Remote Access Problems (Double NAT/Mobile App)

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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1

So I am encountering a two intermittent issues that I have had no luck resolving.
Firstly I am having an issue where my server will sometimes not allow Remote Access, claiming a Double-NAT Error. Problem is I don’t have a second router. ISP>Netgear Modem>Belkin Router>Server. There is a Range Extender but I am not connected to this. My IP External Address matches my WAN IP, and all of my local devices are 192.168.2.x. Xfinity has been no help in tracking this down. I have tried manual port forwarding and it doesn’t seem to always fix it, and it eventually returns.

Secondly I have had an issue where my IOS app would not see the server. When I remote into my server, the Remote Access will show as inactive, but it reenables as soon as I refresh the browser page, or sometimes on it’s own. Even still, while recognized as ‘accessible’, my IOS device will still recognize the server as offline.

Let me know what log files might be relevant to post, any help is appreciated.

Server Version#: Version 1.13.8.5395
Player Version#: Browser and IOS 5.5.1

2

Please get some logs if you still have a problem

Ensure debug logging is enabled
See https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/

Restart the server

Disable and re-enable remote access ensuring manually specify port and public port entered in the box if you are using a Port Forward

Get logs from the server and the iOS device (emailing it to yourself and then attaching here with the server logs zip)

See
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201636593-ios-logs/

3

Ask xFinity if they use cgNAT (Carrier Grade NAT) as this could cause Plex to assume it’s behind double NAT which is technically true but not really.

Try accessing the server via app.plex.tv instead of directly accessing your public IP.

Cheers,
UK

4

@sa2000 I’m having issues with my remote access as well always goes down. Here are some logs.Plex Media Server Logs_2018-10-19_18-40-02.zip (5.5 MB)
Plex Media Server Logs_2018-10-19_18-40-36.zip (5.5 MB)

5

Looked at the logs and they do show problems - but at this point i cannot see any clues in the logs.

The logs show PMS does an hourly refresh of the uPnP automatic port mapping and every hour it is successfully re-instating the port mapping of public port 11394 to the local

It was being refreshed at 49 minutes past the hour every hour and we have that sequence from October 18 04:49am onwards

I can see at 13:25 on October 18th you disabled and re-enabled Remote Access. There was a refresh of the port mapping done without error at 12:49 (36 minutes earlier). I cannot see any issue in the log before you disabled remote access and re-enabled it. We may need some Plex client apps logs as well in such cases eg cellular connection on iPhone or Android and getting the logs for that and the server before you disable and re-enable remote access. Also might help, is viewing the router uPnP port forward table to see if the port entry (in this case it was 11394 public to 32400 private exists in the router)

The reason i suggest looking at the router is because of this error when we went through disabling remote access

Oct 18, 2018 13:25:33.465 [11572] DEBUG - PublicAddressManager: Stopping.
Oct 18, 2018 13:25:36.474 [11572] WARN - NAT: UPnP, error unmapping port 11394, error: The specified value does not exist in the array.
Oct 18, 2018 13:25:36.725 [11572] WARN - NAT: PMP, got an error: NATPMP_ERR_RECVFROM.

This implies that the port forward for 11394 was not in the router - when it was re-established 36 minutes before

Oct 18, 2018 12:49:20.739 [13452] DEBUG - PublicAddressManager: Got public IP from http://plex.tv: 72.xxx.xxx.xxx
Oct 18, 2018 12:49:23.719 [14572] DEBUG - NAT: UPnP, mapped port 11394 to 192.168.1.153:32400.
Oct 18, 2018 12:49:23.759 [13452] DEBUG - NAT: UPnP, public address is 72.xxx.xxx.xxx
Oct 18, 2018 12:49:23.771 [14572] DEBUG - PublicAddressManager: Mapping succeeded for 192.168.1.153:11394.

The next time there was an issue was 00:15 on 19 Oct when the route through that public port failed

Oct 19, 2018 00:15:02.263 [15908] DEBUG - EventSource: Got event [data] '<Message address="72.xxx.xxx.xxx" port="11394" asyncIdentifier="76646be4-2a57-4e09-a2c9-5de90cb4e0aa" connectivity="0" command="notifyConnectivity"/>'

Oct 19, 2018 00:15:07.692 [15908] DEBUG - EventSource: Got event [data] '<Message address="72.xxx.xxx.xxx" port="11394" asyncIdentifier="4c71a915-ff1f-4a1c-8fd2-6c73c4a82b4b" connectivity="0" command="notifyConnectivity"/>'

Again when you disabled remote access, PMS got an error from the router when attempting to delete that port mapping

Oct 19, 2018 00:15:26.950 [5300] WARN - NAT: UPnP, error unmapping port 11394, error: The specified value does not exist in the array.

As if it disappeared from the router

What router is it ? May be there is an issue with some firmware update - there was reported recently for an ARRIS router

You should find switching to a manually specified port and a port forward to be more reliable than the uPnP auto mapping

6

I replied in a previous thread to say that I solved this issue with a paid solution.

I use windscribe pro with a static IP, they allow you to open port 32400.

As long as this device is signed into that account (where the port forward rule is), then plex is fully accessible outside the network.

I use 4G at home and the mobile network uses CGNAT, it does work for a short while (without the VPN) but as soon as the mobile network changes the IP, plex disconnects.

I also have two routers doing NAT and DHCP, at the moment for me at least, there is now way around it.

I would be happy to help anyone else if I can in solving this issue for them :slight_smile:

7

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