Remote-access Guide

plex remote access without static ip

by Mr. Don Reichel Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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To do so:

  • Open Plex Web App and make sure you’re signed in to your Plex account on the server under Settings > Server > General
  • Go to Settings > Server > Remote Access
  • If needed, toggle the Show Advanced button to ensure the appropriate options are visible
  • Enable the Manually specify public port checkbox

More items...

Full Answer

How do I enable remote access for Plex Media Server?

Click on the “CIDR Address” box, choose a Label name for the Resource, enter the private IP address of Plex (it’s listed under Plex Settings > Remote Access and is likely for the Port Restriction, and click “Add Resource”. Congrats! Your Plex Media Server is now enabled for secure remote access.

Why is my Plex server not available outside my network?

If you enable remote access to your Plex Media Server and see an error message like “Not available outside your network”, then you have a little trouble shooting to do. It’s important to note that the Plex Media Server can still reach the internet (the server is signed in), but the Plex system can’t access your Plex server from the outside.

How do I connect to Plex from a Windows PC?

You’ve now set up a Connector on your Windows PC, which enables remote access to Plex, or other services that you’re running on your computer (called a “Resource” in Twingate). Go back to your Remote Network and click on the “Add Resource” link. You’ll see a popup like the one below.

How do I set up a static IP for Plex Media Center?

You’ll need to identify your Plex Media Server computer on the network and then look for an option in your router to create a “static IP”, “static lease”, or “DHCP reservation” to permanently associate the Plex Media Center with a given IP address.

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Do you need a static IP for Plex?

A Public Static IP is not needed, largely because the AT&T "dynamic" address changes so infrequently that Plex will have no trouble tracking you down.

How do I access Plex without port forwarding?

Click on the “CIDR Address” box, choose a Label name for the Resource, enter the private IP address of Plex (it's listed under Plex Settings > Remote Access and is likely 10. x.x.x or 192.168. x.x ), choose 32400 for the Port Restriction, and click “Add Resource”. Congrats!

Why can't I access my Plex server remotely?

Open Plex Web App and make sure you're signed in to your Plex account on the server under Settings > Server > General. Go to Settings > Server > Remote Access. If needed, toggle the Show Advanced button to ensure the appropriate options are visible. Enable the Manually specify public port checkbox.

How do I secure Plex remote access?

By default the Secure Connections on your Plex Media Server is set to preferred. Meaning there isn't even anything special you need to do unless you want it required at all times. Sign in to your Plex account in the server. Under Settings > Server > Network in the Plex Web App.

Does Plex use TCP or UDP?

The most important port to make sure your firewall allows is the main TCP port the Plex Media Server uses for communication: TCP: 32400 (access to the Plex Media Server) [required]

What is Plex relay?

What is Relay? In a nutshell, if your app isn't able to make a direct connection to your Plex Media Server when you're away from home, we can act as sort of a middle man and “relay” the stream from your server to your app.

How do I access Plex server from another computer?

To open the Plex Web App from a different device than the server computer while still on the same network: Open a browser window. Type http://server.local.ip.address:32400/web into the address bar (e.g “http://192.168.1.5:32400/web”) The browser will connect to the server and load Plex Web App.

How do I access someone else's Plex server?

Granting AccessUsername or Email. Enter the username or email address for the Plex account you wish to grant access and click continue. ... Select the Server. Plex Media Servers associated with your Plex account will be available. ... Set Restrictions and Inviting to Home (Plex Pass required) ... Pending Access.

Does Plex require UPnP?

Plex Media Server generally works, by the magic of UPnP, right out of the box.

Should I use a VPN for Plex?

If you're experiencing slow speeds when trying to stream your Plex videos, you could be a victim of ISP throttling. This can be avoided with a VPN for Plex as it safeguards all the data you send across the Internet using AES 256-bit encryption.

Is Plex a security risk?

UPDATED Security researchers uncovered vulnerabilities in Plex that created a means for attackers to compromise devices or access private video or picture files on a vulnerable server.

Is using Plex illegal?

Plex is perfectly legal whenever you're streaming from their server or whenever you upload personal media that was acquired and reproduced legally. On the other hand, the user can put illegally obtained content on their personal media server.

Can anyone access my Plex server?

Before you can share your Plex library with someone, they must have an account with the service. If not, direct them to Plex's website(Opens in a new window) and have them create an account. Their account will allow them to access shared libraries and share their Plex library with others, if they want.

How do I find my Plex server IP address?

Find out the local IP address of the device on which the app is running. You will typically be able to find this in the device's system settings. In your Plex Web App, go to Settings > Server > Network .

How to set up static IP address on Plex?

You’ll need to identify your Plex Media Server computer on the network and then look for an option in your router to create a “static IP”, “static lease”, or “DHCP reservation” to permanently associate the Plex Media Center with a given IP address. Below you can see an example of what adding a static IP address looks like, via our DD-WRT router.

How to check if Plex is disabled?

While logged into your Plex Media Server’s web control panel, select the Settings icon from the upper right toolbar. Within the Settings menu select, the “Server” tab.

What happens if you don't set up a static IP address?

If you don’t do this every time your router assigns a new internal address to the media server it will break your port forwarding rule. If you need more information on setting up a static IP address you can search for documentation for your specific router and read up on static IP addresses here.

What happens when you double up a NAT system?

When a NAT system is doubled up with another NAT system, however, it can create issues for apps (like the Plex Media Server) that rely on UPnP to create automatic port forwarding rules. This occurs commonly when you have a router/modem combo supplied by your ISP and your own router plugged into that unit.

