to be excluded from the VPN as my banking website will not work under VPN.
If I understand you correctly you are saying that PMS, running on my Synology where I have a PIA VPN configured presented publically as 70.32.6.102 whereas my router’s IP address is 184.182.63.133. So from PMS point of view, it had a different public IP address than my router.
Additionally, it’s not unheard of that the VPN may disconnect and reconnect and get a different public IP address. Also, configuring the VPN to allow port forwarding when the public IP address keeps changing can be complicated and tricky. So it would be better for me to exclude outgoing Plex traffic from participation in the VPN.
As I said, I do this on my desktop and laptop already but I don’t know how to do it on the Synology.
If the Relay is disabled, you absolutely need an accessible port for remote access to work.
Whether that’s forwarded automatically with UPnP, or manually in a router, or by calling your ISP, or on your VPN provider’s web page. The method will change based on your setup.
If your VPN reconnects frequently or is “leaky” that could explain some of the intermittent behavior. Maybe UPnP does work and Plex is establishing connectivity while the VPN is not active, for instance.
