Running Emby Server Behind VPN

[Guest asrequested]

From post #47 your VPN is the common element when not working. I would look into that. Maybe they have changed something.

[bernado99 5]

Clutching at straws but have you tried both UDP and TCP protocols when setting up the VPN forwarded port?

 

I guess you've tried temporarily disabling your firewall to rule that out?

[notla49285 46]

The forwarded port is set to UDP/TCP.

 

I did disable the firewall and it made no difference.

 

Just heard back from AirVPN, they say they can access my server remotely and as proof performed a failed login attempt (which has shown up in Emby dashboard), yet when I attempt to access it I get "We're unable to connect to the selected server right now. Please ensure it is running and try again."

 

I've asked AirVPN how they managed to do this and await their response.

[Guest asrequested]

Test with canyouseeme.org, that will tell you if it's accessable.

[bernado99 5]

Surely the only way Air can be accessing it is in browser using vpn ip address and forwarded port number which doesnt work for you for some reason, weird.

 

Don't suppose clearing your browser cache makes any difference?

[Guest asrequested]

From what device are you making your attempts? Are you trying via connect, or entering the IP, directly?

[notla49285 46]

Test with canyouseeme.org, that will tell you if it's accessable.

 

Tried this and no it is not accessible

 

Surely the only way Air can be accessing it is in browser using vpn ip address and forwarded port number which doesnt work for you for some reason, weird.

 

Don't suppose clearing your browser cache makes any difference?

 

Nope

 

 

From what device are you making your attempts? Are you trying via connect, or entering the IP, directly?

 

I've tried from a desktop browser (Chrome) via Connect and via IP and port, also tried mobile browser (Chrome) via Connect and IP and port, and also tried the mobile app using Connect. None of them work.

[Guest asrequested]

I wonder if your ISP has started blocking those IP addresses.

[notla49285 46]

This is driving me f****** insane. VPN is now disabled, ports set back to default, port forwarding enabled in my router, still can't get in. This configuration worked a couple of days ago, now it doesn't. I'm getting sick of this.

 

In regards to ISP, I have used several IP addresses and none have worked, I can still do everything else online when running the VPN, just not access Emby.

[Happy2Play 8281]

This is driving me f****** insane. VPN is now disabled, ports set back to default, port forwarding enabled in my router, still can't get in. This configuration worked a couple of days ago, now it doesn't. I'm getting sick of this.

 

In regards to ISP, I have used several IP addresses and none have worked, I can still do everything else online when running the VPN, just not access Emby.

Sent PM

[Guest asrequested]

Well, all things being equal, could your router be failing?

[notla49285 46]

I've just gone back to default settings, as it is freshly installed, no VPN running, ports as default. Switched off UPnP on my router and added port 8096 to my inbound firewall exceptions. Attempted to access Emby via IP and this time it worked, with my router logging the fact that an inbound connection has been allowed through.

 

I've now switched the VPN back on, changed the public HTTP port on Emby to my VPN static port, added another rule to my router's firewall for the new port and attempted to connect using my new IP, which has failed. The router hasn't even recorded any attempted inbound connections.

 

I'm still waiting for an answer from AirVPN, it seems to me that the static port isn't being forwarded properly.

[Guest asrequested]

I've been using Torguard, for years. It's always worked without problems. And the support is pretty good, too.

[bernado99 5]

Being a happy Air user myself I'm puzzled by this.

For Air to connect remotely to your server as you say they can, port forwarding must be working though.

 

Have you tried connecting over a mobile network using the vpn ip address?

Edited August 16, 2018 by bernado99

[notla49285 46]

Can Torguard be used with Emby? Do they offer static port forwarding like AirVPN?

[notla49285 46]

I've been emailing AirVPN back and forth all morning. I am running Avast antivirus which I don't believe includes a firewall but I disabled it anyway and this made no difference. I've checked Windows Firewall and there are the following entries:

 

Emby Server - Profile: All, Protocol: TCP, Action: Allow

Emby Server - Profile: All, Protocol: UDP, Action: Allow

Emby Server - Profile: Private, Protocol: TCP, Action: Allow

Emby Server - Profile: Private, Protocol: UDP, Action: Allow

Emby Server - Profile: Public, Protocol: TCP, Action: Block

Emby Server - Profile: Public, Protocol: UDP, Action: Block

 

I tried setting the Public profile to Allow but this made no difference. I have Emby's external HTTP port set to 8096 and port 8096 forwarded to my server on the router. The static port I have with AirVPN forwards to port 8096, they have told me that I don't need to enter the static VPN port in either Emby or my router, as it gets forwarded their end and comes to my router via port 8096. When the VPN is switched off, everything works fine and I can access the server via Emby Connect remotely, I can also use the mobile app. When the VPN is switched on, nothing. This is whilst the Windows Firewall settings are as above and Avast is running in both cases.

 

This is the latest I've had from AirVPN, I'm not sure what they mean about Emby's binding? Can anybody advise on that?

 

 

 

According to your description we suspect that Emby does not listen to the tun interface but only to the physical network interface. This should not happen because according to documentation we have just examined, Emby binds to all interfaces by default (unless you enter specific filters).

