When your computer is on your home network you want your network set to “Private”. “Public” hides your computer from other devices on your local network. “Private” means you are connected to a trusted network.
To see if the problem is your Windows firewall do the following:
Right click on the Windows start/menu item, then left click on “Search”
Type “firewall” and click on “Windows Defender Firewall” under “Best Match”
At the left, click on “Turn Windows Defender Firewall On or Off”
*** In the next step I’m assuming you switch your network connection back to private already . ***
Under “Private Network Connections” click on “Turn Off Windows Defender Firewall (not recommended)”. Click “Ok”.
Check to see if Plex remote access works. If it does work then the problem is your Windows firewall and details will need to be investigated. If it doesn’t then there is still at least one problem elsewhere.
Important: Make sure to turn your Windows Defender Firewall back on after testing Plex! To do this follow the same steps, but click on “Turn On Windows Defender Firewall” under “Private Network Settings”.
I do appreciate all of the people that have offered suggestions but unfortunately this Very Weird issue continues. Summary if situation is as follows:
Windows 10 64 bit desktop - lots of power …works great.
Have a Cable Modem Aaris Surboard SB8200 (not a combo unit … just a modem)
Router is a Asus RT-AC68U - have reset to factory mode, updated to latest firmware, set up a static IP for the system that runs PMS, and port forwarding exactly like was recommended in the screen shots in this forum.
PLEX remote sharing uses the manually specified port.
When enabling remote access it turns green and stays there for … 6 seconds or so and then jumps to RED - no access outside of network.
Even though it shows RED, my shared with friends who have a Roku are able to view my PLEX, also people with PLEX app on a phone or using a computer can see my system but not people who have smart TVs with the PLEX app installed.
Also the PLEX system in my house via Roku devices loads very slowly.
I have rebooted and rebooted everything multiple times in between changes to ensure they are being registered properly.
I really do not know what to do now. I love PLEX and have been a lifetime member for many years. I love it enough to want to share my hard earned and compiled library of movies, TV Shows and music with several friends and relatives but this has become very time consuming … no doubt because of something I’m missing … Can anyone help. At this point I am also willing to pay to have someone fix this so that it is stable for remote access.
Help Please!!
Referring to the images I placed above - for my ASUS RT-68.
The ONLY thing I had to do was forward that port as shown.
The local IP never changes
The Public IP changes all the time - I don’t care how often - it doesn’t matter.
The port is a non-standard port - NOT 32400 - but that doesn’t matter either.
I did specify the non-standard port in Plex -as shown.
It just works - but did act just as you describe going through ‘The Gateway’ in the modem that was then disabled - and did act just as you describe when going through my PIA VPN - before they developed ‘Exclusions’ at PIA so I can make everything Plex bypass the VPN.
Maybe those words will spark an idea somewhere, but that’s all I did and it was easy. <—it had to be easy, 'cause if it was hard I couldn’t have done it.
I appreciate your suggestions and have tried them all!!
I also have a friend that had a 30+ year career in networking look through all of my network setting … He cannot see why it is not working.
I am about to give up and just tell those having trouble getting to my system either buy a Roku or you cannot access my stuff.
Sorry it has come to this but PLEX has not been able to tell me anything that fixed it, the ISP (Shentel) stand for SXXXXX telecom has been of little to no help and since all other internet traffic is flowing at contracted speeds I’m having trouble blaming them this time. The only problem is PLEX remote support.
This is really painful AND IT WAS WORKING GREAT from 1-15-2020 until this past weekend. I did zero updates to my system during this timeframe sooooo somebody changes something and I don’t know who or what they changed.
Signed … just really frustrated.
I live over the ridge from you - back in the darker parts of WV. The good part about a phone call to your ISP up in these parts is you get to talk to a guy you probably see at Food Lion. <—not the Food Lion in India.
Ok, well I know shentel does (or did) have cellular roaming with sprint.
So maybe the question should be, what kind of internet connection does @mccordsml actually have… cable/fiber/dsl/wireless/cellular/2tincans and a string?
also, google ‘what is my ip’ it should be a public ip.
PowerHouse 150M Internet is the internet service I have from Shentel.
I will call Shentel AGAIN and ask to speak with their level 2 or 3 tech support.
I would really love to get this mystery solved. When I had a Shentel combo modem and router that I had them put in bridge mode, they (Shentel) would occasionally do update that killed the bridge without bothering to advise anybody. The service just did not work anymore. This is just one of many examples BUT they are the only game in town so … there you go. Grateful to have them even though they can be a pain.
Carrier-grade NAT was mentioned above as being a potential issue. Has that been ruled out? I know you checked your router IP against canyouseeme.org and they were the same. Just to be sure, check your router to see what it is reporting as its WAN (public) IP address. If it is in the 100.64.0.0/10 network (100.64.0.1 - 100.127.255.254) then Shentel is employing CGNAT.
They do that when they’re running out of IP addresses. In Shentel Country? Yea, I can see that happening.
To MOST users it doesn’t matter - to Plex users it does.
MOST ISPs when confronted with an irate Plex User - will simply disable the CGNAT.
The guy you’ve been talking to either doesn’t know what that is - when he’s telling you it’s off - or he’s lying to you - or it’s something else. Let’s not plan the hangin’ picnic just yet.
You need to work with these guys - so a firm, knowledgeable, but respectful PITA is what you need to be.
ISSUE RESOLVED! I will not take you through the entire winding road that lead to figuring this out.
I would like to thank everyone that made suggestions for solving this issue of the sudden stoppage of Remote Access as of last weekend when I had made zero changes. The issue was that Windows Defender Firewall got corrupted and somehow started blocking the data flow. I have updates set to automatically install critical updates so this could very well have occurred during a recent update without my every noticing.
PLEX employees, please add this issue as a possible blocker to Remote Access so others that run have this issue do not waste days diagnosing this issue.
Again, thank you very much to PLEX and to PLEX forum participants for their help in eliminating possible causes. When everything else is eliminated, what you are left with …
Fred and Ethel’s ‘Beats Dialup Enterprises’.
1000/50
(Atlantic Broadband) <—they’re pretty good, usually.
Since this is solved - and since my ISP keeps rebooting my router while they try to figure out how to keep us connected to the rest of the world and in doing so keep ungluing Plex from it’s remote access…
I disabled port forwarding in the router, made sure UpNp, and all that stuff is on, let Plex forward it’s own port and it seems to be working.
I’m only trying this, testing the theory, that if Plex can hook up automatically - after a modem reboot - that’d save me having to ‘retry’ the port to get it back on.
