Cannot access Emby outside home network

[MrGiles 2]

Since switching ISP and installing a new router, I have been unable to access my Emby server away from home.  I have gone through all the recommended troubleshooting and as far as I can tell everything is set up correctly, but outside my home network I just get the message 'unable to reach Emby NAS'.   I have the same connectivity issue on the Android app and on my laptop.  I'm running Emby server on a QNAP NAS, and I can still access the NAS remotely, just not Emby.  

Any help or suggested further steps would be appreciated, as I'm no expert on network settings

 

 

[ebr 16657]

Exactly which step in the troubleshooter fails?

Connecting from Client Apps

[MrGiles 2]

That's the problem - I don't know where the failure is.  I've done everything suggested, set up port forwarding, but still no connection.  However, when I tried canyouseeme.org, it didn't match the IP address on the Emby dashboard

[ebr 16657]

1 minute ago, MrGiles said:

when I tried canyouseeme.org, it didn't match the IP address on the Emby dashboard

Sorry, I don't follow.  You would need to provide the IP address to canyouseeme.

Can you tell us exactly what you did and what happened?

[js28194 69]

Have you been migrated to CGNAT?

[MrGiles 2]

Just tried canyouseeme.org again, and it pre-populated with the IP address shown on the Emby dashboard (for remote access), but shows port 80 - this worked fine and confirmed the port was not blocked.  But the port number on Emby dashboard is the default 8096 - if I enter that port number in canyouseeme, it cannot see the service and times out.  

My router does have something called NAT enabled but I've no idea what this is.

[ebr 16657]

Please go through the document I linked.  You need to set up port forwarding on  your router.

[Luke 42954]

Please let us know which steps succeed and which ones do not, and then we'll take it from there. Thanks.

[MrGiles 2]

I have worked through all the steps on External Connections  in the linked guide.  I've tried enabling UPnP on my router with automatic port mapping enabled on Emby server, but that didn't work - still couldn't connect outside my home network.  So I disabled that and tried manual port forwarding - set this up as per the instructions, verified external IP address etc, but still no success.  Whatever I do, I cannot access Emby outside my home network

 

[Luke 42954]

9 hours ago, MrGiles said:

I have worked through all the steps on External Connections  in the linked guide.  I've tried enabling UPnP on my router with automatic port mapping enabled on Emby server, but that didn't work - still couldn't connect outside my home network.  So I disabled that and tried manual port forwarding - set this up as per the instructions, verified external IP address etc, but still no success.  Whatever I do, I cannot access Emby outside my home network

 

Hi, can you please show us how you setup port forwarding in your router?

[ebr 16657]

Hi.  And...

On 8/20/2026 at 2:39 AM, Luke said:

Please let us know which steps succeed and which ones do not, 

 

[marriedman 104]

On 8/18/2026 at 6:30 AM, MrGiles said:

Since switching ISP

Stab in the dark, did you switch to a Fiber ISP? If so, you have the situation that js8194 was asking about.

On 8/18/2026 at 4:23 PM, js28194 said:

Have you been migrated to CGNAT?

In the simplest summary possible, you are behind your ISP's giant router.  Here is a basic visualization:

STANDARD (Cable/DSL) SETUP
═══════════════════════════

 ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐
 │ Computer │───▶│  Router  │───▶│  Modem   │───▶│ Internet │
 └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘
                                     (Public IP
                                    assigned here)


FIBER + CGNAT SETUP
════════════════════

 ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐
 │ Computer │───▶│  Router  │───▶│   ONT    │───▶│  CGNAT   │───▶│ Internet │
 └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘
                                   (Optical-to-      (ISP-side NAT —
                                    Ethernet          you get a
                                    conversion,       private/shared
                                    no NAT/routing    IP, not a real
                                    happening here)   public one)

I ended up paying for a static IP address from my ISP. Then a domain from porkbun and a simple caddy config running on my main home server.

It sounds hard at first, but you can use ChatGPT or Claude to build everything for you if it gets to be to much for you.