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Plex server through VPN

Hello! 

 

I've been using plex for a while now and I think it's great! right now i have 1 PC for storage and another one for hosting the server.. the storage pc uses a vpn for everything and can't host the server because it doesn't have a static ip.. Is there any easy way to make my vpn let plex through while still covering everything else? or do i need to buy a static ip from the vpn company?

 

Feels like a waste to have several machines on if i can do it all on one!

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Look into setting up Dynamic DNS, you can get a free Domain from www.noip.com (the catch is you have to renew it once a month or you lose it) and then you either set your Router to connect to the DDNS Server or you run a tool on the PC that connects.

 

Then you can point your devices to the domain instead of an IP and each time your IP changes the DDNS server will update the domain to the new IP.

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8 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Look into setting up Dynamic DNS, you can get a free Domain from www.noip.com (the catch is you have to renew it once a month or you lose it) and then you either set your Router to connect to the DDNS Server or you run a tool on the PC that connects.

 

Then you can point your devices to the domain instead of an IP and each time your IP changes the DDNS server will update the domain to the new IP.

Okay so i just follow this guide 

and in plex i change the ip to whatever hostname i create with this?

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1 minute ago, smiles rising said:

Okay so i just follow this guide 

and in plex i change the ip to whatever hostname i create with this?

Yeah, that should work.

Main Rig:-

Ryzen 7 3800X | Asus ROG Strix X570-F Gaming | 16GB Team Group Dark Pro 3600Mhz | Corsair MP600 1TB PCIe Gen 4 | Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse | Corsair H115i Platinum | WD Black 1TB | WD Green 4TB | EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W | Asus TUF GT501 | Samsung C27HG70 1440p 144hz HDR FreeSync 2 | Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS |

 

Server:-

Intel NUC running Server 2019 + Synology DSM218+ with 2 x 4TB Toshiba NAS Ready HDDs (RAID0)

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30 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

 i have 1 PC for storage and another one for hosting the server.. the storage pc uses a vpn for everything and can't host the server because it doesn't have a static ip

Can you clarify what you mean by this as I can't understand why you need a storage PC and a hosting server?

 

Is the storage PC not connected to your LAN?  If it is, even while the VPN is active it should still allow LAN clients in, including any port forwarding you may do on your router.

My Plex server is also behind a VPN, but the Plex port is forwarded from my router so bypasses the VPN.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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4 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

 

Can you clarify what you mean by this as I can't understand why you need a storage PC and a hosting server?

 

Is the storage PC not connected to your LAN?  If it is, even while the VPN is active it should still allow LAN clients in, including any port forwarding you may do on your router.

My Plex server is also behind a VPN, but the Plex port is forwarded from my router so bypasses the VPN.

The storage pc downloads files from different websites and it's not super allowed to do so.. therefore i have a vpn for it.

 

With the vpn on, remote access gets denied since the pc doesnt have a static ip. i use a secondary computer that network shares the drive from the storage pc to host plex which allows remote acess since its a static ip on that machine.

 

So basically: PC 1 has vpn = no static ip and PC 2 no vpn = static ip.. Im terrible at networking so maybe im missing something..

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6 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

The storage pc downloads files from different websites and it's not super allowed to do so.. therefore i have a vpn for it.

 

With the vpn on, remote access gets denied since the pc doesnt have a static ip. i use a secondary computer that network shares the drive from the storage pc to host plex which allows remote acess since its a static ip on that machine.

 

So basically: PC 1 has vpn = no static ip and PC 2 no vpn = static ip.. Im terrible at networking so maybe im missing something..

If you can access network shares on PC 1 then clearly it HAS a static LAN IP, that's all you need to make it work by forwarding the Plex port from your router to that PC.

All Internet access of PC 1 still goes over the VPN, but any connection to the Plex port on the WAN side your Internet connection (people on the Internet) would be sent to the LAN side of PC 1.  PC 1 thinks its someone on the LAN accessing Plex, so it gets sent back across the LAN to the router, ignoring the VPN.

You do need either a static WAN IP or DDNS as you setup above.  But the important point is, the VPN plays no part in this.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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1 minute ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

If you can access network shared on PC 1 then clearly it HAS a static LAN IP, that's all you need to make it work by forwarding the Plex port from your router to that PC.

