I was running my plex server on a Windows 10 machine and recently purchased a DS918+ and I installed PLEX using the manual download file. I feel like I have exhausted all of my options and can not get my server to be available remotely. (It does however allow indirect playing remotely).
When I enable the port forwarding it shows as green for about 10 seconds and then changes back to red and is unavailable.
I have done the following:
Port Forwarded 32400 on my Linksys AC1750
Tried UDP/TCP both
Added my 918 as a static IP and tied the port forwarding to it
I do not believe the firewall is on. I created one and allowed the port and that did not work.
I have read at least 30-40 forums with ideas and have tried different settings and just unsure what I’m missing.
If you need a log file let me know. I have the Plex Media Server.log but that has alot of data.
If your Plex Media Server is running on a Windows machine, you don’t need to concern yourself with adding a port forward for your Synology NAS.
establish a manual port forward on the Linksys AC1750, pointing to the local IP address of the PMS’ windows host
pick a valid port as the public port (preferably in the range from 20000 to 50000)
only TCP is needed; no need to use UDP or Both
private port must be 32400
make sure you have a static local IP address / IP reservation for the windows machine hosting the PMS
make sure to tell Plex about the public port you established for the port forward (in Settings > Server > Remote Access > Manually specify public port)
As for troubleshooting steps:
check if you can reach the public IP of your router with the given public tcp port from outside your home network (e.g. using canyouseeme.org)
if it doesn’t… try using a different public port to verify your ISP isn’t specifically blocking Plex’ standard port (32400)
if that doesn’t help – contact your ISP and ask them if they can unblock the communication
verify your home network
make sure your access points don’t establish networks of their own (your home network should use a single DHCP from your main router – if that doesn’t work for you, make sure to configure the routing through each and every one of them to reach your Plex Media Server from the most outside router)
check if the public IP address visible to your PMS matches the public IP address of your router
avoid double-NAT situations
avoid manually assigning local IP addresses right on the machine that hosts the PMS (use the router’s DHCP for that)
check if you’re using valid RFC-1918 IP addresses for your home network (10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255, 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255)
check the public IP assigned by your ISP – if it’s a home network IP, your ISP has likely setup a CG-NAT (managing their backbone like a home network, pretty much preventing you from exposing your router on your own)
investigate the setup of the machine hosting your Plex Media Server
verify firewall settings
check for proxy or ad-blocking / security software that could interfere in Plex’ communication
don’t solely rely on the status indicator in Settings > Server > Remote Access – if remote access works while the status indicator claims it’s not, the status indicator is wrong
All in line with the official trouble shooting support articles
I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear. I did update my original post. I’m no longer running Plex on Windows and have since installed it on my DS918+.
I did all of that exact items you listed and still having issues.
Question: How can I check my double nat settings on the NAS, is their a browser built in? I’m new to NAS and could not find an option.
Also when I do Canyouseeme on that port from my Windows PC it says that it can not, but I did not know if that was because I’m not on the NAS system.
You mentioned the status indicator being wrong. What I will say is this, two items:
One person could not connect at all
The other person could connect but only through the Indirect Connection (limiting to 720)
Any suggestions on my DS that I need to do to open that port up?
Previous builds of PMS on my 918+ did something similar. When I first brought up the console it would show Remote Access as not being available outside my network. Clicking on Retry made it go green. With the latest build, it then pops back red after a second. Despite this, access works fine, so it’s just a Plex UI problem.
If you go into: Control Panel -> External Acces and then select the “Router Configuration” tab, and hit “Test Connection”, I believe DSM will say: “Possible Double NAT…” - something if there’s a problem.
It did with me and I had to call my ISP and have them set my “Internet router” in (I believe it was) bridge mode as I’m behind it as well as my own router. After this, the “Double NAT message” disappeared…
This DSM feature is only required if you want to allow some devices from outside your home network to actually manage the DiskStations. This has nothing to do with Plex remote access.
Thanks Tom. I’ve been struggling with a flaky remote access connection for months. Seems it was the locally assigned IP address on the synology NAS running PMS.
