Remote Access "Not available outside your network" even with static IP and port forwarding enabled

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.19.4.2935
Player Version#: 8.3.0.18912 (14279def)

I use the Shield TV app for the player and my PC for the server. Both are connected to the same network, but I need to use remote play to avoid indirect streaming as my router/modem has DNS Rebinding issues. That was fine as I was using Remote play, but that stopped working for no apparent reason a few days ago.

I tried assigning a static IP to my PC but this did not work.

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I also tried port forwarding and that didn’t fix it either.

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Curiously, in spite of enabling port forwarding, when I attempt to check if my ports are open in canyouseeme.org, it says that they are not visible.

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I heard that this was due to double NAT, but it doesn’t look like this is the case for me. If you have double NAT and run trace route, the top two IP addresses should be private, but this is not the case for me.

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Also, the address in my router settings is public which implies double NAT is not the issue

Any idea what might be causing this? Do my settings for static IP and port forwarding look correctly configured?

2

Are you using a VPN?

3

Your settings look ok to me.
If you cannot even see the IP/port via canyouseeme.org you might need to contact your ISP and ask them if they block those ports (e.g. “for your security”).

4

No, I’m not using a VPN.

5

I contacted them and they said they’re not blocking any ports.

6

Have you also opened port 50000 in windows defender firewall? You will probably need to do that.

I know that when you specify a public port for plex, plex still listens on it’s default port (32400) rather than on the port you’ve specified. The port you’ve specified is just where clients are pointed towards. Thats why you’re getting issues when checking the port also. You could try setting up a forwarding rule in windows by running this from an administrator CMD prompt:

netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=50000 listenaddress=0.0.0.0 connectport=32400 connectaddress=127.0.0.1

If it still doesnt work, just reboot your PC and the forwarding rule will be removed

7

Port forwarding is handled on the router… in this particular scenario, the Windows machine never even knows the initial request is coming to port 50000 of the router because the router forwards the request to port 32400 on the local machine.

8

I tried opening the port in windows defender firewall and no luck there either. I also tried the CMD line you sent and no luck either.

9

Remote access aside, you should be able to bypass the DNS rebinding issue and use local access for clients by manually configuring DNS on the Shield TV. You’ll need to disable DHCP in its network settings and give it a static IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Then, specify a public server (1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8, 9.9.9.9, etc…) for its DNS. This will cause lookups to bypass your router.

As for the remote access issue, you may want to test temporarily disabling Windows Firewall to see if that helps; if you’re running any third-party firewall software, try disabling that as well.

10

I fixed it. It was a firewall issue. I had orignally followed instructions elsewhere which said to set an inbound rule for the the port 50000.

Just now I decided to cover all my bases by creating inbound and outbound rules for both 50000 and 32400.

That worked, although I’m not sure which of those rules in particular fixed it. I’m also not sure if setting up port forwarding was necessary either.