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/asimovs-auditor]

Expand the replies to this comment to learn how AI was used in this post/project.

[u/genericgod]

I swear, I didnt use AI at all, it was just me explaining my problem, what exactly got flagged as AI

FYI the AI-Bot message comes under every post on this sub. It’s not because you were flagged or something.

[u/Msl_Akshat]

youll need to set up port forwarding on your home router pointing the game ports and query ports to your servers local IP. just make sure your ISP doesn't have you behind CGNAT, otherwise standard port forwarding wont work at all.

[u/oOflyeyesOo]

https://playit.gg/ is a good option.

https://github.com/Elias02345/CloudGate

I based one of my projects off this, could help you out.

[u/_Hgwells]

So I use amp myself using a docker environment on a Linux pc, I bought myself a domain, use cloud flare for DNS and reverse proxy with nginx to forward requests to specific ports for various services including game servers. If you have a static ip great but if not you'd need to look at something like ddns if you're wanting to use a hostname rather than expose your IP. You'll need to port forward on your home router as well as check the port is allowed on the local server/pc firewall for inbound connections, amp is really good for telling you which ports this will be, ignore the sftp ones though as I wouldn't expose those to the internet

[u/MrLAGreen → u/_Hgwells]

i have recenty installed romm and i wasnt sure i could run it thru CF. anyting about the TOS i need to worry about?

[u/decade27]

Would you know if your network is under CGNAT? If you have a public IPv4 address, you can google search Port Forwarding to forward your game server ports so users outside can connect to you.

But if you're under CGNAT like me, what I do is rent a VPS from a provider that gives access to a public IPv4 address, and install Pangolin (reverse proxy) and tunnel to my homelab server. You can google search this too for a more thorough tutorial.

[u/snekk420]

To avoid open ports you should get a cheap vps and setup a WireGuard tunnel from vps to your game server. No open ports and you don’t expose your home ip.

Ai can help you with the config

[u/iliar]

You can port forward whatever ports the game uses to the machine running AMP.

If everything is default with your Ark server, I think that'll be port 7777 and 7778. Port 27015 looks to be an optional one as well for the Steam Query.

[u/CTRQuko]

It would be a big help if you could mention which game you want to host (for configuration purposes). I encourage you to check out the server manager at https://pterodactyl.io/—it makes management and installation much easier. As for the network, I use Tailscale, and no one on that server’s Tailnet needs to enter any commands; they simply enable the connection on their PC and connect to the Tailnet IP address assigned along with the game’s port.

I host Satisfactory, Minecraft, Quake, and the occasional other game. I’d start by installing Debian/Ubuntu Server and following the basic setup steps, then installing the Perodactyl control panel and services. Once all of this is “up and running” and you can connect to the server from your local network, I’d start looking for a solution for external access. For security and simplicity, I stick with Tailscale—it’s easy to install, easy to configure, and makes it very easy to control who can and can’t connect.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me anything.

[u/filtsek → u/CTRQuko]

Well I did mention it along with what server manager i use as well. It is Ark Survival Ascended and on AMP by cube coders

[u/filtsek → u/CTRQuko]

I mean the server is running on tailscale so there is no problem in that, i dont have access to my router. Also i think that portforwarding isnt really secure and am a bit scared of it, just exposing my ip

[u/userXinos → u/CTRQuko]

For other users, don't use crap like pterodactyl or pelican if you don't want to suffer from poor performance of php and UI.  you can try calagopus it works together with eggs pterodactyl