Remote Access No Longer Working

Plex Media Server Remote Access
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1

Server Version#:1.42.1.10060
Player Version#: 7.36 build 19 (Roku)

Remote access has stopped working for no reason. No changes of any kind were made (I was away when it started) and it has been working fine for years now.

I have updated the Plex server (running on WD Cloud OS5).

I have updated the Cloud Server as well.

I have checked my router as well and everything is fine, including the port forwarding which has been set up and working great for years now.

Plex seems to be suggesting a possible “Double-NAT” scenario, but this is not the case. Only one router and no other computer in the house.

Given that I purchased a lifetime pass to maintain my remote connection functionality, this is very troublesome.

plex
plex1426×833 83.5 KB

2

Double NAT doesn’t have to be on your end. An ISP CG-NAT might appear the same to Plex.

Same goes for changes to the setup… with remote access, there’s more than just you and your setup. There’s regularly reports on ISPs blocking certain communications.

Have you already verified if your forwarded port is still visible/accessible from outside your home network (e.g. using a service like canyouseeme.org), and if the public IP recognized by Plex is the same identified from outside your home network and the router‘s WAN IP address?

3

Thanks for the reply. So, am I wrong in thinking that I need to call my ISP? The check tool says “Error: I could not see your service on” |P ADDRESS. I tried changing ports, but no luck.

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Yes, that’s the next step.

In that case I would first check if the IP recognized by canyouseeme.org is the same as reported as public IP / WAN IP on your router.

  • Yes → ask them if/why they’re blocking the communication and how to get an exception
  • No → ask them if you can be excluded from their CG-NAT and if they can assign a „publicly routable IPv4 address“ to your router/uplink (no static IP required; they can still dynamically assign it, as long as it’s publicly routable… that being said, some ISPs will only do it if you pay for a static IP)
5

You may not have intentionally changed anything but an automatic firmware update on the router or power outage could of caused ip’s to change.

Provided a family member hasn’t stuck another router into the chain, your internal ip’s have changed.

If you entered specific addresses in the Server Settings > Network page, either clear them or update them.

Private IP’s are ok to be displayed but if you prefer a DM I can send you a list from your logs where things go wrong.

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Good thought, but I already checked the IPs. The Plex is still using the reserved address and that I assigned it and the port is still mapped as it should be. I would very much appreciate you pointing me to where in the logs it shows the problem. I’m not really a tech person. so it’s hard for me to figure them out.

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For the canyouseeme.org, I get this error. Leads me to think I need to ask the ISP.
Error: I could not see your service on IP on port (Port)
Reason: Connection timed out

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DM was sent showing where the public ip and WAN ip reported by the router do not agree.

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Thx. Replied and I am grateful for the help. I just don’t know what to do to fix this.

10

What is your ISP connection: Cable, Fiber, other?
Model number of device that outputs ethernet to your router.
What Router do you have?

If the ISP device is also a router we need to get it back into bridge mode where it just passes the WAN ip to your router. Alternatively you can make all traffic go to the IP assigned to the Router so the port forward works.

Access the router and see what IP is listed for the WAN. Unless a VPN was left running this should be addressable.

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Fiber connection and the router is provided by ISP. When I check the status of the router, the IP is different from what seems to be the public IP that Plex finds/uses (which I thought was normal). CanYouSeeMe.org also sees the public IP, so I would have thought that would work.

ISP tells me that they are not using CGNAT. Could not provide any other assitance though (pretty crappy tech support, actually).

Update: I tried several different port forwarding scenarios and finally landed on one that seems to be working. Although, I am wondering if the fact that I also restarted my router at the end may have contributed as I am fairly sure that I had tried this port previously. My thought is, that if you are having this issue AND especially if you cannot find success with the CanYouSeeMe.org tool, restart your router, if you can. I’m sure the techies here will laugh at me for not doing this sooner, but many of us Plex users are not tech experts, so… :slight_smile:

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I was just coming back to say let’s try powering off the Fiber adapter and Router and then first power on the Fiber waiting till it is connected before turning on the router to see if the WAN IP changes.

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Once again, thank you so much for your help with this. Hoping that this thread will help somebody else out as well. Maybe they can work backwards from how I did LOL.