Plex Media Server Remote Access - Port Forwarding

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hey guys,

I am new to the forum. I recently installed a Mikrotik router in my home. Everything seems to be working great except the Remote Access feature on my Plex Media Server won’t work any longer. I have literally spent hours trying to troubleshoot the issue. Apparently it is a Port Forwarding problem. However, when I try and add the NAT rule, it still doesn’t work. I have turned off and on the UPnP and nothing happened, tried making the computer IP address static, and also changed the settings on the Windows 10 firewall. None of these things worked. When I toggle the Remote Access on in the PMS settings, it stays green for 5-10 seconds and then says the connection was lost. I’ve literally spent 20 or more hours trying to figure this out.

Any help would be appreciated

2

Use https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 to test your ports.
Plex is drunk most of the time.Their devs even more so.
If you search on their forums you will find plenty of other users with this problem.
If you did the port forward and https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 shows 32400 open, there is nothing you can do to fix what PlexWeb shows/reports.

3

Please post your config and then we can sort out (or isolate the router from being the problem) the issue.

/export hide-sensitive file=youconfigmay18

4

even I can’t access plex from the outside
clearly it must be a port forwarding problem
(the plex port is 32400 as suggested by them)
this is my configuration
I tried to make a NAT RULE, but without success.
now I took it off to start from scratch.
thank you
youconfigmay18.rsc (3.18 KB)

5

Are you sure you have public address (i.e. not 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, 172.16-31.x.x, 100.64-127.x.x) on your router? Without it, no port forwarding will help you.

6

how can i check this in my winbox? i see a public address in PLEX page..do you mean it?

7

Why would you have a public IP on the plex??

8

Look in IP->Addresses and there will be all addresses on router, static and dynamic.

@anav: I guess it probably shows the public address used to access internet, there’s always some, but it can be on ISP’s router.

9

for my network on LTE1 it shows Dynamic..

10

But is it public or not (see the ranges I posted)?

11

public

12

I don’t know Plex, but quick search suggests that it supports UPnP, you have it enabled, so it should work. Check if it adds dynamic dstnat rule to router (maybe you’ll have to restart it or find some other way to force it to open port). If it adds the rule, try to access it from outside and see if rule’s packet counter increases.

13

you can test port forwarding work or not by put a new system with the required port open.
I experienced similar Plex Media Server Remote access flashing issue recently, and ends up with forgetting to allow the port on the Plex system itself (Synology DSM Firewall blocked it).
RouterOS port forwarding is quite straight forward, you can enable logging of the NAT rule to see any hit from Internet.

14

Hi here is 2 rule that i’ve found. I got problem with order, but these might work.

21    ;;; Plex Ports - TCP
      chain=forward protocol=tcp dst-port=3005,8324,32469 

22    ;;; Plex Ports - TCP
      chain=forward protocol=udp dst-port=1900,5353,32412-32414

Can you post your / firewall filter and firewall nat / firewall nat print… ?

15

Had to get on-site support from an IT friend of mine, but finally got it to work. See Attached screenshot of NAT Rule-> IP/Firewall/NAT/Add New
Capture.PNG

16

Forgot to mention, under the “Action” tab

Action-> “dst-nat”
To Addresses-> “192.168.00.000”
To Ports-> “32400”

17

Thank you… a great posting which explains how to set up Plex access outside the local network. Also it works, a bonus!

18

I have the same rule, includin

g the subsequent clarfication. Plex connects briefly and then disconnects and shows the server not reacheable from outside notice. Wondering whether other Firewall rules might interfere.