Sharing your server

Friends on your network

Anyone on your home network can join immediately.

1. Start the server.
2. Find this PC's local address: its IPv4 address in your operating system's network settings, usually starting with 192.168. or 10..
3. In Minecraft, choose Add Server and enter that address. If the server's port is not 25565, add it after a colon, for example 192.168.1.20:25566. The port is on the server's card and in Settings.

If a friend cannot connect, your operating system's firewall may be blocking incoming connections to Java. spawnloft doctor reports port collisions and other machine problems.

Friends on the internet

SpawnLoft does not do this for you, on purpose. It never opens firewall ports and never touches your router. Letting the internet reach your machine is a decision about exposure, and it stays yours.

Route	What it involves	Trade-off
Forward the port on your router	Point your router's port for the server at this PC	Your home address becomes public
A tunnel service such as playit.gg, or a relay you run	The server makes an outbound connection; no router ports open	Hides your home address; depends on the service

A Share screen that lays these options out, with a whitelist and online mode nudged on at the moment anything goes public, is on the roadmap. It is not available yet.

Before anyone outside joins

Setting	Why
online-mode=true	Default for servers SpawnLoft creates. Offline mode lets anyone join under any name, including yours.
Whitelist on	Settings → Whitelist, then whitelist add <name> in the console
RCON not exposed	RCON has no rate limiting or encryption. Minecraft cannot bind it separately from the game port, so check that your router forwards only the game port. spawnloft doctor and the panel warn when RCON is reachable from a public address with no active firewall.
Recent backup	See Backups
Panel not exposed	The panel listens on 127.0.0.1 only and cannot be bound elsewhere. Never forward its port.

More in Security.