No access to emby from outside our own network

[Paddaclus 2]

Hi.  I have been using Emby for several years and am a subscription member.  I have never been able to access Emby from outside my own network.  This has never been an issue for me until recently.  I am going to be spending some time away from home and would love to be able to watch my stuff.  

I read the FAQ's some year or more ago and got to the part where it says something like.....If you are going through 2 routers, please contact us for assistance.  

Contacting you for assistance seemed to much bother for both you guys and I considering I didn't need it.  But now I do.  

Is anyone able to point me in the direction for some help?  

I am running linux Mint current version.  

Thank you!

[Luke 42077]

Hi, have you taken a look at our remote setup guide?

Connecting from Client Apps

[guunter 49]

On 7/31/2025 at 11:07 PM, Paddaclus said:

Hi.  I have been using Emby for several years and am a subscription member.  I have never been able to access Emby from outside my own network.  This has never been an issue for me until recently.  I am going to be spending some time away from home and would love to be able to watch my stuff.  

I read the FAQ's some year or more ago and got to the part where it says something like.....If you are going through 2 routers, please contact us for assistance.  

Contacting you for assistance seemed to much bother for both you guys and I considering I didn't need it.  But now I do.  

Is anyone able to point me in the direction for some help?  

I am running linux Mint current version.  

Thank you!

There’s a number of ways to do it. Do you want the quick and easy way but can only use one device? Or open your server up to be accessed on any device everywhere (usually when you have multiple users who need access this is best)

[Luke 42077]

@Paddaclus?

[Paddaclus 2]

7 hours ago, guunter said:

There’s a number of ways to do it. Do you want the quick and easy way but can only use one device? Or open your server up to be accessed on any device everywhere (usually when you have multiple users who need access this is best)

I would like more than one device to watch it.  That is the ultimate aim.

[Paddaclus 2]

6 hours ago, Luke said:

@Paddaclus?

I tried a few of the suggested things, (the easy ones...lol) but I'm afraid it got a bit beyond me.  The last thing I want to do is screw some setting up and be deeper in the hole.

[darksilopher 0]

6 hours ago, Paddaclus said:

I would like more than one device to watch it.  That is the ultimate aim.

The easiest way is to port forward your server. What router do you have?

[Paddaclus 2]

Hi Darksilopher.  The router is a 

TP Link AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 Router

[Luke 42077]

19 hours ago, Paddaclus said:

I tried a few of the suggested things, (the easy ones...lol) but I'm afraid it got a bit beyond me.  The last thing I want to do is screw some setting up and be deeper in the hole.

What exactly did you do?

[Paddaclus 2]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

What exactly did you do?

Hi Luke, thank you for asking.  I have no firewall so thats a non starter.

I checked that remote connections was turned on.

I made sure port mapping was enabled.

I made sure UPnP was turned on

I (think) I set up port forwarding.  

I got totally tangled up when I tried to make the above mentioned router a moden/bridge mode. Here I gave up.

 

[Luke 42077]

Are you sure that the client ip address that you entered is correct? Does that change frequently on your network? You may want to set that as a static IP in case that it does.

[guunter 49]

16 hours ago, Paddaclus said:

Hi Luke, thank you for asking.  I have no firewall so thats a non starter.

I checked that remote connections was turned on.

I made sure port mapping was enabled.

I made sure UPnP was turned on

I (think) I set up port forwarding.  

I got totally tangled up when I tried to make the above mentioned router a moden/bridge mode. Here I gave up.

 

When you try to connect from the outside you are using your client ip or public ip? 

[Paddaclus 2]

18 hours ago, Luke said:

Are you sure that the client ip address that you entered is correct? Does that change frequently on your network? You may want to set that as a static IP in case that it does.

Hi Luke

That's the ip for in home access, on the network.  

Inside Emby, in the dashboard, the ip for remote access is very different.  When I try to put that in where the in network ip address is, I get a speil about not being in the right subnet.

It's all very frustrating for a amateur.

[Paddaclus 2]

6 hours ago, guunter said:

When you try to connect from the outside you are using your client ip or public ip? 

When I try to connect from outside the network, I use the IP as it's written in the dashboard for remote access.  

[guunter 49]

19 hours ago, Paddaclus said:

When I try to connect from outside the network, I use the IP as it's written in the dashboard for remote access.  

Just to be sure you’re doing http://publicip:8096?

[Paddaclus 2]

4 hours ago, guunter said:

Just to be sure you’re doing http://publicip:8096?

Hi Guunter, thank you for your patience.  I sent you a PM with the exact IP I am trying to reach off network.

[marriedman 85]

Just going to mention this since I didn't see it yet - if you are on a fiber network, Metronet for example - you are in a Double NAT situation. That is the "two router" situation that is described in the FAQ. 

I thought that by signing in with Emby Connect, this automatically gave you the correct public IP address every time? Is that how you are attempting to access your server from outside your network @Paddaclus?

[guunter 49]

2 hours ago, Paddaclus said:

Hi Guunter, thank you for your patience.  I sent you a PM with the exact IP I am trying to reach off network.

Yeah that did not work when I tested. It probably has to do with your modem/router that is above your tp link. You must not have it in bridged mode yet. What device is it?

[Paddaclus 2]

2 hours ago, marriedman said:

Just going to mention this since I didn't see it yet - if you are on a fiber network, Metronet for example - you are in a Double NAT situation. That is the "two router" situation that is described in the FAQ. 

I thought that by signing in with Emby Connect, this automatically gave you the correct public IP address every time? Is that how you are attempting to access your server from outside your network @Paddaclus?

I have tried signing in with Emby connect, but no luck I'm afraid.  Thank you for your reply!

[Paddaclus 2]

2 hours ago, guunter said:

Yeah that did not work when I tested. It probably has to do with your modem/router that is above your tp link. You must not have it in bridged mode yet. What device is it?

Its a Zhone.  I know nothing about it, the Internet provider provided it, but it has no wireless so we had to provide our own and plug it into the Zhone.  I could see no model number on it.

[guunter 49]

8 hours ago, Paddaclus said:

Its a Zhone.  I know nothing about it, the Internet provider provided it, but it has no wireless so we had to provide our own and plug it into the Zhone.  I could see no model number on it.

You might have to ask your ISP to assist with setting that modem into bridged mode instead of as a router mode. This might be the reason why despite you properly configuring port forwarding it still does not work. If your ISP is hard to work with you might have to resort to a VPN like Tailscale which doesn't require port forwarding but it has some limitations on the free version but it'd allow you to connect to your emby from your phone/laptop. 

[Luke 42077]

Also have you tried a different public facing port in your router? It could also be that your ISP only allows the use of certain ports.

[Paddaclus 2]

9 hours ago, Luke said:

Also have you tried a different public facing port in your router? It could also be that your ISP only allows the use of certain ports.

Thank you both for your patience, but I'm gonna have to put this back in the too hard basket.  When I get back from my little trip, I will contact the service provider and ask them if they can provide a wireless modem and get rid of the tplink thus having only 1 to deal with.  

Thanks again guys, you both have more patience than me.

[Luke 42077]

Please let us know what they say. Thanks.