Remote Access help needed

[Bhakti88 5]

My Emby server remote access works fine with my DDNS and port forwarding setup. I have designated my own internal and external ports, setup a free DDNS via my Asus router, and remote access works just fine until I turn on my VPN. With the VPN on the remote access doesn't work. I am using Torguard VPN and I have setup the VPN port forwarding (same ports as with the router). When I check the ports with the VPN on they are showing as OPEN, so I don't think the issue is the VPN setup. I am not trying to use SSL/HTTPS, just normal http at the moment.

Does anyone have any suggestions what I can check to help debug this? Thanks!

[Abobader 3470]

Hello Bhakti88,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Carlo 4561]

As soon a you turn on VPN running on your server you have changed it's network, the gateway address and Emby can no longer communicate correctly.

Unless it's needed to bypass cgNAT and configured specifically to work through the VPN, with a port forward setup by the VPN provider youde do not want a VPN on the server as it can not function.

The only except to this is a VPN that can do split tunneling where you can have Emby running outside the VPN while other apps run inside the VPN.

[Bhakti88 5]

Hello cayars, thank you for the reply.

As I am sure you can appreciate, many people are using VPNs for various reasons. I for sure want to be run a VPN on the PC that is hosting the Emby server. My VPN provider does not offer split-tunneling and in my experience split tunneling is not reliable and/or introduces other security risks defeating the purpose of the VPN. I have used split tunneling on ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Astrill.

I have already configured my Torguard VPN to forward the ports in question and they are showing as open. Can you please advise what other settings I need under the Emby server to achieve my goal? With so many people using VPNs out there, there must be a way to do this.

Thank you.

[Bhakti88 5]

Hello @cayarscan you please reply to my question? Thanks.

[Carlo 4561]

Sorry, somehow didn't see that question.

What port is Torguard giving you to work with?  Is it a static port that never changes?

[Bhakti88 5]

I am able to designate my own ports to forward. I have set it up to use a non-standard port #s, one each for std and ssl.

[Carlo 4561]

Can you specify 8096 or 8920 depending on your need?

If not it's likely a bit trickier and may cause you to have to change a few things with clients.

[Bhakti88 5]

I can use any port I like, but I don't want to use the generic ports especially 80 ports as those are the most commonly fished by nefarious actors. I don't mind additional setup steps. I also know that this ticket here will likely serve as reference for others in the future who are trying to do the same type of setup. Thanks.

[Carlo 4561]

Easy, then specify 8096 if you don't have a domain and/or SSL certificate or specify 8920 if you do have an SSL cert.

[Bhakti88 5]

As I stated above, I don't want to use 80xx ports such as 8096 and 8920. Regardless, I have already tried to use 8096 and 8920 as a test case previously, and it doesn't work with the VPN on. No matter what port number I use, it's not working as soon as I engage the VPN. As I stated above, the ports are open with the VPN on, it's just that the server is not reachable.

[Carlo 4561]

ok so let's say you have port 5555 through the VPN and it's not SSL.

What you need to do is change BOTH the local and public ports in Emby to 5555.
That should then work.

However, now instead of logging in locally as http://ip:8096 you would use http://ip:5555
That's the downside with a VPN like this not using the standard ports.

[Bhakti88 5]

Hello Cayars, that is precisely what I have done already. All ports in the VPN, Router, Emby Server (public and private) are all using the unique ports I specified. It is, however, still not working. It also did not work if I used the 8096 and 8920 ports. This is why I am scratching my head. Any other ideas?

 

[Carlo 4561]

Any local firewalls, virus or malware programs that could be blocking?

Other than that I can't think of anything but I'd be happy to do a remote session with you and have a look.
If you want to do this send me a PM and we'll set this up.

Carlo

[Bhakti88 5]

Hello Cayars, thank you very much for your offer. I will try some other settings first and let you know if a remote session is in order. Thanks.