Server Version#: 1.16.0.1226
Player Version#:latest
Hi all. First time posting. Just signed up to plex pass the other day. I’m trying to access my server remotely and having an issue. I need some theoretical guidance to see what is possible and what is not.
I rent part of a house, so I have a router that is plugged in to the other persons router. His router is plugged into the modem. His is the default optimum router+modem set up, which he’s fine with me changing a few things on but since it is optimum I can’t easily get into the router interface.
I have my router giving out a different LAN to keep our networks separate. I’ve gone through a few troubleshooting steps like port forwarding, but it doesn’t work. Sometimes it says it is connected for a few seconds before going red and saying it can’t connect.
My server is hard wired to my router and is a Windows 10 machine, version 1709 with a static IP.
My main questions are can a router behind a router situation even work? Is it possible to gain access to an optimum router or ask them to change port forwarding?
P.S. If at all possible, but not necessary, in the future, I might want to use a vpn such as private internet access as I already have an account. I’ve heard that plex is already well encrypted though?
Thank you for any and all help, let me know if you need more information.
I can’t help you with the optimum router portion. But I can help you with the port forwarding part. The short version: You can’t use UPnP to automatically set it up. You’ll need to do manual port forwarding.
On your plex box, you’ll be using port number 32400. But on the router, it can technically be any port number you want, as long as you set that same external port number in the remote access settings on your server. But for these purposes, let’s pretend you’re using 32400 everywhere. (These should all be static IP’s.)
Optimum router WAN IP (on the internet): 300.300.300.300
Optimum router LAN IP: 192.168.0.1
Your personal router WAN IP (to the optimum network): 192.168.0.20
Your internal router IP: 10.0.0.1
Your Plex server IP: 10.0.0.2
First you need to set up a manual port on your optimum router (I don’t know how you’d do that). Set it for 32400, TCP, and forward it to the WAN IP of your internal router (192.168.0.20 in the example above).
Next you need to set up manual port-forwarding on your personal router. Set it for 32400 as well, TCP, and forward it to the static IP of your internal Plex server (10.0.0.2 in the example above).
Once that’s done, you might restart everything to be safe, but honestly you shouldn’t need to. The path should now look like this:
Internet -> 300.300.300.300 (32400) -> 192.168.0.20 (32400) -> 10.0.0.2 (32400)
That should take the Plex traffic all the way into both networks and to your Plex server.
Thanks for the quick reply CD. I understand what you are saying. I did some research into port forwarding the optimum router and will investigate that route further to try and solve this. The IP example also clarified a lot to make sure I set it up the right way.
I guess I just needed to confirm that I’d have to go down this rabbit hole with optimum as a solution.
Port Forwarding needs to be from the most external router. meaning the one where someone from the outside hits first.
Someone from the outside hits your WAN IP and the port you set. That traffic is then forwarded to the IP address and internal port 32400 of the computer. Because you have two routers that is called a doubleNAT. So the first router (your friends), needs it forwarded to the second router (yours) which is then forwarding to your server computer.
You will need access to your friends router to do that.
