A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
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Quick version:
Rabbit hole:
Why is everyone suggesting random third party shit?
Straight from Mojang/Microsoft:
Bedrock: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server/bedrock
Java: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server
Follow the instructions and go.
It's really only downloading the executable and java, starting it and opening the required port. See the official documentation for instructions.
If you want to get more involved there are some convenient docker containers which automate some stuff:
In addition to other advice here just be aware that Minecraft servers are prime targets for griefing and abuse.
I recommend setting it to whitelist mode and then each kid your friend wants to join just has to send their username to him so you can add the username to the whitelist. Its an added overhead but it's much less painful than reverting to a backup for a griefed server - and your kid won't have to worry about other kids on-sharing the server address.
Its been a long time since I played, wouldn't the best protection from that just be not broadcasting the server to the open internet? Never had an issue with servers that were technically fully open but only telling friends about it. I suppose whitelist is better than security through obscurity though.
Like the other commenter said, I dunno how the heck the griefers find the servers - but if it's on the open Internet, they do.
I set up a server for me an a handful of mates - advertised the address nowhere. They told nobody. A month in a friend and I were playing as usual, and a player with a Russian username joined. I'm like "uh hi who are you?". They stayed another minute or two while saying nothing, then left.
I think they left when they realized i had an anti-griefer permissions mod that protects the blocks in an area around the spawn point from being modified (its called 'Flan'). So they joined, saw the server had some protections, and decided it wouldn't be much fun for them.
Whitelist immediately enabled - no more random Russians.
Easy way to avoid this: choose a different port. I think it's a safe bet the crawlers are just checking 25565. I've had a server up for months with zero issues.
I've had a server up for almost 9 years never had any randoms even join. Don't think I've ever used the default port tho
It isn't on the default port either, it's on a random high number port which is why I thought it was extra odd they found it.
It isn't on the default port either, it's on a random high number port which is why I thought it was extra odd they found it.