On our side we can see that packets are properly forwarded to your node VPN IP address so we think that you should check once again your firewall settings and Emby binding settings.

Avast shields may conflict with Windows Firewall or Filtering Platform but if you disabled them probably they can't be the issue (anyway, try with Avast completely disabled, just in case).

 

Edited August 17, 2018 by notla49285

[Guest asrequested]

Can Torguard be used with Emby? Do they offer static port forwarding like AirVPN?

Yes

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/55137-how-to-run-emby-behind-torguard-vpn

[notla49285 46]

I've only just started to get an SSL connection working alongside this (using this guide >> https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/44757-setting-up-ssl-for-emby-wip/),and now this is intermittently working. I've had to run software on my server to keep my domain (Namecheap) updated with my IP address.

 

At the moment, I have a domain name set up, all settings stored in Emby, certificate on system, and VPN running. I am currently able to access my library securely, however it was working in the same way this morning and after about an hour it stopped (IP hadn't changed, server still on, no errors, just an undiscoverable server). I disconnected the VPN, refreshed the IP tracker and tried again, couldn't connect, tried again a few minutes later, nothing, etc, etc. Reconnected to the VPN, refreshed the IP tracker and I can now access it again. Waiting to see if this attempt ends up timing out.

 

Seems like I now have an intermittent issue, which is the worst  , so there's not much else for me to say here unless I can find a pattern to it 

[Guest asrequested]

If you use SSL, why use a VPN?

[notla49285 46]

If you use SSL, why use a VPN?

 

 I have received a letter from my ISP in the past, stating that my IP had been involved in something that it shouldn't have. I've used a VPN for everything on my PC since to hide my real IP. Maybe it's overkill, but I'm not exactly an expert with this stuff.

 

I think all issues are now resolved, the final issue of the SSL connection dropping I think was down to the DNS client software not updating the domain's IP properly, I'm now using DirectUpdate to keep it updated and all seems to be working, it's been running for a few hours now and is still fine.

Edited August 20, 2018 by notla49285

[bernado99 5]

 I have received a letter from my ISP in the past, stating that my IP had been involved in something that it shouldn't have. I've used a VPN for everything on my PC since to hide my real IP. Maybe it's overkill, but I'm not exactly an expert with this stuff.

 

I think all issues are now resolved, the final issue of the SSL connection dropping I think was down to the DNS client software not updating the domain's IP properly, I'm now using DirectUpdate to keep it updated and all seems to be working, it's been running for a few hours now and is still fine.

 

So what did your VPN problems turn out to be?

[notla49285 46]

Technically the VPN issue is still unresolved. DirectUpdate is giving my real IP address to my domain provider (I've manually set this as the IP detection picks up the VPN IP), so both Emby Connect and my domain point to my real IP over a SSL connection, bypassing the VPN. The VPN is still running on my server but Emby Connect is bypassing it via my domain.

 

Either I can't set up my domain to point to my VPN IP with a port number or the VPN still isn't forwarding the port properly. They insist it is working and I have seen them attempt to login to my server with the VPN running (before I set up the SSL stuff), but I just cannot get it to work. I will be looking into Torguard to see if that is any different when I get a bit more money.

 

I'm also starting to wonder about the external port in Emby's settings, I think this needs to be set as the VPN static port because then this is passed onto Emby Connect, so when I visit Emby Connect, it will use my VPN IP and VPN static port, which then goes to the VPN provider, is forwarded to my real IP and the port I specify (was 8096), which comes through to my router, which allows 8096 through to my server, and all is good, right? Though I'm sure I've tried this setup already and it didn't work, I've spent that much time on this that I'm taking a break whilst I have a semi-working solution.

 

Issues I have at the moment are that my library is accessible by using my real IP (still need to use Emby login), and for some reason when I visit https://[My real IP], it redirects to an unsecure connection, which I'm really not happy about, my router is set to block all ports except 443, used for SSL, so I don't know how/why this is getting through. At the moment there are only three users who have access to my library, and the other two only have the domain, which uses a secure connection.

Edited August 24, 2018 by notla49285

[Luke 37064]

+1 to this.

 

You absolutely do need to open on your router whatever port you nominated to be forwarded, in my case the default 8096 for example.

 

If after doing that you still get no joy maybe consider a 3 day trial with AirVPN  for peanuts (1€) which I know works just fine with Emby, using the public remote server settings as you have them (with the correct router port opened)

 

If this works then at least you know there's something in the PIA setup not working for you and if it doesn't, it would suggest your problem must be something closer to home.

 

@@bernado99 can you provide any AirVPN wisdom to this user:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/76835-remote-access-with-airvpn

Thanks.

[bernado99 5]

@@bernado99 can you provide any AirVPN wisdom to this user:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/76835-remote-access-with-airvpn

Thanks.

 

I'll have a look and see if any bells ring, I've stopped using Emby sadly after some tech streamlining and a newly purchased TV didn't have the Emby app available so am a bit out of the loop these days!

[Heatlsh 0]

Maybe just try to change the provider?