Restricted public access to self hosted Minecraft Server

Question

So I created a forge server on my Personal PC and tested a connection with another computer on the LAN, it worked. Now i would like to allow outside access to the public for my friends.

I've done everything on the list that I could find but it still doesn't work, every time i try to connect I get the "Connection Refused error". Here are the things I have done:

1.) Fowared port 25565 on my router and mapped it the fixed IP my PC has.

2.) Set firewall rules to allow TCP and UDP port 25565 for both incomming and outgoing.

3.) Disabled Firewall completely (still no dice).

Note that i check my port from the outside using this online tool, and according to it 25565 is open. Also I don't have a antivirus that assumes control over the firewall.

Answer 1

Forge can be quite finicky sometimes, so to make it work you need to make sure the mods and forge version you are using matches your friends. Previously when I used forge servers before, my friends downloaded the same mod with a slight version change and that was enough to stop everything from working.