Note: I did this instead of posting yet anouther help topic on making servers through this I hope there can be a comprehensive guide made for the wiki or used as a sticky on the forum you have a few choices when you wish to play with your pals across the information highway one is setting it up through port forwarding or through a service like remobo or hamachi.
[h]Method 1![/h]
Port Forwarding
RabbiBob wrote:1. Find the internal LAN IP of the computer the you are running the server on (example: 192.168.1.100)
2. Use port forwarding from the router to forward port 30000 to the internal LAN IP
2.a If any firewalls are present, they must allow the port to pass traffic as well.
3. Let your friends know what your internet IP is (you can find this by looking at your router's status page or go to a site such as whatismyip.com).
any more details would be helpful
also if it isn't apparent you also need to find the IP for your router so that you may gain access by typing the IP into the address box of your browser.
finding these internal LAN IP's in Window's can be as simple as typing ipconfig into the command prompt.
RabbiBob wrote:More specific to Linux[/unix-like] and perhaps useful, I found that by running the server with nohup I can exit the ssh session in order to leave the server running. I can also ssh in remotely when I'm not at home to start it up again if needed.
Example:
#>nohup ./<fullinstalldirpath>/bin/minetestserver
All of the screen output goes to nohup.out which is sometimes useful see the last event to the console before a crash as well as debug.txt
I've been curious as to how others have their servers running.
my list of favorite dyndns websites
1. [url]freedns.afraid.org[/url]
2. [url]no-ip.com[/url]
Other useful things include the use of GNU screen and tmux screen Man Page, tmux for noobs
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[h]Method 2![/h]
This method uses the software remobo to avoid port forwarding remobo is much like using a hamachi server for minecraft. (note for this anyone who wishes to connect must have the software installed and running.)
Here is the reason the minetest community as a whole does not endorse this method as shown by a IRC log from #minetest on Febuary 8th of 2013
(06:14:26 PM) Menche: should we "officially" recommend remobo somewhere for casual multiplayer?
(06:14:57 PM) Muadtralk: for like 1 or 2 players who just wanna play around
18:15
(06:15:01 PM) Muadtralk: yes we should
(06:15:01 PM) Menche: like on the sticky server how-to thread
(06:15:31 PM) Muadtralk: for a actual full blown server port forwarding is highly reccomended
(06:15:46 PM) Muadtralk: I will update my how to make a minetest server thread
(06:15:58 PM) Muadtralk: which somehow got stickied
(06:16:00 PM) Menche: but for someone just showing off their world, or a few friends playing, remobo is better IMO
(06:16:07 PM) marktraceur: We shouldn't recommend any non-free software.
(06:16:20 PM) Menche: ok, then what?
(06:16:38 PM) Kacey: hamachi
(06:16:55 PM) Menche: hamachi lags more than remobo i think
(06:17:32 PM) Menche: i *think* the slowest person on a hamachi network slows down everyone else
(06:17:40 PM) Menche: and is hamachi free?
(06:18:08 PM) marktraceur: vinagre probably is better
(06:19:19 PM) Menche: wouldn't that still require port-forwarding on the server?
18:20
(06:20:03 PM) marktraceur: Yes. But any free option will, because it's not using hacks and third parties to circumvent security
(06:20:34 PM) marktraceur: It would be stupid of this community to endorse non-free software. Learn to port forward instead.
Okay, now that thats out of the way and I have forced you to read through that lets actually start shall we?
Step 1: go to Remobo's website and download/install their client (hopefully you have installed software in the past so you get my drift and I don't have to explain the process)
Step 2: start the client and sign up! (haven't lost you yet have I?)
Step 3: now that you and your friend have done that you can add each other as buddies by one of you adding the other into his contacts.
Step 4: the person who is planning to access the others said minetest server must now hover over his friends computer and type the little address that appears into the multiplayer address box.
Step 5: connect with the port your friend has specified for the minetest server and ENJOY!