How To Set Up A Minecraft Shared Server

Minecraft has made its legacy solid by creating a game-world which encourages creativity. Minecraft's greatest feature is the ability to play with your friends in a shared world. Although hosting your own server can be a hassle, anyone can set up a Minecraft server with a Windows computer and an internet connection.

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It will take some code changes and downloads to set up your server. This guide will show you how to set up and fine tune a Minecraft server in no time.

Minecraft Server Setup

Any Minecraft Server needs the latest version of Java, so make sure you have the latest version of Java 7 installed. Once finished, download Minecraft Server.exe from Minecraft.net and save it into a dedicated folder, like C:\MinecraftSharedServer.

Run the server application. This will open an interface window. Once the "Preparing spawn area" messages are finished a line will pop up that says "Done." Enter "stop" into the text box and hit Enter. Your new Minecraft world is created. Now it's time to configure it.

Minecraft Server Settings

Whatever directory you saved the Minecraft_Server.exe file, you should see two files called "server," one of which will be listed as a properties file. Right-click this file and choose Edit to open it inside of Notepad. You'll see a listing of server settings followed with an equal sign and a number. You can change many things about Minecraft by changing the values. While most of the default values are fine, there are some you might want to change.

Gamemode This setting is for the kind of world you and/or your friends would like to play. The default value of this setting is 0, which will allow you to survive in basic survival mode. This value can be changed from 0 to 1. This will make your server go into creative mode. Difficulty The name of difficulty is clear. The values can be changed from 0 (peaceful) to 3 (hard) depending on what you wish to play on. White-list: This is to prevent others from accessing your server. This is important if your goal is to keep your server private between friends. Back in your Minecraft server folder, you'll see another file called white-list, right-click it and open the file with Notepad to make your white-list username list. You will be the first player to add. Type your Minecraft username in the top line. Hit enter to add each friend's usernames to their own lines. Save the file, and you're done.


Configuring your Router for Minecraft

Your router will allow any player to connect to the server over the network. If your friends are playing from their home, you will need to configure the router to forward port 25575 (TCP), to the server. This is a simple step that requires some technical knowledge, but takes only a few minutes.

Once you're all set up to receive outside connections, start up your server again by running Minecraft_Server.exe and test it out. If you dont know what your IP is, you can search Google "what my ip". This is the IP address used by other players to connect to your server.

That's all there are to it. You have created a shared world that you and your friends can enjoy. Keep an eye out on the Minecraft website for any updates. Have fun building together!

More: Minecraft now has over 100 million monthly active players

Minecraft is now available for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

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William Cennamo has been the Game Guides Editor for Screen Rant since 2019.minecraftservers.live Although he has been a creative writer his entire life, it wasn't until 2018 that he began to follow his passion for the written word. William, who specializes in script-writing has written several comedy sketches and taught "Intro to Comedy Writing", at the Stomping Ground Theater Dallas, Texas.