Creating a Minecraft Family Server

crcook84

crcook84

Member
I recently found out that my nieces enjoy Minecraft. So, I decided to convert one of my computers into a dedicated gaming server. I know how to configure Minecraft to work with Mods and Plugins based on tinkering with my own Minecraft game. Plus, I have set aside a port for forwarding. What I am trying to figure out is how to set it up so that it can't be accessed without a password. There are several plugins/mods out there that allow for password protection. But, they don't prevent anyone from joining. They just prevent them from playing. Is there a plugin that prevents someone from joining unless they have a password (or something similar)?

FYI: As for bandwidth, I'm just going to do that by ear. It either works or it doesn't.
 
What you are looking for is the White-list. There is one built into the MC server itself and does not require any other plugins to work. There is a setting in the MC config file server.properties to enable it (white-list=true), then there is a file in your MC server directory names whitelist.txt. Just put the names of all the users you want to be able to access your server in there, one per line, and if anyone tries to connect that is not in the list, they wont be able to, and get a message stating they are not on the whitelist.

Let me know if you need any help with anything, and I would be happy to help. :) Also, if you havent already, head on over to this post and register to be added to our servers whitelist. :)
 
Thanks for that. I don't know why that was so hard to find, unless the MC community likes plugins so much that they don't bother with basic commands anymore. Now that I've found the file, I'm wondering how sensitive the white list is:

Is the white list case sensitive?
Does it allow numbers?
What are all the characters I can use in the white list (I'm spacing them out so that they'll be easier to distinguish):
space ~ - _ = + [ { ] } \ | ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ; : ' " , < . > / ?

Mind you, I doubt anyone in my family will get too fancy with their user names.
 
I think that it will allow any of them, but no, the whitelist should not be case sensitive. The server does have to be restarted after you enter a name though, dont forget that. :) Also, make sure you add yourself to the ops.txt file, so you can have permissions in game.
 
blsimpson said:
The server does have to be restarted after you enter a name though, don't forget that. :)
Click to expand...
Does that include if you add a name to the white list in game (if that's possible)? On restarting, can I assume the "world" the server created will remain intact after I shut it down? With or without player creations? I figure it would considering it does it for SP. But, I figure I'd better read the "fine print".
blsimpson said:
Also, make sure you add yourself to the ops.txt file, so you can have permissions in game.
Click to expand...
I cannot believe I didn't even think about that. It was something I had at the back of my mind. But, I figured I'd find that out as I setup the server. Thank you so much for bringing that up.
 
It is possible to add a user to the whitelist in game, but I believe it still needs to be restarted. There are plugins that you can use to manage the whitelist that may allow you to add without restarting, but I personally have not used any. The wrapper that we use for our server (MyMcAdmin) manages all that for us..
(BTW, I should have mentioned this earlier, but if you are running a very small server, 10 or less players, then MyMcAdmin might be something to look at. It will run on Windows or Linux, and has a web portal for configuration. With 10 or less users, its free too..)

When you shutdown a world, it is persistent, which means it will be the same exact way it was before you shut it down. Unless the world file gets corrupt, but I have hardly ever seen that happen.
 
crcook84 said:
Thanks for that. I don't know why that was so hard to find, unless the MC community likes plugins so much that they don't bother with basic commands anymore. Now that I've found the file, I'm wondering how sensitive the white list is:

Is the white list case sensitive?
Does it allow numbers?
What are all the characters I can use in the white list (I'm spacing them out so that they'll be easier to distinguish):
space ~ - _ = + [ { ] } \ | ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ; : ' " , < . > / ?

Mind you, I doubt anyone in my family will get too fancy with their user names.
Click to expand...

Since the whitelist is part of the "vanilla" game (no mods at all), I'm guessing that it will allow any characters that Mojang allows you to use in your user name. Otherwise people would have, starting years ago, complained that they could not log in to servers. The names are just one per line in the whitelist, so it could handle odd characters easily.
 
Something else that occurred to me. I have a number of mods that I like using with my Minecraft game. If I have those mods and the other players don't, how does it affect the other players? Same question except it's the server that has the mods.
 
I would assume that you are talking about client mods. There is a difference between server mods and client mods, and most server mods do not require client mods to be installed. (There are some, but they will specifically state that there is a client mod that needs to be installed to work..) Most server mods do not add "items" to the game, and those that do, require the client mod to be installed.

If you have client mods installed you should be able to connect to a server that doesn't have them and play, you just wont have access to those mods while playing on the server.

