External connections stopped working

[natronbomb 1]

I tried to find information in the support docs and forum, and find lots of people with similar issues, but every answer seems to be different, and most of them didn't apply since I already had the particular setting discussed in place. I'm worried at this point though, that my lack of knowledge of the router and settings is going to leave me wide open to being hacked, with all my poking around. I can connect to my emby server fine from within my home network, from any device. But, from outside, I'm all of a sudden getting an "unable to connect" error. I *did* have it working originally, so I'm not sure what would have changed. Port forwarding appears "enabled" in my router, as is the UPNP. I have Windows 11, and I've checked every spot I can find reference to check but am stuck. Is there any official channel for getting help? I do have the paid monthly subscription.

[natronbomb 1]

It seems that my IP address got changed somehow. I was able to update my domain's DNS and it's now connecting again. Though I am still concerned that I've compromoised my router security with all my poking.

[tmurphy2792 27]

Most ISPs your public IP address changes every now and again. Unless you get them to set up a static public IP (usually an upcharge)

It sounds like you have a DDNS, do you have it configured on your router or something to update the DDNS when your public IP changes?

For example my router has built-in functionality to connect to dyn-dns.com or no-ip.com to update my DDNS with my current IP, or my router also comes with a free DDNS functionality provided by the router manufacturer.

 

 

 

As for opening yourself up to hacking, it's hard to say without knowing what you changed. But as long as you didn't do anything crazy like turning off your firewall or opening all your ports or something like that, you should be good.

Oftentimes on your router there are little help buttons for all of the settings that will tell you what the recommended/default is. Or, if you're on Reddit the sub reddit r/homenetworking is really helpful

[guunter 49]

4 hours ago, natronbomb said:

It seems that my IP address got changed somehow. I was able to update my domain's DNS and it's now connecting again. Though I am still concerned that I've compromoised my router security with all my poking.

Discussing hardening your home network is a whole other can of worms. What devices are you using to watch Emby outside your home? You could use a vpn like WireGuard or tailscale instead of port forwarding emby

[natronbomb 1]

I had briefly turned off the firewall while testing, but wouldn't feel comfortable leaving that off. 

I definitely understand hardening the home network is a whole other can of worms... part of me wants to take the time to educate myself, but there's only so many hours in the day lol. The only devices I use for watching (in or outside the home) are mobile phone, tablet, and TV (though the TV is always in-network.) I wouldn't mind being able to block web access entirely... I tried to figure out how to do that with the domain I have set up for it. But I couldn't figure out a test that was reliable enough to filter out specific devices.

[Carlo 4561]

The best way to do something like this would be using a reverse proxy.

[natronbomb 1]

Easy to say, much harder to do   I see articles about installing NGINX on Windows, but that would require a few months of learning on my part. 

[Luke 42079]

3 minutes ago, natronbomb said:

Easy to say, much harder to do   I see articles about installing NGINX on Windows, but that would require a few months of learning on my part. 

Hi, this is a great guide and is not windows specific: