{How To Make} My game server online for free with NO-IP !

[AriusII]

Required Level : Beginner

Estimated time: Between 5 and 10 minutes

 

 

Hello dear community !
Here we go for a new tutorial !
This tutorial affects our server, and more specifically
How to make our server accessible at either home without buying VPS / Dedicate Server.
And for this we will talk about NO-IP !
 

Requirement:

- Some patience
- A beer ! or Two ..

 

I. Step I

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A. Open Windows FireWall Ports

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Here we will talk about us Windows FireWall.
We will open the port ' 5400 ' set by default, in UDP.

- Open it 
( You have this : here )
- Make an execption for Intern & Extern connection
( Here )
For IN & OUT do the same things like this
(a gifv : HERE )
And we are done for this.
You can close Windows FireWall.

* If you sure of what you do, you can desactivate it directly ( Private & Public ).
 

 

B. Open your Rooter/Modem Ports

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\ ! * Normally Intersect Server.exe add this value himself on your rooter/modem when you launch your server for the first time ( at the admin right (VAC) windows appear ). * ! /

Like what we have do with us FireWall we will do it for us Rooter/Modem.
/ ! \ *Note : I cannot really give screen / exemple cause everyone don't have the same internet compagny / Modem Panel but the logic is the same. / ! \

- Go on your rooter/modem panel
( for me it's : http://192.168.1.1 , some panel are indexed on other local IP do a check of your model rooter/modem on Net to get the answer.)
- Log in your panel ( By default it's " admin - admin " in 80% of case ).

- Look if you have a NAT / Ports (...) sub-menu for this and go on it.
Normally you can recognized it really simply it's could look like this ( exemple ) a field with name of service + type of port + number of ports + local ip of devices.

- Make a new field/row and do what we do with Windows FireWall
-> Select Port : UDP - Port Number : 5400 - Local IP Device : The ip get from ipconfig  CMD Command.
- Add the field.

And we are done ! 

 

 

II. Step II

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A. NO-IP ! Create my DNS hostname

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After all of this now we need an hero ... No-IP !
You need an account before so go : here , and make it.

Now we can work  !

When you're on it, you have this page (here)
Do the step sayed in the screen.
Your DNS is create ! Yay !
 

 

B. NO-IP ! DUC Client

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After making us DNS we need the NO-IP Client, named DUC
In resume, he do auto refresh of your IP for the DNS name, it's usefull we have always the same DNS and no need to give back your IP if this have changed !

You can find him : here.
Install it, and go on it with your account.
-> here
And now you normally have this windows : here.
This say all work and No-Ip configuration is terminate !
You hosting yourself your server to the world ! 
Ah wait .. How can I publish it ...?  
Go step 3 !

 

 

III. Step III

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* New with this? Read it ! Please *
Disclaimer | Sequence of Informations 

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/ ! \ Caution : You need to make a copy of each folder / ! \
When you setup a DNS on the same computer and do the futur explication I will say, with the same Client folder you used before in local, will not work ! 

It's why you need 2 folders of Client's, Editor's ( If you want send it to your admins friends ).
So you just need Copy/Paste it.

The original can be used for Back-Up but here, we don't need to edit it or just a bit in other case.
Explication 
> Cause if you use the server on your same House / Lan / Local Network : (1 or 2 )

1 - and use your client/editor in the same computer :
Your IP stay to be <127.0.0.1> or <localhost>.
And you don't need edit config file.

2 - and use an other computer :
Your IP will be your local ip ( 192.168.1.x )
Find this IP on your computer Server with ipconfig CMD Command.
And you need edit your config file.


If your server are in local and you have edit your config file with your (DNS/Public IP) and try to connect on your game with your modified Client, the result is : Not Work.
Cause the logic is " I ask my Client to found my self with an un-Convention method ." it's why it's not working.

So on your new Client/Editor Folder just <copy/pasted>
Edit you config files and put your DNS.
Convert your folder in .rar or other things..
And the people from internet could be connected to your server  !

It's a part i have like to explain before gettings some ' Help & Support Question ' with the arguments it's not working ^^ !
Thanks for reading  !

 

B. Modify my < Config > files.

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Here it is ! The end of this tutorial is really near !

It's basicly really simple.

Go on you Client folder or Editor Folder ( work for both ) 
If you use Intersect <5.0
The file would be like in " resources/config.xml "

If you use Intersect > 5.1 
The file would be like in " resources/config.json"

Open the file, and search a line with
"Host": "localhost"

You can change < localhost > by you DNS name.
"Host": "mydnstest.ddns.net"

Save your file.

Now you just need to publish it & compact it ( with winrar ) and send it to your friend for testing.
And it's work  !

 

Thanks everyone for reading this tutorial.
This have help you ? It was usefull for you ? don't forget to react  !

Help & Question about this : here.

- AriusII

[Melow417]

So it is basically masking your ip with the No-Ip address, you still need to port porward and have your game accessible to the outside world right?

[hiroman]

27 minutes ago, Melow417 said:

So it is basically masking your ip with the No-Ip address, you still need to port porward and have your game accessible to the outside world right?

Yeah it's just help only if you have dynamic IP

[panda]

Unless NoIP is doing something very special, Intersect and Windows itself should take care of portforwarding through your router (if UPnP is enabled) and Windows Firewall (Windows should prompt you about it when you start the server for the first time).

[Gibier]

29 minutes ago, panda said:

Unless NoIP is doing something very special, Intersect and Windows itself should take care of portforwarding through your router (if UPnP is enabled) and Windows Firewall (Windows should prompt you about it when you start the server for the first time).

 

The only thing that no-ip can offert to intersect is basically just change the game's ip adress to something like 'something.no-ip.org'

[buu]

4 minutes ago, Gibier said:

 

The only thing that no-ip can offert to intersect is basically just change the game's ip adress to something like 'something.no-ip.org'

Also it's super easy to unmask and see your actual ip

[panda]

21 minutes ago, Gibier said:

 

The only thing that no-ip can offert to intersect is basically just change the game's ip adress to something like 'something.no-ip.org'

I'm aware of what No IP does on a feature level, what I was referring to is the actual implementation requirements of the No IP agent you install to keep the domain's A record synchronized with the remote IP of the machine -- i.e. does it require another port to be opened? If Intersect was the only thing needing ports to be opened then Intersect pretty much has that covered already.

[jcsnider]

2 hours ago, mrhiroman said:

Yeah it's just help only if you have dynamic IP

 

Yeah. The only thing this sorta helps with is giving your players a domain name to connect to if your ip is changing all the time. If your ip isn’t dynamic then this is an extra config step with little to no benefit. 

[AriusII]

Here, you are all talking about something you know how to do it < better >.
This tutorial was for Beginner user...

I have started this type of project when I had 10-12 year old, I have 23 YO now, & I'm from an ancient 2D mmorpg community named FRoG Creator #RIP little froggy.
And when I had this age I didn't know how to do it, not the skill / motivation / knowledge, for doing this.
This tutorial is for them, an easy way to do it.

 +(Argument) If you want make a custom webserver on your computer ... you have already do the job  !

Of course, if we talk about DNS it's just a way to ' mask ' your IP with a name, but the real motivation of this, it's basically why we have create DNS register, it's easy to think with a 'name(dot)something' out of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (:port).
But like say before if you don't have an Static IP you need to say to everyone ' Hey my IP is now this. -2 day later: Now it's this.'  It's not at us player's to do them self update/modification ( Yeah I know they are a Launcher avaiable, but making a update for only 1 file it's really ... creepy )

That why I recommand using No-Ip for free use, and with the DUC Client the refresh is so much better and simply !

- Regards, Arius
 

[panda]

@AriusII We weren't saying No IP was bad, we said that Intersect (and Windows together) already do all of the port forwarding in most cases automatically, so configuring the ports manually was just an additional unnecessary (and also complicated) step.