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Give your Plex machine a permanent address
Your router deals out local addresses like coat check tickets. After a reboot, your server can come back holding a different one. Any port forwarding rule still points at the old ticket, and remote access dies without a single error message. One setting fixes this forever.
1
Find the machine's current addressOn Windows: Settings, Network, then Properties. On a Mac: System Settings, then Network. On a NAS: its own admin page. You are looking for something like 192.168.1.50.
2
Open your router's admin pageUsually http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1. Login is often on the router's sticker.
3
Find DHCP reservationAlso called Address Reservation, Static Lease, or Bind IP. Usually under LAN or DHCP settings.
4
Reserve the Plex machine's addressPick it from the device list and reserve its current address. From now on the router deals that machine the same ticket every time.
Why not set it on the machine itself?
You can, and it works. The router way survives OS reinstalls and can never collide with an address the router hands to someone else. If you already know why you would prefer it the other way, you did not need this guide.
DHCP leases expire. Renumbering happens on lease timeout, router reboots, and device swaps. A reservation pins the machine's MAC address to one IP, so forwarding rules stay valid.