Wake on ( WAN ) - Plex - Question

[chris0101]

Hi,

I've followed the guide here ;

WOL Script Wake Up Your Webserver On Internet Traffic

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

I've got it working great with port 32400 ( i.e the port plex uses )
it wake up my system fine

My only issue with it at the moment is if anyone over the internet port scans and hits 32400 the server wakes up.

i'm racking my brain on how i could potentially solve this but im coming up with nothing, anyone got any ideas? i thought maybe packet length ? but not sure that would work out.

I could specify IPs i want to allow to wake it, problem with that is i have a few users that use it, if there IP changes they wont be able to..

 

[ColinTaylor]

Change the port to something non-standard. 32400 is going to be one of the most commonly scanned ports.

 

[chris0101]

Yep good idea, that was my next try, i've just done that now so lets see how it goes, i imagine a port scanner just scans all ports though no ? so it'll probably activate on occasions, but hopefully at least less now

 

[ColinTaylor]

i imagine a port scanner just scans all ports though no ?

Some do but the majority just scan the common ports (low hanging fruit). So it won't eliminate the problem but hopefully it will reduce it.

 

[chris0101]

Some do but the majority just scan the common ports (low hanging fruit). So it won't eliminate the problem but hopefully it will reduce it.

Makes sense , I've made the change to a seemingly random port. I'll report back and see how many unwarranted wake ups I get .

 

[Nesalex]

Makes sense , I've made the change to a seemingly random port. I'll report back and see how many unwarranted wake ups I get .

Hello. I don't think it will help. These scanners are ... I recently did a NAS wake-up, but even when I used a non-standard port, it woke up x times a day. In the end, I had to solve it using wake on lan and explain to users to wake up the device first and then work... WOL works even when woken from the Internet...

 

[chris0101]

Some do but the majority just scan the common ports (low hanging fruit). So it won't eliminate the problem but hopefully it will reduce it.

Sorry i didnt realise changing the port actually broke it, i now can't wake when accessing plex as plex uses the internal port of 32400, so my external port change doesn't trigger it. is there anyway to make it?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Sorry i didnt realise changing the port actually broke it, i now can't wake when accessing plex as plex uses the internal port of 32400, so my external port change doesn't trigger it. is there anyway to make it?

Which script from the wiki page are you using, there appears to be three?

If it's the first script then I can't see why it wouldn't work as it doesn't trigger on the port number, it only triggers on the LAN IP address of the server. Do you see the "ACCEPT" lines for the server address in the system log? Do you see any activity in the script's log file (cd /var/log; cat ether-wake.log)?

 

[chris0101]

I'm using the second script the one that defines port... Yes i do see the accept lines in the log as well

should i use the first one ??

 

[Morris]

Use a VPN for internet access. Then you have full control and less exposure.

 

[chris0101]

Use a VPN for internet access. Then you have full control and less exposure.

thats fine for me , but was trying to get it so any plex users i have could just load up their plex app and get it to turn on in a few seconds

is there anyway to add a specific external port to the script ? so that if an external port is triggered pointing at a specfic internal port then WOL

 

[Morris]

There client could be configured with a VPN client that connects on startup and only routes your IP. The rest goes to the internet. It would work as you desire.

 

[ColinTaylor]

is there anyway to add a specific external port to the script ? so that if an external port is triggered pointing at a specfic internal port then WOL

As far as I can see the script you're using is only looking in the system log for the presence of the LAN IP address and the LAN port number, not the external port number. So I can't think why this would have stopped working just because you changed the external port number. Maybe reboot the router?

 

[chris0101]

As far as I can see the script you're using is only looking in the system log for the presence of the LAN IP address and the LAN port number, not the external port number. So I can't think why this would have stopped working just because you changed the external port number. Maybe reboot the router?

That's my fault I wasn't very clear.

I can't change the lan port number for Plex , it doesn't let me , only the external port number.

On my portforward rule i changed both internal and external to the random port ( not 32400) of course it woke but then Plex remote access was broken due to 32400 not being forwarded anymore.

Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[ColinTaylor]

That's my fault I wasn't very clear.

I can't change the lan port number for Plex , it doesn't let me , only the external port number.

On my portforward rule i changed both internal and external to the random port ( not 32400) of course it woke but then Plex remote access was broken due to 32400 not being forwarded anymore.

Hopefully that makes sense.

For your port forwarding rule you need to set the external port to the random port, and set the internal port as 32400.

 

[chris0101]

For your port forwarding rule you need to set the external port to the random port, and set the internal port as 32400.

Yea that's what I've done now. And in the script keep the port on 32400.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Yea that's what I've done now. And in the script keep the port on 32400.

So the external users will now use the random port number instead of 32400.

 

[chris0101]

So reporting back on limited testing.

It's definitely improved but still got a few random wake ups, that's not the end of the world tbh,

I take it there's no easy way to make it look for a specific external and internal port , that would probably eliminate all the issues.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I take it there's no easy way to make it look for a specific external and internal port ...

You could but that wouldn't make any difference. Think about it.

 

[chris0101]

Right of course , sorry it takes me a while to get to grips with the network stuff sometimes.

Hmm I guess there isnt much more to do then, overall I'm pretty happy, I'm not that upset about it turning on randomly on a few occasions anyways , gives the server a chance to do some work on those occasion.

Quick question. Is there an easy way to blacklist ips so that it doesn't WOL on those hit's