Playing Music Outside Your Home Network

By default, My Media streams music directly across your local network. Your Echo device and your server must be on the same home network for this to work. If you want to enjoy your music library when your Echo is in a different location — a holiday home, an office, or anywhere connected to the internet — you need to enable external access.

My Media supports two completely different methods for this, each with different trade-offs. This page explains both in detail so you can choose the right one for your situation.

How Local Streaming Works (the Default)

To understand external access, it helps to picture how the default local streaming works first.

YOUR HOME NETWORK
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                             │
│   ┌──────────────────┐    TCP :52050     ┌──────────────┐  │
│   │  My Media Server │◄──────────────────│  Echo / Dot  │  │
│   │  192.168.1.10    │   (audio stream)  │  192.168.1.x │  │
│   └──────────────────┘                   └──────────────┘  │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         │
         │ Outbound only
         ▼
    ┌─────────┐
    │Internet │  (Amazon tells Echo the server's private IP.
    │         │   Echo connects directly to it on port 52050.)
    └─────────┘

When you say "Alexa, ask My Media to play jazz", Amazon's cloud tells your Echo the IP address of your My Media server. Your Echo then opens a direct TCP connection to port 52050 on that IP address and begins streaming audio. This all happens within your local network — no traffic leaves your home.

The moment your Echo is on a different network (a 4G connection, a friend's Wi-Fi, a different building), it can no longer reach 192.168.1.10 because that is a private address that only exists inside your home network. This is where the two external access modes come in.

Method 1 — Firewall NAT (Direct Streaming via Port Forwarding)

How NAT Mode Works

With NAT mode, you configure your internet router to forward inbound connections on TCP port 52050 from the internet to your My Media server's private IP address. My Media then advertises your home's public IP address (or a Dynamic DNS hostname) to Amazon instead of your private IP. From Alexa's point of view, it is connecting to a public address on the internet — it has no knowledge that behind the scenes your router is translating this to an internal machine.

YOUR HOME NETWORK                INTERNET              ANYWHERE
┌────────────────────────┐                          ┌──────────────┐
│                        │                          │              │
│  ┌──────────────────┐  │   ┌────────────────┐     │ Echo / Dot   │
│  │  My Media Server │  │   │ Home Router    │     │ (on 4G, at   │
│  │  192.168.1.10    │◄─┼───┤ Port Forwarding│◄────┤  work, etc.) │
│  │  port 52050      │  │   │ :52050 → .1.10 │     │              │
│  └──────────────────┘  │   └────────────────┘     └──────────────┘
│                        │         │                      │
└────────────────────────┘         │◄─── TCP :52050 ──────┘
                                   │     audio stream
                              Public IP
                           e.g. 82.45.123.67

The flow, step by step:

1. My Media is configured with your public IP address (or a Dynamic DNS name like myhome.dyndns.org).
2. When Alexa asks for music, Amazon's cloud passes your public IP/hostname to your Echo.
3. Your Echo dials TCP port 52050 on your public IP address over the internet.
4. Your router receives this connection on its public interface and uses its port forwarding rule to redirect it to 192.168.1.10:52050 on your internal network.
5. My Media receives the connection and streams audio directly back through the same path.
6. Audio travels: Server → Router → Internet → Echo. It is a direct, end-to-end stream.

Bandwidth and Privacy

All audio data travels directly between your server and your Echo with no third-party relay. Nothing passes through My Media's cloud infrastructure — the only external involvement is the initial signalling from Amazon's cloud to tell the Echo what IP address to connect to. This model is the most private and, once set up, has no ongoing dependency on any My Media cloud service.

Bandwidth usage on your home internet connection will be proportional to your audio bitrate — typically 128–320 kbps per active stream.

Setting Up NAT Mode — Step by Step

Step 1 — Give Your Server a Static Local IP

Port forwarding only works reliably if your server always has the same private IP address. By default most routers assign IP addresses dynamically (DHCP), so your server's IP could change after a restart.

Fix this either by:

• DHCP reservation — in your router's admin panel, reserve the current IP address for your server's MAC address. This is the recommended approach.
• Static IP on the server — configure the network adapter on the server OS to use a fixed IP outside your DHCP range (e.g., 192.168.1.10).

Step 2 — Create the Port Forwarding Rule on Your Router

Log in to your router's admin panel (usually at http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1) and create a port forwarding rule with:

The exact steps vary by router brand, but on most home routers this is found under Advanced → Port Forwarding or NAT → Virtual Servers.

Step 3 — Set Up Dynamic DNS (If You Don't Have a Static Public IP)

Most home broadband connections have a dynamic public IP that changes periodically. If your IP changes, My Media will be advertising an outdated address to Amazon and streaming will break.

The solution is Dynamic DNS (DDNS), which gives your home a permanent hostname (e.g., myhome.dyndns.org) that automatically follows your IP address as it changes. Your router updates the DNS record whenever your IP changes.

Popular free DDNS services:

• No-IP — free tier available; most routers have built-in No-IP support
• DuckDNS — fully free and open
• Dynu — free tier available

Check your router's admin panel for a Dynamic DNS or DDNS section. Enter your account credentials and enable it. Your router will then automatically keep the hostname pointing at your current public IP.

If your ISP gives you a genuinely static public IP, you can skip this step and use the IP address directly.

Step 4 — Configure My Media

1. Open the My Media web console: http://localhost:52051
2. Navigate to Settings → Network.
3. Under Enable Access Outside of Local Network, select Enable via Firewall NAT.
4. In the External Hostname / IP field, enter either:
   • Your static public IP address (e.g., 82.45.123.67), or
   • Your Dynamic DNS hostname (e.g., myhome.dyndns.org)
5. Click Save.

My Media will now advertise this public address to Amazon instead of your private local IP.

Step 5 — Test the Connection

To verify that port forwarding is working, use a port checking tool such as canyouseeme.org — enter port 52050 while My Media is running. If it reports the port as open, external streaming should work.

You can also test from a mobile device by switching to 4G (turn Wi-Fi off) and asking Alexa to play music.

Security Considerations for NAT Mode

Opening a port on your router exposes a service on your server to the internet. My Media's streaming port only serves audio — it does not provide access to the web console or your files — however you should be aware that:

• The web console (port 52051) is not forwarded and should not be. Only forward port 52050.
• Your audio tracks are not encrypted during transit
• Consider setting an Admin Password in Settings → Network to protect the web console from access within your local network.
• Your server's operating system and My Media software should be kept up to date.

Method 2 — Push (Cloud Relay)

How Push Mode Works

With Push mode, My Media establishes an outbound connection from your server to My Media's cloud relay infrastructure. Because this connection is outbound (initiated from inside your network), your router automatically allows it through — exactly as it does for normal web browsing. No port forwarding rules are needed on your router.

When Alexa requests a track, Amazon tells your Echo to connect to the My Media cloud relay server. My Media is already connected to the relay via its persistent outbound tunnel, and audio is streamed from your server, through the relay, out to the Echo.

YOUR HOME NETWORK                   MY MEDIA CLOUD          ANYWHERE
┌──────────────────────────┐                             ┌──────────────┐
│                          │                             │              │
│  ┌──────────────────┐    │   ┌────────────────────┐    │ Echo / Dot   │
│  │  My Media Server │────┼──►│  My Media Cloud    │───►│ (on 4G, at   │
│  │  (no open ports) │    │   │  Relay Server      │    │  work, etc.) │
│  └──────────────────┘    │   │                    │◄───│              │
│          │               │   └────────────────────┘    └──────────────┘
│          │ outbound only │         ▲
└──────────┼───────────────┘         │
           │                         │
           └─────── persistent ───────┘
               outbound tunnel
               (no inbound ports
                opened on router)

The flow, step by step:

1. When My Media starts, it opens an outbound connection to the My Media cloud relay. This connection stays alive in the background.
2. My Media registers with the relay and is now reachable via the cloud.
3. When Alexa asks for music, Amazon tells your Echo to connect to the My Media cloud relay address rather than a home IP.
4. Your Echo opens a connection to the relay server.
5. The relay forwards the audio request down the persistent tunnel to your My Media server.
6. My Media streams audio up through the tunnel to the relay, which forwards it to the Echo.
7. Audio travels: Server → Relay → Echo. Your home router never receives any inbound connections.

Bandwidth and Privacy

Because audio passes through My Media's cloud relay servers, this model has different trade-offs:

• No router configuration required — zero port forwarding, zero Dynamic DNS setup.
• Works through almost any network — as long as your server can make outbound connections on the standard HTTPS port, Push mode will work, even through restrictive corporate firewalls or CGNAT (carrier-grade NAT, used by many mobile and some broadband providers).
• Audio passes through a third-party relay — the audio stream transits My Media's infrastructure before reaching your Echo. If privacy of your music is a concern, NAT mode keeps audio entirely within your own connections.
• Dependent on the My Media cloud service — if the relay infrastructure has an outage, external streaming via Push will be unavailable. Local streaming (within your home network) is always unaffected regardless.

Setting Up Push Mode — Step by Step

Push mode requires no router configuration at all.

1. Open the My Media web console: http://localhost:52051
2. Navigate to Settings → Network.
3. Under Enable Access Outside of Local Network, select Enable via Push.
4. Click Save.

My Media will immediately establish the outbound relay connection. There is no further configuration needed. Test by switching your phone or Echo to a mobile data connection and asking Alexa to play music.

Choosing Between NAT and Push

Recommendation: Start with Push — it requires no configuration and works in almost all situations. Switch to NAT if you want the lowest possible latency for large uncompressed files, want to avoid audio passing through a relay, or if your ISP gives you a static public IP making NAT straightforward to set up permanently.

Ports Reference

If You Are Behind CGNAT

Some ISPs — particularly mobile broadband providers and some cable companies — use Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT). With CGNAT, multiple customers share a single public IP address and individual customers cannot receive inbound connections at all, even with port forwarding configured on their home router.

If NAT mode does not work and you are unsure whether you are behind CGNAT, check your router's WAN status page. If the WAN IP address shown there starts with 10.x.x.x, 100.64.x.x–100.127.x.x, or 192.168.x.x, you are behind CGNAT.

You have two options:

• Use Push mode — it works through CGNAT with no changes.
• Ask your ISP for a static public IP — many ISPs offer this as an add-on, sometimes for free on business tariffs.