Surfshark VPN on Firewalla Gold and Plex Remote Access

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Morgan Dadd

• May 06, 2024 10:06

Hi, I am struggling to get Plex remote access working when I have my VPN Client enabled on my Firewalla (I am using Surfshark with Wireguard). It establishes an indirect connection to Plex only.

It works fine if I just use the Surfshark on my devices and turn it off on the Firewalla itself. 

I have port forwarding setup (32400 TCP for internal, 50000 for external) within the Firewalla NAT config itself, and that is set in the Plex config also so I think I have made all the necessary steps for it to work. 

Any ideas please? I would like to have my whole house behind a single VPN rather than run individual clients.

Thanks in advance,

Morgan

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  Firewalla

  • May 06, 2024 15:56

  Are you doing something like

  Someone accessing --> Surfshart -->  Firewalla (VPN Client to Surfshark) ---> your plex server?

   

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 06, 2024 17:07

  Hi, yes but I’ve tried accessing via clients that aren’t running Surfshark locally. The Plex Media Server is being hosted on a Mac.

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 07, 2024 21:14

  Hi, any other thoughts on this please from anyone?

  I have tried it with two different VPN Client configs, Surfshark VPN Client (Wireguard) and also NordVPN (OpenVPN), both launched separately on the Firewalla while I test. After a few seconds if either VPN client is active the Plex Remote Access drops.

  I did also try adding some Routes - again to the server hosting Plex and against the relevant in-bound port. The Plex remote access lasted longer (a few mins) but then eventually dropped again.

  If I turn the VPN clients off and with just the port forward set on the Firewalla then Plex direct remote access works. 

  Thanks,

  Morgan

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  Firewalla

  • May 07, 2024 21:18

  Did you forward ports from the VPN side to your home, and then home to device? 

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 07, 2024 21:45

  Hi, here's what I have in the Port Forward setting:

  Protocol = TCP

  External Port / Interface = The Wireguard interface (E989_E989E) on port 32400

  Internal Port / Device = Plex Media Server host on port 32400

  Ingress Firewall / Allow = All Sources

  Thanks

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 08, 2024 13:14

  I should add I changed the port on Plex so 32400 both inbound and outbound (hence the above config). Any ideas please?

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  Firewalla

  • May 08, 2024 17:04

  Are there any statistics from surfshark that you can look and see if there are any traffic even coming to them? (tracing the packet from the starting point)

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 09, 2024 21:48

  There are no logs available from them. I looked at blocked flows on the Firewalla but couldn’t even correlate any IPs that could be Plex incoming. I’m stumped …

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  Firewalla

  • May 10, 2024 02:39

  You need to find out if they are port forwarding to your VPN client; do they have any type counters?

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 10, 2024 09:39

  I managed to interrogate Plex logs and when the remote connection drops I see this error ...

  [Req#659e] NAT: PMP, got an error: Not Supported by gateway.

   

   

   

   

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 10, 2024 09:40

  Also if I do a port scan on the Firewalla (External Open Ports) it says 'No ports found' despite the fact I have a forwarding rule to the Plex server on port 32400.

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  Firewalla

  • May 10, 2024 15:44

  1. the NAT/PMP is auto port forward, I don't think your VPN support it. Since you already doing port forwarding, this should not matter.

  2. The external port scan is targeted at your ISP. Your Plex server is port forwarded from your VPN right? 

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  Morgan Dadd

  • May 10, 2024 16:10

  Yes, I think I will just run VPN clients local to devices as a workaround - if I do that the Plex remote access is good. I did look at both Surfshark and NordVPN and neither support port-forwarding natively.

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  geotrouvetout67

  • May 19, 2024 23:28

  I'm also using Plex on a custom port and using Surfshark VPN client, no issues, or with Mullvad or with Proton.
  Plex is outbound through the VPN client and I can connect to it either through the custom port or using VPN server.

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