Have not been able to setup remote access with portfoward for docker containers, openvpn, etc.

I have been trying to setup a way to access my server remotely for awhile now. I used to use the Plex plugin which was able to establish an outside connection just fine. I did not have to forward any ports for it to work.

I have several docker containers now, including plex, but none of them have been accessible outside my network. I've tried port forwarding for plex and emby with no luck. I tried the OpenVPN plugin as a different way to access these containers so I can connect as I would on my home network. I opened the port 1194 but openvpn cannot reach my network.

My router is an Asus RT-ACRH17.

One weird thing I noticed is for Plex and Emby, the public IPs displayed in these apps, which is supposed to be used to connect, is very different from my actual public IP address on my router. Is that normal?

I've tried many things from reading other posts online:
- dockers are setup in host mode
- canyouseeme does not show the ports are open
- my isp does not block the ports im trying to use (32400, 1194, 8096)
- I've tried with both setting internal and external port on the port forward setting, as well as just specifying external and internal is blank.
- port forward is set to my servers internal ip address, which is static through ethernet.
- everything works fine in network
- i've reinstalled plex docker and the public ip still does not match

I can't remember everything as I've been trying here and there over the past few months. I'm pretty newb at this and I don't know where to go from here. What information would anyone need to help me out?

Wow.... I'm really an idiot. After writing this all out and posting it kinda gave me a different direction to go and search. I had spent so much time searching but was looking in the wrong places.

First of all, i forgot to enable the OpenVPN plugin. Rookie mistake. But that appeared to be working after doing so. I had a feeling it had to do with docker containers and port forwarding/some kind of network thing.

2nd, it appeared the IP address on plex and emby was from the netherlands. I'm in the US, so I was very confused. I realized it must be my transmission-openvpn docker container. That's very odd though because aren't containers supposed to be separate and not affect each other? I changed transmission-openvpn docker to bridged mode and restarted my other containers. VOILA, i can now access plex directly AND emby actually works outside my network, which I've never been able to get working. This issue has plagued me for over a year... I'm so happy to finally have fixed it and hopefully this can help others who feel like they tried so many things with no luck.

Man, it was really that simple.