Hope that makes sense.. :)
 
A quick reference to the last post, yes, I understand.
There are stand-alone, server-side mods; server-side mods that require client-side mods; and client side mods that don't require server-side mods to work.
I connected with one of the Christian Minecraft servers (before the 1.6 change) and one of my mods was still working. That tells me it's a stand-alone, client-side mod (Rei's Minimap, if anyone's interested).

This next part, because you're upgrading the MC server, I won't expect you to answer anytime soon.
I got McMyAdmin working by the way. One weird quirk I get after the initial start-up is: 127.0.0.1:(port) lost connection
I have no idea what this means. However, the webgui indicates that the server is running. However, I cannot connect to the Minecraft work via LAN. No, I don't think it's a whitelist problem due to the fact that it won't even show up in the multiplayer server list (scanning for LAN games). I'm having another problem. However, this is more a firmware problem, though, than it is an MC problem.
 
To connect to your server, you need to enter the IP address of the server its running on. You cant use scanning for LAN games, as that is used for inviting local users to your single player games..
 
blsimpson said:
To connect to your server, you need to enter the IP address of the server its running on. You cant use scanning for LAN games, as that is used for inviting local users to your single player games..
Click to expand...
I tried it both ways over the weekend: scanning and manually entering. Neither of them worked. Then, today, I turn on my server to compare vanilla with mcmyadmin to see what it is I'm doing wrong. Trying them one at a time, both show up when I enter the IP manually. I'm not even getting a "lost connection" message from the mcmyadmin command window anymore. Obviously, Murphy works at Mojang. Now, I just need to solve my router problem. Do you know if anyone on CGA specializes in IT/network/router trouble-shooting (not that you do or don't)?
 
both the vanilla and mcmyadmin servers weren't running at the same time, were they? They would conflict then. (I dont believe they will allow you to start if something else is running on the same port, but I haven't run two at once in a while..)

As for the router, whats the issue? I should be able to help with that too :) (IT Admin as a profession, and hobby. :) )
 
blsimpson said:
both the vanilla and mcmyadmin servers weren't running at the same time, were they? They would conflict then. (I dont believe they will allow you to start if something else is running on the same port, but I haven't run two at once in a while..)
Click to expand...
Don't worry. I had the forethought not to run them at the same time. Although, considering the fact that they run in two different directories, aside from putting an extra load on Java, that wouldn't be too difficult, would it? Just find another port that IANA hasn't marked as registered.
blsimpson said:
As for the router, whats the issue? I should be able to help with that too :) (IT Admin as a profession, and hobby. :) )
Click to expand...
I've posted this on Tech Support Guy as well. So, I thought it'd be easier to just repost it:

"I am having problems with port forwarding on a router. I am trying to create a private Minecraft family server. I'm going with the default port of 25565. I went into the router and set it up to forward the port to a specific computer. I am using an AT&T Pace 3801HGV Router. We use AT&T U-verse. I know that AT&T allows for port forwarding because they have setup instructions on their website. With the MC server turned on, I went to a port testing site to see if it could tell me if my port was opened. I have gotten two different answers: the port is, either, closed or filtered.

I know enough about networking to be able to setup a router to do port forwarding without having to read the instructions on the AT&T website, just as long as they specify that they allow port forwarding on their network. As such, can anyone tell me why, despite me setting up the router the right way, I can't get an open status on my ports?

Here's a screenshot I took.
Untitled.jpg
According to a pdf I found, the problem is that it's working in route mode.
http://hackingbtbusinesshub.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/3801hgv_user_guide_rev-1-0.pdf
I, briefly, disabled "stealth mode" and "block ping" to see if they would help and they didn't.

(I do have a public IP. But, for security reasons, I'm withholding it.)"
 
Update:
We had a recent change to our router. One of the main changes is that all the port assignments I made are now associated with our external IP address. However, when I scanned the ports, all of the popular gaming ports said "Timeout (Blocked)" whereas the Minecraft port says "Closed".
 
I managed to fix the problem. In a last ditch effort to tweak the router, I changed how it was assigning ports. Instead of assigning them to a computer name, I assigned them to a static IP I assigned to the server. When I did that, most of the ports I assigned to the computer (at least the TCP ports) opened up. Some of the TCP ports still show as closed. However, those are the TS3 ports and I suspect they are for specific features within TS3.
 
blsimpson said:
Glad to hear it. Sorry I wasnt very much help..
Click to expand...
Don't worry about it. Unless you (or whoever manages the router the ToJ server is behind) manage routers on a regular basis, there's no way either of us could have seen this. Even remote desktop (something I practice using regularly) doesn't need an IP address to work. Just a computer name.
 
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