A method of granting a client device remote access to a media server after receiving a port request from a remote client device at a residential gateway through an intermediate remote access control server by opening one or more wide area network ports temporarily mapped to local area network ports, such that the remote client device can communicate with the media server through the wide area network ports, transmitting a list of the one or more wide area network ports to the remote client device through the remote access control server, receiving a media content request from the remote client device and passing the media content request to the media server through the one or more wide area network ports, and passing media content from the media server to the remote client device through the one or more wide area network ports according to one or more restriction lists.