making my first server

MRTULES

Hi all,

Just wondering how easy it is to set up a minecraft server? I would like the little fellow to be able to play with a few of his friends. What are the requirements components wise? Is there any benifit to just renting a server? Any help or advise is much appreciated.

Ponster

Minecraft (on a PC at least) allows you to make your singleplayer game multiplayer. The advantage is that it costs nothing. The disadvantage is that the home PC is acting as a server so your son's friends wouldn't be able to play on the server/map unless your son was playing.

Renting is a very easy option but may be about 10euro per month for an 8-player server.


Edit : Forgot the other choice. It's very, very easy to set up a server running on a home PC but it needs to always be on for others to connect and play to it whenever they like.

mindstorms

To set up a server for your son and his friends to play depends on a few things. A simple solution is to open your single player world to others (Open to LAN) but as Ponster mentions, the single player map must be open any time they want to play and your sons friends must be on the same network.

The next option is to run a server itself - the minecraft server jar file - and allow them to connect to that. Again, if they are in your house (on your network) they can connect easily enough. If they are all in their own homes, you need to set up port forwarding. Not as complicated as it sounds. Again, the server must be online and running whenever anyone wants to connect. You also need to factor in the resources needed for the server jar to run. Will it run on it's own computer, or will it run on the same computer your son plays minecraft on? Running a server and a client on the same computer can slow down the client a lot, unless it is very powerful.

Let us know a bit more about what you have available to use, what you would like to be able to do for your son.

MRTULES

Firstly, thank you both.
I would like to set up a dedicated server that would be on 24/7 and his friends could connect to from their homes. I have an old machine which could possibly do this so he could play on the everyday pc. I have UPC with a Cisco epc3925 router. No experience with networking or port forwarding but I think I could manage alright.
I found a YouTube video but in it the guy was using bit torrent or something and I would prefer not to do that.
Would be really interested in know more about your set up and how you did it. Also an links to the relevent info would be great too.
What sort of system specs, ram wise ect, do I need?
Thanks again.

mindstorms

A dedicated server is a great choice - and there are a few options. The first time I set up a dedicated server for my kids I just installed the minecraft_server.jar file, ran it, and then allowed them to connect locally. My PC was running Windows XP. It had a dual-core CPU and about 3G RAM. Performance was fine - locally. Once I got that working, I configured the router to port forward 25565 to the IP of the minecraft server. Then I got one of my sons friends to log in from his house and test it. It took a few goes, but we got it working. Playing over the internet they experienced a lot of lag. I think this was mainly due to my very poor broadband at the time. This was before I upgraded to fibre. If you have a reasonably decent "old computer" and decent broadband, it could be good.

There are a few issues you need to be aware of. One, the IP - your external IP - can change. Any time you turn on/off the UPC router. I'm not sure if UPC also cycle the external IP periodically. The external IP is what you will need to provided to your son's friends so that they can connect each time. If this changes, you need to let them know. There are ways around this issue - you can sometimes configure your router to update a free DNS server with your new IP each time it changes. But for now, just be aware that if you power cycle the UPC router, the external IP may change. I don't have UPC so can't say for definite. Another issue is grief on the server. The minecraft server jar file - or vanilla server - does not have any protection from someone undoing someone else's hard work. There are ways around this.

You can install a modded version of the server and then install some mods - much like the boards server uses - which offer some level of protection. These mods consume additional resources from your server, but more importantly are not available for the latest versions of minecraft. The latest version with the cool underwater monument, etc.

If you decide to use vanilla, then it might be an idea to make a copy of the server every now and again, once a day, once a week or something like that. It's a bit of overhead, and if you ever have to revert back, everyone would lose any changes done.

Which is why I deleted my Windows XP server and re-installed it with a new operating system - Mine OS. This is a free OS - based on Linux - that is installed directly on the server. Once installed (which isn't that complicated) you get a web based UI that allows you to create, manage and backup your server. All automatically. It can take a back up every 30 minutes, only saving the changes (so the backups aren't huge) and you can revert with the click of a button. It supports vanilla servers out of the box, along with modded servers.
...
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but maybe baby steps are the way to go ;-)
If the old server you have is running Windows, then grab the minecraft server jar file from Mojang's site, and run it. It should start with a small UI and some info about generating a new world. From your client, go to multiplayer and enter the IP of the server. You should be able to connect. Test the performance from the client - in survival - and see how things go. If your son and his friends want to play in creative mode, then this will take more resources. Anyway, have a read and let me know what more I can provide.

bnt

What, no mention of Minecraft Realms? Sounds like the easiest option, for what it's worth ...

Also - if you have problems with the external IP address changing, you might consider a Dynamic DNS service. I use this free service, and there are ways of automatically updating the info when the computer starts up, for example.

Mincork

Hi there

To make it as easy as possible ,

the Realms option is best , since u pay a tenner per month , they supply vanilla ( no plugins ) server , with a unique IP and port , you become Admin/Owner on the server ( meaning you have all basic admin options ) and can change a few system settings ie. creative , survival , keep inventory and so on.

The other and better ( imo) option would be renting a minecraft server , i've used this crowd before ( https://nitrous-networks.com/minecraft/minecrafthosting?currency=EUR ) , they UK based , thus the same time zone for issues , their support team are great and the prices are in line with most others , but i really like the console access they supply as its just a few clicks to install most jars and plugins.

I think if you plan on having the server running 24/7 , and not whitelisted ( only allows players you have added to a list , access to the server ) it might be best to have a system that you can install plugins , as they are vital for Language Filtering , Repairing damaged structures ( griefing) , monitoring chat / msg / signs and not to mention having fun with :>

The only reason i've mention Nitrous Networks is that I have used a few providers for minecraft / attack of the b team / tekkit ( my son thinks I enjoy setting them up , lol ) servers and they come top of my list.

Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of issues with minecraft and plugins and such , but for now , i'd say its still safe to rent a server ( just don't take a 12 month contract) as the microsoft buyout and bukkit / spigot plugin issues will be resolved in time.

Enjoy and Never Dig Down :>

cheers