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Running MB over port 80


xaneth

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Good afternoon all,

 

I wanted to share a solution I had to come up with in my particular case.  I am a dialysis patient, and when I'm at the dialysis center with my android tablet, I only have outbound firewall access to websites (port 80 and 443 only).  Therefore the Emby app will not connect to my Emby server back at home.  The browser will also not work, as Emby is specific to port 8096 vs. port 80 and 8920 vs. port 443.  There is a workaround!  On your router's port forwarding rules, use what I like to call "port translation".  I'll attach a screenshot, but basically just setup the "external" port as port 80, and the "internal" port as port 8096.  When you connect with your android, web browser, or whatever client you are using, specify port 80 instead of port 8096 from the outside world and walla!  It streams beautifully.

 

There are a number of reasons businesses block outbound ports on their firewalls.  One case I had implemented this in, was a music studio, where the owner was getting letters from Comcast about illegal game and movie downloads happening on his network.  People were coming in with laptops, and they were not disabling their torrent clients was the cause of this.  I got him a business class firewall and blocked all outbound ports with the exception of port 80 and 443 for web browsing, which is what most people needed anyway, and there were actually no complaints or comments after having done this.  The Comcast letters stopped, and it was a great solution.  Except that it can block things like Emby from working.

 

This trick works if you are behind a corporate firewall as well.  This is not specific to Windows/General, but I figure it will get the most exposure here on this part of the forum.  I am running my MB server on CentOS 6 in fact.  This post, if useful, might be moved by a moderator to the correct area of the forum, maybe under "tutorials/server".  I have verified that it works across platforms, such as android, roku and web browsers.  All MB functionality is there, including artwork, channels, streaming of all types, and the interface is intact.  It simply ports port 8096 over port 80 for anyone dealing with this problem.  Hotels are also notorious for blocking ports on their networks.

 

Regards,

Xaneth

 

Here's the screenshot, reference the entry at the end, marked MB for Emby.

 

56155a3736784_ports.png

Edited by xaneth
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revengineer

Related, I use the same technique to map the emby ports to something random to disguise the server to the external world. The ports can of course also be selected via the configuration pages but this way I can use the defaults internally.

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mjktg99

Related, I use the same technique to map the emby ports to something random to disguise the server to the external world. The ports can of course also be selected via the configuration pages but this way I can use the defaults internally.

 

Why not use a different port entirely?  Since an outside user would need to guess your correct port either way, is there a difference?  I guess your method allows emby to auto populate its default port.  (does it do that? Its been awhile since I have configured a new emby client.)

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kmarq13

Hey thanks for this. I'd given up on being able to access Emby on the webclient. My seems to block every port I've tried. This works great.

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Happy2Play

Don't most ISPs block (inbound) port 80 for home users and technically a server on a home network violates your TOS?  I know Comcast, Charter, and Cox are this way.  Or has this changed recently?

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revengineer

Don't most ISPs block (inbound) port 80 for home users and technically a server on a home network violates your TOS?  I know Comcast, Charter, and Cox are this way.  Or has this changed recently?

Comcast has never in the past 10 years, since I have been running a home server, blocked port 80 in my area. I am not sure where a home server stands within their terms of service; I am not running commercial service of the connection. IMHO, at the rates they charge for internet access, they should happily tolerate this use.

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revengineer

Why not use a different port entirely?  Since an outside user would need to guess your correct port either way, is there a difference?  I guess your method allows emby to auto populate its default port.  (does it do that? Its been awhile since I have configured a new emby client.)

Because I am not sure if a different port works for all clients and connections. In the past weeks since I have been a user I still regularly run into issues with connectivity. For example, I was not able to unlock the android app on a kindle fire and I cannot get android https connections through port 8920. I am not sure how auto discovery works with  random ports. So changing the default ports is just one more thing to consider when testing and filing bug reports. It seems for now keeping it simple is best. Eventually I will change the port numbers in the server itself.

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