Hey!
Do I need port forwarding to access plex outside of home network or is there anither way? Its a bit confusing… if i can access plex directly with OUT port forwarding, GOOD.
Want to switch from PIA vpn as only avg 300mbps when I get 950mbps if turn off.
Nord has no port forwarding but best speeds
Proton has not so great or equal to PIA speeds but allows pkrt forwarding.
Why do you need a vpn for plex?
Don’t use a VPN wirh Plex.
Yes, you need port forwarding. Uf not you will be using the Plex relay which is very limited.
AirVPN is better than the VPN’s you’ve mentioned.
Plex is encrypting all the media, you don’t need to put it behind a vpn. If you do need to use a vpn though, it will block ports as standard. You will need to be able to configure the vpn to allow traffic through.
If you’re using a VPN, for other reasons, you should enable split tunneling. There’s no reason to use a VPN for Plex. I reply
Well first, do you have a public IP attached to your router/firewall from your ISP? If so, then yes, port forward tcp/32400 to your Plex server and complete the remote access setup on the server. That’s the correct way.
If you don’t have a valid public IP, then it gets more interesting.
If it is a NAT issue just setup Tailscale and connect all your devices you want to watch Plex on that are outside your network via that - use Plex server IP directly. No port forwarding needed
It sounds like you’re looking at the wrong kind of VPN- Nord and Proton are for pirating Game of Thrones lol. They run on some server outside your home country, hopefully without logs, and you’re seeing that latency bc you’re sending a signal halfway across the planet.
For accessing your stuff remotely, you want something like OpenVPN, PiVPN, or Tailscale (highly recommend Tailscale). What I do with Plex is I run it locally, disable the network features, and then use Tailscale to access it “LAN” remotely. Tailscale also supports SMB so you can remote access the hard drive and add more stuff to it easily too.
In 2024, I would highly suggest either using Tailscale, or hosting an onsite VPN instead of port forwarding- China and Russia have autodialers that’ll port scan you hundreds of times a minute. I straight up lost a server from port forwarding SSH before, so be safe out there.
You need to port forward to access Plex outside your network. I don’t recommend using Plex through a VPN. I’ve been down this road trying to get my jank hodgepodge system that I didn’t think through clearly before I set it up working. It’s nothing but suffering.
Hmm… interesting. Blocking visibility for torrenting is #1. While Im tech savvy, VERY nooB with networking / portforwarding etc.
Does this change the strategy you mentioned?
Currently: Im N. America. qbitorrent is used, plex is my server for media, pia is vpn and I connect to local servers even few miles away. DNS and Torrent “leak tests” are all solid. Desktop is only device on VPN. I dont care who sees on netflix, amazon shopping on phone, or playing ps5 games.
What Id like to fix:
Ive got some health issues and Im not as fast or able to tackle new tech things as easy as use to. Really appreciate your help!! Thanks!
They didn’t say they were double NAT
You need to use spit tunnel option in pia. Force the VPN and browser to go through vpn. Have Plex not.
Also set qtorrent to use the pia adaptor in advanced settings which creates a Killswitch if the VPN goes down. I did it with PIA and do it with proton now.
Also setup port forwarding just for Plex on the router.
I’d just leave your normal VPN on when you’re, um, doing stuff, and then put both your Plex server, and whatever you’re using to get to it. Tailscale is free up to 100 devices, and will let your stuff see your Plex server from wherever without you having to open up ports to the whole internet. The only thing is you may have to go to the tailscale admin panel, get the URL of your Plex server once its set up, and then go into settings on Plex and set it to listen on that URL.
Theoretically you could use both at the same time and it wouldn’t matter, but I’d switch them on and off as needed to be safe.
edit: keep in mind that since Plex is on your home internet, when you’re accessing it from outside your home, your home internet’s upload speed will become your download speed outside the house. Lots of ISPs slow down upload speeds vs download speeds (e.g. you’ll get 500Mbps download but only 5Mbps upload), so that may be an issue. Metronet in my area does the full upload speed, and I think AT&T does too in some places.
See thats why i thought! I enabled tunneling and still cant have my Plex on our phones / outside networks reach my plex server.
Killswitch is on and i tied my torrent client (q bit) to pia so it only works if pia is on (doubling down).
Ill have to look into and try to learn port forwarding.
Im really leery of Proton as Nord is king for speeds supposedly. I get 950mbps no vpn, 250-300 if pia is on. Id love to switch to Nord, outside of the 9, 12, and 14 Eyes spying and get much better speeds.
Nords Meshnet replace port forwarding tho right? Is port forwarding the only way for plex to grt thru?
Thanks for your help!! Having some health issues thats taken its toll on me. And figuring this all out is over whelming. 
Make sure you restart pia then plex after enabling split tunnel. Also I wouldn’t use the actual Killswitch function if you have qtorrent pointed at the pia network adapter.
You will need to separately port forward on your routers for the single plex port.
Then the speed of the VPN will be less important.
Torrent speed wise proton usually seems to max out around 400 mb for me.