How to make my LSB server (on a Windows 11 PC) open to other PCs/clients connected to my router

[Sirloinofbeef87]

This sort of spawned from another topic I started earlier and I thought I would make it it's own thing.

Question: How can I open up my LSB server (on a Windows 11 PC) so that other PCs/clients on my router can connect to it?

If anyone knows how to do this, please can you be very specific about how to do it because I've never done it before and doing something new can be daunting going in blind.

Cheers.
Mike.

[Mortalelite]

Well to connect outside the network would follow https://github.com/LandSandBoat/server/wiki/Post-Install-Guide#making-the-server-available-to-the-internet cause would have to open ports so others can see the server

Same machine that server and game running on would do 127.0.0.1
If the server is running on different machine within network would get IP Address of that system and most time looks like 192.168.0.2 or something like that.
To usually get Local IP of a computer you can open Command Prompt and type ipconfig the look for IPv4 and that be IP of that system

You also have to update zone ip within the Database. Link above will help with this.

[RAIST5150]

One of the big things that trips up the set up is forwarding the outside traffic into your server's private IP address. This may get a bit weird depending on how your network hardware is set up/managed. In a normal setup, there is a WAN section for managing port forwarding. How you get in to set them up can vary, so may need your router's documentation.

Some will label it as virtual server or somethimg like that. It will be a table where you create rules to forward particular protocol type traffic (TCP, UDP, or Both) on a certain port to a particular IP address (will be the private IP of the server). Some may actually provide a list of connected devices, others may require you to type the address in manually.

This is what that portion of the guide is talking about with this inormation

TCP ports: 54230, 54231, 54001, 54002
UDP port: 54230

May have to add a separate line for each port unless there is a range for the same protocol (TCP 54001-54002) Some may allow you to do a group of addresses for the same protocol by using commas though (TCP 54001, 54002). More a matter of convenince that would be in the documentation... but at the very least you can always do a line for each port.

Should note also that security software on that server may also need rules set to open up traffic from the public and private network layers as well (Windows Defender/Firewall, 3rd party Anti-virus/Firewall, etc.)

[Sirloinofbeef87]

Thank you both for replying. I managed to get this setup and working earlier today so that I can run the server from my GPD Win Max 2 (mini laptop/handheld) and connect to it with my main PC. At first it didn't work, because I thought that only changing the IP address for all of the zones would be the trick and then change the IP in my Windower config to then direct XILoader to connect to my server. But it didn't work, so I then digged a bit deeper and found this on Reddit...

"Given that you are running Windows, you will want to also make sure that each of the server executables are allowed access through Windows Firewall. You can do that by doing the following:

Open the Windows start menu.

Start typing: settings and then select/open the 'Settings' app.

On the Settings app, click the search bar and enter 'firewall' then select 'Firewall and Network Protection'

On the Firewall window, click the 'Advanced Settings' link.

This should now open the 'Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security' window. Here you will need to do the following steps for each server:

Click the 'Inbound Rules' on the left.

Click the 'New Rule..' on the right under 'Actions'.

For 'Rule Type', choose 'Program'.

For 'Program', choose the 'This program path:' option and then navigate/browse to one of the 4 server executables you compiled and created. (ie. xi_connect.exe, xi_map.exe, xi_search.exe, xi_world.exe)

For 'Action', choose 'Allow the connection'.

For 'Profile', ensure all checkboxes are selected.

For 'Name', Enter something easy to find later if needed, such as 'LandSandBoat Private Server (xi_connect)' for the xi_connect.exe program. (Use the proper exe name for each server when doing these names.)

Click Finish.

Next, you will want to repeat these steps for all 4 server executables. Making a new rule for each one. After that, on the left side again, choose 'Outbound Rules'. Once that is selected, repeat the same steps again for all 4 servers, but this time for outbound rules."

And now everything is working! I'll bookmark this topic so that I can come back here if I ever need to redo anything.

[RAIST5150]

If it still fails from outside the network, you may need to revisit the Defender firewall and double check the source settings for those firewall rules.

Forget exactly how the defaults come up... but they may be restricted to enabled/allowed only for sources from your private/trusted local network and blocking inbound traffic from public sources.