Remote Access only works with Auto setup, not with Manual port forwarding

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Hi all,

I have an issue that’s been driving me crazy for the past few days. I use Plex to stream my TV shows and movies, and it works great at home, it even works great externally, so long as I use auto setup. The only issue I have is that when I try to setup manual port forwarding, remote access won’t work.

The reason as to why I’m wanting to change the port manually is because of my network at uni, a lot of outbound ports are locked, so I have to get creative and use ports like 80/443 for my port forwarding. This shouldn’t be a problem, right? Well, so I thought.

Anyway, to the issue at hand. When I let Plex do all the work, without tinkering with the settings, it sets ports itself, usually using the 19000-26000 ports. I’m guessing UPnP is doing most of the legwork here. If I then try to manually select the ports I want Plex to use (I have tried 80/443/20040), that’s when the problem occurs. The Remote Access status message/page is green for about two seconds after I apply the settings, but then it turns red, and says “Not available outside your network”.

Port forwarding for me is straight forward, I host a lot of other web services from my home, and it’s never been an issue except with Plex. I use ports 22/25/80/443/3389/3478 actively, and they all function as expected. I’m very comfortable with networking, and am used to troubleshooting. I’ve even installed Plex on my Ubuntu server to check if my Windows-installation was bugged - to no avail, same issue occurred here. The ports do not appear as up, and canyouseeme.org confirmed this, saying they’re down when I have attempted to forward them.

Firewalls have all been attempted turned off, both Windows Firewall and the firewall on my router. It shouldn’t be an issue with my router, because I have tried multiple (not as the same time, so don’t get confused with a double-NAT issue, that’s not it), and none seem to work with Plex specifically, when everything else still port forwards as expected. When I try Plex externally while the Remote Access page shows red, I get redirected to your typical “Indirect connection”-page, using one of Plex’s relays which caps my streaming to 1Mbps - no go.

I have studied this page, https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200931138, but this page seems to be for those experiencing trouble with auto configuration and UPnP, which works flawlessly for me. Double-NAT is is not a problem, and I have assigned static addresses. I even checked jumbo frames, but MTU size is set to 1500.

If there are any logs you guys want to see, or if you need additional details of what I run, please let me know.

Network: ISP -> Modem -> Router(s) -> Cisco switch -> Windows Plex Server (main) / Ubuntu Plex server (for troubleshooting)
Routers: Netgear N600, ZyXel P8702n

TL;DR - Plex Remote Access works when Plex auto-assigns ports, but will not work when I try to manually assign ports,
no matter what ports I try. (80/443/20040).

If I posted this in the wrong section, please direct me to the right category.
Thanks in advance. Sorry for the wall of text.

2

Forgot to mention, both servers run Version 1.10.0.4523. I just recently started using Plex, so have not had to upgrade any system yet.

3

You mention 2 machines -
can you tell me what the port forward settings are exactly - for both and what you have ticked and entered in the remote access server setting (show advanced) for manually specify port

remember for the local port in a port forward it has to be 32400 for all servers. The public port may be different
And remember it is the public port that you enter in the manually specify port box

4

This should give some clarity

https://imgur.com/a/iGhkR

5

@creasy2 said:
This should give some clarity

https://imgur.com/a/iGhkR

The port forward is wrong. Starting and Ending port should be the same
But you have a too basic router and it does not seem to allow you to have different port for public/wan and private/local

You need a router that has this feature for a port forward allowing you to enter

Protocol:   TCP
Public/WAN port
Starting Port: 20040
Ending Port: 20040
Private/LAN Port
Starting Port: 32400
Ending Port:32400
Server IP: 10.1.1.9
6

Let me grab my pfSense box and I’ll give it a go, I know pfSense can NAT properly.

7

Okay, so I figured it out. Your answer is spot on, stupid of me to think starting and ending port range was the same as source and destination port range. Whoops. Don’t have access to pfSense right now, but I managed to port forward on windows in a sense. This will have to do until I can setup my pfSense box again, but it seems to works as intended.

My settings are as follows:

Router:
Protocol: TCP
Public/WAN port
Starting Port: 80
Ending Port: 80
Server IP: 10.1.1.9

Windows:
Listen on port 80, redirect all traffic caught on port 80 to port 32400. This does work locally as well, and doesn’t necessarily have to be another device. (Hence 10.1.1.9 to 10.1.1.9)

How to set this up:
netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenaddress=10.1.1.9 listenport=80 connectaddress=10.1.1.9 connectport=32400

Success! https://i.imgur.com/A5tazLR.png

Thanks for your assistance, you’ve been very helpful. :slight_smile:

8

pfsense is garbage. I’ve been trying for weeks to make it work right. Using UPNP it works sometimes, but never when it should. Anyone you ask questions to about pfsense has a high and mighty dick in their ass and will only degrade you leaving you with the same problem, pfsense. If I won the lotto today I would buy pfsense and burn it to the ground.