All Internet access still goes over the VPN, but any connection to the Plex port on your Internet connection would be sent to the LAN side of PC 1.  PC 1 thinks its someone on the LAN accessing Plex, so it gets sent back across the LAN to the router, ignoring the VPN.

oh okay, that sounds great 😅 How do i do that.. is this guide any good? https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/19249/how-to-assign-a-static-ip-address-in-xp-vista-or-windows-7/

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3 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

oh okay, that sounds great 😅 How do i do that.. is this guide any good? https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/19249/how-to-assign-a-static-ip-address-in-xp-vista-or-windows-7/

You're right, I misspoke there as you probably don't have a static IP yet, my head is so far in Linux land I completely lost track of how Windows sharing works.

Its usually best to see if you can do this in the router.  It may even do this automatically once you try to add a port forward to that PC.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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3 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

If you need to make sure its static then its usually best to see if you can do this in the router.  It may even do this automatically once you try to add a port forward to that PC.

my router gives me the option "add new static lease" i guess thats the same thing?

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6 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

my router gives me the option "add new static lease" i guess thats the same thing?

Correct.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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1 minute ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Correct.

ea18a03f0a1ffd41b9a4d6616088cacc.png

so i just paste my storage computers ipv4 in here, name it plex server and im good to go? or do i need to do more stuff?

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3 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

ea18a03f0a1ffd41b9a4d6616088cacc.png

so i just paste my storage computers ipv4 in here, name it plex server and im good to go? or do i need to do more stuff?

Hostnames cannot have spaces and you need its MAC address too, are you sure its not already listed above?  There may be a section showing active leases where you can tell it to create a static lease for an already active client.

One you've done that you need to find the port forwarding options to set the Plex port 32400 to point to that IP address.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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42 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

You need its MAC address too, are you sure its not already listed above?

One you've done that you need to find the port forwarding options to set the Plex port 32400 to point to that IP address.

the pc uses a different ip than what's listed so i dont think it is.. 

 

e7425b6b23713c87c841b295ebe9c689.png 

but now that is added.

 

 

 

These are the port forwarding settings.. what should i do here

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5 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

the pc uses a different ip than what's listed so i dont think it is.. 

 

e7425b6b23713c87c841b295ebe9c689.png 

but now that is added.

 

16dfe7180204c7ab5d59b493a9a89cc4.png

These are the port forwarding settings.. what should i do here

This is interesting, it suggests Plex should already have been functional using the plex.tv website login as it has assigned automatic UPnP rules.  Still, its safer to do it manually and disable UPnP as that could potentially allow software on your server to bypass the VPN.

Add new IPv4 port mapping: TCP, WAN port and LAN port set to 32400, Destination 192.168.1.244

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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28 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

This is interesting, it suggests Plex should already have been functional using the website login as it has assigned automatic UPnP rules.  Still, its safer to do it manually and disable UPnP as that could potentially allow software on your server to bypass the VPN.

Add new IPv4 port mapping: TCP, WAN port and LAN port set to 32400, Destination 192.168.1.244

So this is how it all looks.. but i still doesnt work. i can't connect remotely

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

So this is how it all looks.. but i still doesnt work. i can't connect remotely

Have you tried rebooting everything including the router, just to make sure all the old settings have gone?

I'd also recommend editing/removing all the pics that show your WAN IP, you're inviting everyone on the forum to try getting into your Plex server. ;)

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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8 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Have you tried rebooting everything including the router, just to make sure all the old settings have gone?

I'd also recommend editing/removing all the pics that show your WAN IP, you're inviting everyone on the forum to try getting into your Plex server. ;)

restarted everything. still no access

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5 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

restarted everything. still no access

So lets just confirm, accessing https://192.168.1.244:32400 from the LAN, works?

I don't think we ever confirmed if you had installed Plex on the storage server now?

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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2 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

So lets just confirm, accessing https://192.168.1.244:32400 from the LAN, works?

it brings me to plex yes

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10 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

So lets just confirm, accessing https://192.168.1.244:32400 from the LAN, works?

I don't think we ever confirmed if you had installed Plex on the storage server now?

the storage has plex yes

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14 minutes ago, smiles rising said:

it brings me to plex yes

Back in Settings, Remote Access, can you try ticking "manually provide a network port" and making sure its set to 32400 then saving?

It shouldn't be necessary, but I think Plex gets confused if you don't when manually port forwarding.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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