How to port forward on Plex?

First, let’s turn on the manual port mode in Plex. To do so navigate to Settings > Server > Remote Access (as we did in the previous section of the tutorial).

What does it mean when a server says "Not available outside network"?

If your server is currently not configured for remote access, it will say “Not available outside your network” as seen above. Click the large orange button that reads “Enable Remote Access”.

What does the control panel indicate on Plex?

In addition to telling you that the server is accessible, the control panel will also indicate the internal IP address and port number of the Plex Media Server on your local network as well as external, or public, IP address and port number.

Plex remote access not working?

Plex offers a remote access feature that relies on port forwarding, but the configuration may not always work or there may be other common issues like Double-NAT, resulting in an error like the screenshot below.

Prerequisites

The rest of this guide assumes that you have some components already installed. If you’ve already installed Plex, WSL, and Docker on your Windows PC, skip ahead to “Sign up for Twingate” below. If not, please following these instructions first.

Sign up for Twingate

Twingate Starter is a new free plan that is designed for home and personal use. If you don’t have an account already, please click here and follow the simple steps to sign up for a Starter account and begin the initial setup.

Add a Connector

After completing the steps above, you should now have a Starter account with a Remote Network set up. The next step is to deploy a Twingate Connector, which is a piece of software that allows for secure access to your remote network and the devices connected to it.

Add a Resource

You’ve now set up a Connector on your Windows PC, which enables remote access to Plex, or other services that you’re running on your computer (called a “Resource” in Twingate).

Download the Twingate client

All that’s left to do now is to install Twingate on your devices (we support Windows, Mac, Linux and have apps for iOS and Android) and access your Plex Media Server from anywhere. As an example, let’s walk through setting things up on iOS.

Sharing is Caring

Do you want to share access with a family member? You can easily do this from the Twingate web UI. Just go to the Team tab and click “Invite User” to send an email invitation. The recipient would simply follow the same steps to download the Twingate client, join your network, and get access to Plex, or any other resource you set up!

Plex remote access not working?

Plex offers a remote access feature that relies on port forwarding, but the configuration may not always work or there may be other common issues like Double-NAT. Using port forwarding also exposes an open port to your home network that can potentially be exploited.

Prerequisites

The rest of this guide assumes that you have some components already installed. If not, please following these instructions first.

Sign up for Twingate

Twingate Starter is a new free plan that is designed for home and personal use. If you don’t have an account already, please click here and follow the simple steps to sign up for a Starter account and begin the initial setup.

Add a Connector

After completing the steps above, you should now have a Starter account with a Remote Network set up. The next step is to deploy a Twingate Connector, which is a piece of software that allows for secure access to your remote network and the devices connected to it.

Add a Resource

You’ve now set up a Connector on your device. This Connector enables remote access for any device or service on your home network (called a “Resource” in Twingate). For now, we’re just interested in enabling access to Plex, so we need to add it as a Resource.

Download the Twingate client

All that’s left to do now is to install Twingate on your device (we support Windows, Mac, Linux and have apps for iOS and Android) and access your Plex Media Server. As an example, let’s walk through setting up the Twingate client on iOS.

Sharing is Caring

Do you want to share access with a family member? You can easily do this from the Twingate web UI. Just go to the Team tab and click “Invite User” to send an email invitation. The recipient would simply follow the same steps to download the Twingate client, join your network, and get access to Plex, or any other resource you set up!

What is Plex

When we talk about Plex we refer to an application that we can install on our devices. Its mission is to allow us to centralize multimedia files in one place. For example movies and series and be able to watch them from another device.

How to configure Plex to enter from the Internet

This function will allow us to connect to our Plex server from anywhere , simply by having access to the Internet. We will not have to pay anything additional and it is an option that undoubtedly expands the possibilities of only limiting ourselves to having access from the local network.

Why access Plex remotely

We have explained how we can access Plex remotely and view all the content. However, you may be wondering what this feature is really for or how it improves to, for example, storing videos directly in a memory.

How to get remote access through firewall?

A common way to get remote access through a firewall is with a Reverse SSH Tunnel. This is easy to setup and works well, but I discovered that HTTP based services through the tunnel run extremely slow. The most likely reason for this is that both SSH and HTTP use the TCP protocol to transmit data over a network.

What IP address does Tinc use?

With tinc working, all the services on the home server can be accessed through a local IP on the cloud server, like 10.0.0.2:8112 for Deluge. Time to turn that into something nice like deluge.crawford.kiwi!

What is Pydio server?

A Pydio server for remote access and management of files.

Does Hamachi require client software?

There are services dedicated to providing remote access to your networks like Hamachi. These work well but require client software to join the virtual network, not meeting my first requirement of working on any computer!

Does a home connection have a static IP address?

Very rarely does a home connection come with a static IP. Getting a static IP typically results in extra charges, and would require updating the DNS record if anything changes. The solution is to use a dynamic DNS service which solves both these issues, but we still end up with the below problems.

Do routers take HTTP ports?

However, you may not have full control over the router to setup these rules. Many routers will also take the default HTTP/HTTPS ports for their own services, leaving you with non-standard port numbers for everything else.

Can you access Plex manually?

Remember that you'll need to configure the Plex custom URL, if that's possible still? And make sure that you can access Plex manually via the URL you're providing to Plex (e.g.: yourserver.com :32400/web should load the Plex site).

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