Need someone well versed in networking to help me diagnose port issue

klepp0906 · 29 Jun 2019

xTL said:

When torrenting with either vpn or socks5 you're always going to lose some speed, depending on how many users are connected the same server as you are.
But with socks5 the speeds will be higher then with vpn, because socks5 has no encryption,
the benefit is that with socks5 you mask your ip and get close to full speed of your connection with torrents.

Haha, don't jinx yourself klepp

when you change the plex port in router & plex settings it's gonna work

you gotta belive bro ^^
just make sure to restart plex after you change the ports if it refuse to give you remote access.

lol im only pessimistic about it due to my last gateway/isp. I tried port forwarding with the vpn and it had no way to connect the external port to the internal port that plex uses 32400. (unsure if this will be any different) but time will tell.

So far, changing to NAT-PMP in qbittorrent did nada. Changing port now.

Tried the aforementioned site that bro67 linked - it timed out on me which is ominous. That being said, googling att regarding blocking bittorrent etc, came up with nil and id imagine it would be well known if that were the case.

onward!

xTL · 29 Jun 2019

Just out of curiosity, if you go to your private tracker & take a torrent that has a couple of hundred of seeders,
start the torrent without any vpn or socks5, what speeds do you get ?
And if you do the same when you enable socks5 in qbittorrent, with the same torrent how much speed do you lose?

So plex remote access does not work when you enable your vpn ?

klepp0906 · 29 Jun 2019

i havent tried plex remote access with the new ISP/gateway yet, with the VPN. I gave up on it previously due to having no means of changing plex' internal port. I could forward the manually set external with the VPN, but it would never make it through due to being unable to match with the internal.

I could have used the external 32400 as well, but A) thats obviously a well known port B) someone on the vpn already had that forwarded as you can imagine.

I'll give it another go w/ the new gear/isp when i get to it. At current, ive just forwarded a port in the gateway, and in Deluge, and deluge has a built in port tester which confirms its open, as does canyouseeme website.

this confirms its not the gateway. confirms its not a tcp limitation, and its wholly something related to qbittorrent.

As for speeds w/ vpn vs proxy - I'll have to report back to you on that. Still committed to geting it through conventionally before i try out the proxy.

I wont lie, the proxy is more attractive than the vpn thats for sure. VPN while more secure (ive heard of peopple still getting letters using proxy) murders my throughput AND my ping even to the closest server. At least relative to my ping without it now that im on fiber. And i game simultaneously so staying off the VPN is ideal. Proxy wouldnt affect anything outside the torrent client i presume.

But anyways, im carrying on. Back to stopping a restarting qbittorrent, for the umpteenth time :P

klepp0906 · 29 Jun 2019

well, after a much more substantial amount of testing, it seems that for some crazy unbeknownst to me reason - its that specific port. I can use 1 below it. 1 above it. I just cant use that port.

How is that even possible?

bro67 · 29 Jun 2019

klepp0906 said:

well, after a much more substantial amount of testing, it seems that for some crazy unbeknownst to me reason - its that specific port. I can use 1 below it. 1 above it. I just cant use that port.

How is that even possible?

Work with what you have found out and move forward. Common ports tend to be blocked because of malware can use those same ports to attack.

klepp0906 · 29 Jun 2019

is 50001 considerd common? and 50002 and 50000 is not?

i agree though, gonna change the ports, suck it up and move on. Already spent an absurd amount of time and while part of me thinks its some kinda corruption in the router cache or something - im not willing to do a factory reset just to test the theory :P

bro67 · 29 Jun 2019

klepp0906 said:

is 50001 considerd common? and 50002 and 50000 is not?

i agree though, gonna change the ports, suck it up and move on. Already spent an absurd amount of time and while part of me thinks its some kinda corruption in the router cache or something - im not willing to do a factory reset just to test the theory :P

IPTables rarely gets hosed up.

xTL · 29 Jun 2019

Using socks5 can leak, it depends on the vpn provider.
I use ovpn & azirevpn, have not had any leaks with either of them.
No the proxy does not affect anything outside the client.

Regarding the ports, yes it's strange :P
But even if you put the port at 50002 it's still going to be scannable by sites such as shodan, censys & others.
If you wish to protect the port and not have it visible by scanners, you have to put it behind reverse proxy and let the traffic go through port 443.
That's what i do :)

klepp0906 · 01 Jul 2019

well, i think we're all set up. ports open in firewall. ports open in vpn. proxy added to client as another avenue/option.

All works EXCEPT (as i predicted) plex remote through the vpn. Whereas on my gateway, I can point the public port i chose, to plex internal 32400. The vpn gives you the option of simply opening a port, no way to direct it to the internal port. Since it circumvents the gateway, I'm fubar i think.

there are ways, but theyre exceptionally convoluted IIRC. Messing with routing tables and scripts i think. Not sure its worth the trouble.

But, I appreciate you sticking this one out with me and bouncing stuff off me while I got this sorted. I learned a good amount and likely never would have bothered trying the proxy otherwise.

In the end, as odd as it was (for reasons i wish i knew) it was that one, single, port choice that wouldnt open. I'm betting a reset of the gateway woulda done it, but nty. Time is at a premium with little kiddos and that two hours I spend re doing all my ip's and firewall settings and wifi settings can be spent much better elsewhere :P

xTL · 03 Jul 2019

klepp0906 said:

well, i think we're all set up. ports open in firewall. ports open in vpn. proxy added to client as another avenue/option.

All works EXCEPT (as i predicted) plex remote through the vpn. Whereas on my gateway, I can point the public port i chose, to plex internal 32400.

Glad you got most things sorted klepp :)

klepp0906 said:

The vpn gives you the option of simply opening a port, no way to direct it to the internal port. Since it circumvents the gateway, I'm fubar i think.

there are ways, but theyre exceptionally convoluted IIRC. Messing with routing tables and scripts i think. Not sure its worth the trouble.

But, I appreciate you sticking this one out with me and bouncing stuff off me while I got this sorted. I learned a good amount and likely never would have bothered trying the proxy otherwise.

In the end, as odd as it was (for reasons i wish i knew) it was that one, single, port choice that wouldnt open. I'm betting a reset of the gateway woulda done it, but nty. Time is at a premium with little kiddos and that two hours I spend re doing all my ip's and firewall settings and wifi settings can be spent much better elsewhere :P

When it comes to the vpn it needs to have a public ip in order for plex remote access to work.
If you take a look here at my vpn WireGuard - Generator - AzireVPN
Here i have a few options to choose from, unless i pick Public IP & Options > port 443, plex RA refuse to work.

When it comes to your vpn there are definitely ways to have it work, but it need some trial & error.
It all depends on how much time you want to spend fixing everything :P and like you said time is limited for you so perhaps this is good enough for now :)?

klepp0906 said:

But, I appreciate you sticking this one out with me and bouncing stuff off me while I got this sorted. I learned a good amount and likely never would have bothered trying the proxy otherwise.

You're welcome klepp :)
The proxy setting in the torrent client is very useful.