How to set up a private server for me and my friend?

Question

I have a friend that also plays Minecraft. She lives a fair bit away from me and I am wondering how to start a private server where ONLY she can join. If any more information is needed please comment and ask. I'm all ears.

Answer 1

##Step 1

First of all, you need to set up a normal Minecraft server. A good guide on this can be found here.
_{For troubleshooting, please refer to an already existing thread: here.}

In addtion to both @jofri and @RimaNari, you could also choose another way of setting up a server like Minecraft Realms.

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##Step 2

Now, assuming that this was no problem for you we can go on and make sure only you and your friend can access this server.

1. Make sure you are an OP and/or have access to the console.
2. Run the command: /whitelist on
3. For each player you want to have access to the server run the command:
   /whitelist add [playername]
4. After all players are added, run the following command: /whitelist reload

Now only players whom are white listed on your server will be able to connect!

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_Sources:

• https://minecraft.wiki/w/Tutorials/Setting_up_a_server
• https://minecraft.wiki/w/Commands

Answer 2

You also can checkout Minecraft Realms. It cost 10 € per month and is a Service by Mojang

Answer 3

There are generally two major ways of setting up a minecraft world for you and a very limited amount of others (1 in your case) to play on. First, you may want to rent a proper server, or second, you can create a local server. For only two people playing a local server might be the better alternative, as it does not cost anything. However, if money is in no way a problem for you, you might find a rented server more convenient.

Rented server

This obviously costs money. There are many different minecraft server hosting services available with varying quality and prices. The creators of minecraft itself offer such a service with Minecraft Realms.

• Setting up such a server can be very easy as many services offer a control panel for you to configure your server without a big amount of knowledge.
• You also have the advantage of your server running 24/7, even if nobody is on the server at the moment, which you may find useful (probably only if you do technical stuff in minecraft).
• Obviously this way your minecraft world is also accessible from anywhere and at all times - however if your internet drops out you can not access your minecraft world.
• Rented servers have less impact on your computer, so if you have very bad hardware and you can barely run minecraft using a rented server might prove helpful for you.
• You can play with more then one friend on these servers at a time normally, but the amount it limited depending on the service you use and the money you want to spend.

Minecraft Realms is probably the easiest to set up, however also not the cheapest with currently 7.19 € (that's EURO not dollar!), less for longer subscriptions. The server hoster I am using charges 4.00 € monthly.

Local server

A local server runs on your own computer or another computer at your place, which means that

• the server is accessible for you always, even if your internet drops out.
• You do not need any additional hardware, so there aren't any costs involved, which is the major advantage.

On the downside it's generally more effort to set up then a rented server and

• it uses your private internet connection for connections to other players then yourself, which, depending on bandwidth and reliability of your internet connection, may lag the game for the other player(s).
• It has more impact on your computer's resources, as the computer has to run both client and server, except if you use another computer in your local network for running the server.
• The amount of other players is not limited theoretically, but practically by your internet connection bandwidth.
• The major disadvantage would be that the minecraft world is available to others only when you start the server. (Note that normally it is not cost-effective to run a server on your computer 24/7 then to rent a server that runs 24/7.) This means your friend will have to wait for you to be online to play on the world.

(A work-around for this last point would be to place the server files in your Dropbox/OneDrive/Google Drive folder (or any other cloud-hosting service's local sync folder) - this way after you shut down the server the changes to the minecraft world will be synchronized with your cloud storage, to which you can invite your friend, which will synchronize the server's files with her computer as well, enabling her to play on the world while you are offline.)

To set up such a local server follow Step 1 of creulcat's answer.

To make both a rented server and a local server accessible only for some players, you have to set up a white list (in case of Minecraft Realms only people you specifically invite to your Realms server can join).

Answer 4

Make your Minecraft Server for Free To create your server for free, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have installed Java on your PC. If not then go to this link.

2. Download the correct version of Java as it is necessary to create your Minecraft server. Download the 64-bit version for the 64 bit and 32-bit version for the 32-bit computer.

3. Next, you want to download is the Minecraft Server Software from here.

Download-MinecraftMinecraft

4. Create a New Folder on Desktop for the Minecraft Server (you can name it whatever you want)

5. Copy and Paste the downloaded server.jar file on this folder.

Jar-file

6. If you are not able to see the extension like I do in the above photo then click on View>Options.

And than Uncheck the “Hide extensions for known file types“.

View-dot-extension

7. Then you will be able to see the .jar extension.

jar-file

8. Next, you need to make a new text document and open it with notepad.

9. Paste this code in that file:

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.1.15.2.jar nogui

Code-for-server

10. Next, you need to edit the “minecraft_server.1.15.2.jar” with “server.jar” as shown:

Server-jar

11. Press Enter and type “PAUSE” because we want to pause the script when it runs and then we will be able to see if there is an error with the script or not.

add-pause

12. Then Save the file as start.bat.

Make sure you select “All Files” as shown(you can give the file whatever name you want but make sure that you insert .bat extension at the end)

bat-file

13. Delete the .txt file.

14. Double click on the start.bat file and let it run. (this will start your server)

start-bat

15. Now you will see that it failed to load. So now you have to open the eula.txt file.

Eula-text

16. Edit the “eula=false” to “eula=true” and save it.

17. Run the .bat file again. And you will see that the server has loaded this time.

18. When you see Done, then type “stop” and hit enter to stop the server. (because you do not want to exit out of your server as exiting out will not save your progress in the Minecraft game)

Server-load

19. Now right-click on ‘server.properties‘ and open it with Notepad. You can now see your server settings.

20. Now open the start.bat file again to run your server and let it load.

Start-bat-file

21. Open Minecraft, click on Multiplayer and then click on Add Server.

22. And now you have to add the Server Name and Server Address.

You can add any Server Name you want but in the Server Address field you have to type – ‘localhost‘.

And then click on Done, you will see that the server is online and you can join it.

23. READ MORE