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R6300V2 Bridge Mode Prevents Port Forwarding! Help!
I have spent over a total of 100 hours trying to get port forwarding to work on my network so that I can use the remote access feature on the Plex Media Server app. I've done all the basics, rese...
That's it!
Your internet port has a 100.x.x.x address. canyouseeme.org shows a 76.x.x.x.
That says that either your ISP's modem is doing its own NAT routing or that your ISP is using carrier NAT. On paper at least 100.x.x.x is reserved for carrier NAT.
See if you can find the manufacturer/model for that modem. You also might need to contact your ISP, and see if they have some way to keep that port open.
Another thought is that you could try changing the port number (say to 49152) in the R1 forwarding rule and also in the plex server configuration. It's possible that using a port in the "private use" range will work better.
Sorry for the late reply, I went to bed shortly after posting, having been up over 24 hours trying to work on this.
Yes it works when I'm at home, but you don't NEED the ports forwarded when you're on your home network (I can watch it without the port forwarding at all from home). When the router is NOT bridged, I can forward the port (with my PC's IP, NOT the 2nd router, though I've tried it both ways when I ran out of things to try) and acess it outside of the home. When the router IS bridged, the ports do not open, I've used port forwarding programs such as PFConfig and they all tell me that the port is closed/unreachable when the router is bridged, but they work fine when it is NOT bridged.
Is bridged mode meant to grey out a lot of the things in the router's settings? I can't edit any info on router 2, just wireless settings to turn bridge mode on/off, view some router info, etc etc, no major changes. On router 1, I can still edit things correctly, as it's not in bridged mode. But forwarding the ports on router 1 while router 2 is in bridge mode, makes everything tell me the port is NOT open or is unreachable, and thus remote access refuses to work.
From your post, I take it that it was only using the wireless connection when I had them bridged through the control panel? I've seen a lot of people have problem getting port forward to work with 2 routers, if I made my PC the bridge to router 2, then it was workinb because router 2 was not between this pc and router 1. So I need the bridge to work like that, even in bridge mose, it must be giving me double NAT then? On another forum, Tom's hardware, I was told these router's don't have a bridged mode, what they call bridge mode isn't actual bridging... "Actual" bridging removes the NAT services from the bridged router, so I'm assuming r6300's bridge mode does not do that? Anyway to make it work as it is in bridge mode, but removing it's NAT service so I don't have double NAT?
EDIT: To fix double NAT for plex, I've read that I need to open the port from router 1 to router 2, then router 2 to my pc (or some similar combination, maybe just router 2 to 1, something like that) but it's impossible to do as the r6300v2 greys out the port forwarding in bridged mode and does not allow me to make edits to the bridged router.
Here is my router 2 settings, showing everything greyed out. I can't really change ANY settings in bridged mode, except the ones shown here.
The R6300v2 router connected directly to your ISP is your main router. I can't tell from your posts which router that is, You can set up the other router (whichever one that is) in bridge mode, but the one connected to your ISP needs to be in full router mode. Also, it is possible that your ISP's modem is really a gateway. If so, it also would act as a router, and that does create a double-NAT. Can you let us know the manufacturer/model of the ISP modem?
It would be helpful to know which PC is the plex server. Is this the one in the bedroom (connected to router 1) or in the office (connected to router 2).
The bridging feature in the R6300v2
- uses the R6300v2 wifi to connect to the main router
- provides ethernet connectivity to anything connected to its LAN ports.
Performance is limited to the wifi connection between the bridge and the router. IP addresses, etc come from the main router, not from the bridge.
Some might say this is not really bridging, but it does fit the definition. "A network bridge is a computer networking device that creates a single aggregate network from multiple communication networks or network segments."
When the router is in bridge or AP mode, it is not routing at all. Routing functions are grayed out in the admin web ui. So if there is a port forwarding issue, it has to be with the main router. Hopefully we can get a better understanding of the overall network topology so we can sort out the right configuration.
Okay, to verify, R1 is the router connected to my ISP, it's in full router mode. It's connected to the only phone jack in the house that supplies internet. I wasn't here when they installed internet into this house, so I'm not sure where the modem is... I think the phone jack's fiber cable runs straight from the phonejack to a box outside of the house that goes into the ground.
The Plex server is on the PC that is wired to R2, the bridged router in my office.
From testing, when I remove R2 completely from the network, just turning it off and connecting my office PC to R1 wirelessly, R1 forwards the port correctly and I can use Plex's remote access.
However, this isn't an option for me. I use my office PC almost constantly every day, for gaming, school, work, etc, and the speeds I get by wireless connecting this PC to R1 is just not acceptable, so R2 is absolutely a requirement in the network.
Thanks, this exactly the stuff we needed to know.
SaintGrimm wrote:
From testing, when I remove R2 completely from the network, just turning it off and connecting my office PC to R1 wirelessly, R1 forwards the port correctly and I can use Plex's remote access.
Ok. So R1 is forwarding correctly. Try enabling the bridge mode again on R2, and connecting the office PC with ethernet.
Then check to see that the office PC still is being assigned the IP address you reserved. The WiFi connection in the PC will have a different mac address than the internet connection, so you likely will need to update the address reservation.
If the address has changed, then the port forwarding will go to a non-existent device. Which of course means no plex.
Yes, they are the same IP, but Plex still will not connect remotely.
Port forwarding tab:
LAN setup tab(Project-Odin = Office PC):
Plex:
<StephenB Edit: remove screenshot - public IP address shown>
