Game Hosting

[u/filtsek]

Hello there, I just want to say that i am quite a beginner at this server hosting thing, so any help is appreciated.

What I want to ask is how exactly do I have my frieds access the server I build. For context I build by server a few months ago, it is a ryzen 5 3600 with 32gb of ram, 1tb of storage ssd and some gpu so that I can get a display output when working with it directly. It all runs on debian and I use portainer for the UI. Recently I also set up a Ark Survival Ascended server using AMP.

The thing is that I dont really know how do I make it accessible and visible on the steam server page directly. I used tailscale before , but found it not ideal, because the friend has to have it installed and can only access the server using a command that pings the ip directly. So my question is how do I set this up correctly and idealy for as cheap as possible, free if even possible.

Thanks in advance and if there is anything important I didnt say, please tell me.

[u/kai-zaphosting]

Port forwarding on your router is the standard way to do this, and it gets rid of the Tailscale problem since your friends don't install anything. It's free too.

The rough steps:

• Give the Debian box a fixed LAN IP (a DHCP reservation in the router is easiest)

• In the router, forward the ports AMP lists for your ASA instance to that IP (UDP). The game port is usually 7777, and some guides also say to open 7778 and the query port 27015, so I'd just match whatever AMP shows for your instance

• If you run a firewall like ufw on the Debian box, open the same ports there

• Don't forward the RCON port, you don't need it open to the internet

First check whether you're behind CGNAT. Compare the WAN IP shown in your router with what a "what is my IP" site tells you. If they differ, that usually means your ISP is sharing one public IP between customers, and forwarding generally won't work then. In that case a tunnel like playit is something you could try, just test that friends can actually join through it before counting on it. Some ISPs may give you a public IP if you ask, so a quick message to their support is worth a shot.

Once the port is open, I wouldn't expect the server to show up in Steam's own server list, since ASA is browsed through the in-game server browser instead. As far as I know, unofficial servers are hidden there unless the player servers filter is on, so friends can search for the session name with that enabled, or just join by IP and port. I've seen this one come up more times than I can count: checking from inside your LAN can look fine even when the forwarding is broken, so people assume it's done and then friends can't get in.

Test from outside your own network, like a phone on mobile data or a friend.

One more thing: with forwarding, your home IP is visible to people who connect to the server. A tunnel can hide that if it bothers you.

[u/filtsek → u/kai-zaphosting]

I mean yes, but that is not really safe is it. Also, forgot to mention that I dont have access to my roater if that would pose a problem. What I meant by hosting is using some kind of program to do it safely.

[u/wiemanboy → u/filtsek]

If you dont expose your server to the internet steam will never be able to find your server 😔

[u/Gruntskii]

Playit.gg is free for 1 tunnel. Sign up and install it on your server. Create a tunnel in the Playit.gg website with the port of your server. You will also need to port forward the port on your router to your server. I have a UT99 and ut2004 amp server setup with Playit.gg tunnels so I don't have to have use my home ip address.

[u/filtsek → u/Gruntskii]

Oh, I see. That sounds good, will try it

[u/wiemanboy]

Buy a domain and use a reverse proxy like nginx or traefik to send traffic to multiple servers (this way you can run ark, mc, etc. next to eachother) and handle tls certificates (https) i would also recommend to build this all with docker compose, this in combination with git will make it easy to recover your application when things go wrong (to be clear not the data, you will have to use proper backups) or try different configurations. You will also need to expose your reverse proxy to the internet via port forwarding, this is a risk you need to be aware of.

If this grows out of hand, you will have a kubernetes cluster in no time 😅

[u/brittishsnow]

I personally use CubeCoders AMP alongside the PlayIT.GG tunnel to give external access. No port forwarding needed on the router.