Asus RT-AC68U dual NAT problem with Plex Server

Ok chaps so here's the issue.
I successfully set up my RT-AC68u ( running Merlin)with my Virmin superhub to by sticking it in modem mode and all 'was' working fine.
Now i've setup a VPN and all the clients work and connect fine but when connected via VPN through the clients I get an error message in Plex that it's not viewable outside my network due to Dual NAT.
I can understand why as my WAN IP is my orignal Virmin IP and the VPN one is different.
Does anyone know which settings need changing (and to what) to get my plex viewable outside my home network?

Do you have a static IP or DynDNS set up? In the past I had a similar issue and believe I fixed it by going to Plex settings, network, advanced, then added some entries to the "Custom server access URLs" field (either static IP or domain with relevant port).

Alternatively, you can specify VPN routing by MAC on that router so you could always selectively route through the VPN so the Plex host uses the normal route? If you have an all-in-one box for media and Plex then you may not want to route the MAC through normal WAN though.

I shall look into this when home later

I have a similar issue and have been looking for a solution on and off for about 18months, n66 router tomato firmware VPN on Plex not accessable outside the network.
Never found a solution, I ended up buying a pi to manage the downloads just storing them on a microsensor, which also runs the Plex server.
Interested to know if anyone has any ideas as I'd imagine with the press kodi is getting Plex and emby probably won't be off the radar and ISPs pressured to act in some way.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I have same router but not using Merlin and Asus setup a DNS via their own servers for you which resolved it for me... giving you a sort of fake URL

Oddly similar issue.
if I enable the vpn on my server plex goes offline.
i can access everything but plex even if I enter ip addresses in advanced settings in plex.

Not sure but but this seems to be a recurring issue could this be an issue with plex??

On a side note how can be be a problem to an isp if I choose to access my own media on my plex server when I’m out and about?
i understand kodi using streams to illegal content but plex is personal media surely there’s no way they can block that?

I'm in same issue as you TJ

Sent from my Philips Cellnet using a 12c508

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Originally Posted by Teajunkie

Oddly similar issue.
if I enable the vpn on my server plex goes offline.
i can access everything but plex even if I enter ip addresses in advanced settings in plex.

Not sure but but this seems to be a recurring issue could this be an issue with plex??

On a side note how can be be a problem to an isp if I choose to access my own media on my plex server when I’m out and about?
i understand kodi using streams to illegal content but plex is personal media surely there’s no way they can block that?

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I had this issue and ended up using a separate VM for Plex as my VPNs are at client level rather than on the router. But IIRC although the online status was sporadic, the advanced settings I mentioned above did work. I say sporadic as the server showed as offline until it was selected then it came online as usual and worked. There was also a messier workaround which I had less success with but can't find the bookmark at the moment!

I only needed the vpn for the server as this takes care of downloads etc so no need for me to buy expensive routers for the whole network.

No matter what I have tried my plex disappears when using a vpn on the server so I just don’t bother now.
If I go into settings I can get it back online but only for an hour or so.

So so if you do find a workaround evil I would appreciate that link too ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Teajunkie

I only needed the vpn for the server as this takes care of downloads etc so no need for me to buy expensive routers for the whole network.

No matter what I have tried my plex disappears when using a vpn on the server so I just don’t bother now.
If I go into settings I can get it back online but only for an hour or so.

So so if you do find a workaround evil I would appreciate that link too ;)

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Ok and you have a static WAN IP? I ask that as you mentioned you have tried adding your IP to Plex as I outlined in my OP but if you don't have a static IP that may be the issue. If you don't have a static IP have you tried dynamic DNS? Whichever you use (IP/DynDNS) you will need to append the port to the end and forward the ports in the router (sure you know this already but for the sake of any newbs reading).

These aren't the methods I was talking about but potential:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/co...Comment_373271

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Just in case anyone needs the info in the future. I had issues publishing my server when I was running my VPN client on my win8 system. This prevented me from using sync remotely before the iOS 3.1 update. I did figure out a way just a second ago.
open a command prompt in administrator mode and type:
route -p add 50.18.170.107 192.168.1.1
the first IP is the amazon EC2 server plex uses ... the second is your router's ip/default gateway. On the router I have uPNP enabled and my ports forwarded to 32400 for good measure. When you try to publish it should work.

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https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/64...ver-with-a-vpn

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I recently installed a VPN in my case CyberGhost VPN. When it was activated I could no longer publish my server. I searched far and wide for a solution, but could not find out how to exclude a port from a VPN. It can be done with an IP address, but could not find instructions to exclude a port even with OpenVPN. I was in Plex chat trying to help someone else with the same problem. He was using Private Internet Access and got a list of ports not forwarded by his VPN. I remembered that my VPN did not run outgoing email through it's servers to prevent spammers from using their service to send anonymous email. I set the Plex Server to use Port 110 and now it works when my VPN is running! I did not even have to port forward the port. You need to have advanced settings selected in your server settings and be in the MyPlex section to see the option to select a port. if you specify Manually specify port. then you won't even have to port forward the port though using port forwarding is still recommended. Just add TCP port 110 to the list of Ports to Forward in your modem/router setup. There may be a side benefit to this. You may gain access to your server from work where many ports are blocked. To date this has only been tested with CyberGhost VPN and Private Internet Access, but most VPN's should have a list of ports that do not run through the VPN. if you get it working with a different VPN please post and say what port you used. Note: Changing the port to 110 does not effect the port Plex uses on your local LAN it is always 32400.

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Here is what I was referring to but I had mixed results IIRC:
https://xflak40.wordpress.com/apps/

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VPN Bypass for Plex Media Server

Go to top

It does just as its name implies. This application allows your Windows Plex Media Server to connect to plex.tv despite having a VPN running on the same machine.

Included in the download is an exe version and a bat version of the application; the exe is the same as the bat except it runs invisibly. For best results, use windows task scheduler to launch the exe (with highest privileges) as often as you’d like.

This will ensure that even if the Plex IP address changes, your setup will automatically route it past your VPN. A list of routed IPs will be saved here: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\PermittedPlexIPs.txt

Related forum post\discussion can be found here. More discussions can be found all over reddit, just google reddit +vpn +XFlak

Note: you will still need to forward traffic from port 32400 on your router to your Plex Media Server as is required even for machines not using a VPN.

v6 of the script released on June 1, 2016: Changed how the exe is packaged so as to not run from the temp folder and should therefore not cause problems for folks using Kaspersky or other anti-viruses that similarly block services launched from the temp folder.

Download VPNS Bypass for Plex Media Server (mirror)

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Yes mate sorry should have made it clearer :)
I have a fixed wan ip and I’m using changeip for external IP address with a Domain name.

Will have a read read through and see if it works for me..

Edit: vpn bypass won’t work for me as my box uses xpenology.
But still looking at changing the ports etc as above fingers crossed ;)

OK chaps. I have sorted it on my ASUSRT-AC68U. Heres what is needed.

If you open Merlin then open the VPN tab, then click on VPN Client.
Scroll to the bottom and you should have a "redirect internet traffic" or "rules for routing client traffic through the tunnel". I selected POLICY ROLES (STRICT), here you can set the devices of your choice to either USE VPN (select in iface) or NOT use VPN. Enter the description of Plex . Then enter the IP of the plex server (best if set to static ip rather than dhcp) then leave destination ip as 0.0.0.0 , next in IFACE select WAN.
Click ADD and apply.

That should now route the PLEX server only through the normal wan interface. All other traffic will go via vpn. You can obviously reverse this and use it for ONLY vpn traffic. Just change iface value to vpn. Then anything set there will go via vpn whilst other traffic will use wan .

To check that its working look in your plex server settings. you should now see your original IP and NOT the VPN client one.

Also I have my custom config on same page set thus (with the IP being my VPN client IP):
ns-cert-type server
auth-nocache
tls-client
remote-cert-tls server
auth-nocache
mute-replay-warnings
disable-occ
persist-key
persist-tun
# PLEX over WAN routes
route 46.36.200.200 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by satzzz

OK chaps. I have sorted it on my ASUSRT-AC68U. Heres what is needed.

If you open Merlin then open the VPN tab, then click on VPN Client.
Scroll to the bottom and you should have a "redirect internet traffic" or "rules for routing client traffic through the tunnel". I selected POLICY ROLES (STRICT), here you can set the devices of your choice to either USE VPN (select in iface) or NOT use VPN. Enter the description of Plex . Then enter the IP of the plex server (best if set to static ip rather than dhcp) then leave destination ip as 0.0.0.0 , next in IFACE select WAN.
Click ADD and apply.

That should now route the PLEX server only through the normal wan interface. All other traffic will go via vpn. You can obviously reverse this and use it for ONLY vpn traffic. Just change iface value to vpn. Then anything set there will go via vpn whilst other traffic will use wan .

To check that its working look in your plex server settings. you should now see your original IP and NOT the VPN client one.

Also I have my custom config on same page set thus (with the IP being my VPN client IP):
ns-cert-type server
auth-nocache
tls-client
remote-cert-tls server
auth-nocache
mute-replay-warnings
disable-occ
persist-key
persist-tun
# PLEX over WAN routes
route 46.36.200.200 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1

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Yeah that's the one I was referring to in my second post, I should have posted a link as I set this up for my friends which is how I knew it was possible on that router. In their case it wasn't for Plex, just so their firesticks had a VPN but everything else was normal.

Hi i have the same issue, my main PC has a static ip and also runs the Plex server and i'm trying to figure out how to get the Plex server only to bypass the VPN and have ALL other traffic on the PC to use VPN.

Its driving me nuts i just cannot for the life of me figure it out. i can make entire PC bypass VPN but not just the Plex server.
My current setup is below

Main PC with internal ip 192.168.1.32 this has the Plex server running on it

Bridged TP-Link TD-W9977 modem with ip 192.168.0.1

Asus RT-AC68U running Asuswrt-Merlin 380.69 with LAN ip 192.168.1.1 and WAN ip 192.168.0.2 (had to set it like this to be able to access modem gui).

other random devices like tvs and ipads etc some are wired and others are wifi all gain ip from DHCP from router. The tvs need to be able to access VPN to bypass netflix geoblock

Another weird thing when checking system log on the router under routing tables there's a gateway ip i don't recognize and assume its due to my static ip? its not my actual static ip but another in the same subnet could be because my ISP uses CGNAT? either way i needed to get a static ip to allow me to remote access my Plex server without the VPN running. As soon as i start vpn i lose remote access to Plex.


Unsure if this is or can cause issues? i'm a total noob when i comes to this kind of thing