One of the most well-known video games in the world for a long time has been Minecraft. One of the main reasons is the ability to play Minecraft with your friends, even those who are far away. While many people may believe that this is because of the extensive features and seemingly endless possibilities in single-player, this is not entirely true.
Although Minecraft’s single-player experience is fantastic, playing multiplayer with others can greatly enhance it. There are many options for playing with friends, such as LAN servers that let you connect with other users of the same internet connection as you, Realms that let you play with players around the world, and servers, which is by far the most popular choice because it lets you play modded Minecraft with your friends. You might be curious about the best way to play Minecraft online and how to do it. Because of this, we’ll outline the various ways to communicate and have fun together in this guide.
- Launch Minecraft and select Multiplayer. Open the multiplayer menu. …
- Click Add Server.
- In the Server Address box, enter the host server’s address and click Done. This might be an IP address, or a URL. …
- Wait for the server to connect, and when it appears in the list, select it and click Join Server.
Joining a Server
How to get a server
- Find a server on a Minecraft server listing website.
- Read the descriptions and pick one you like. Find its IP address and copy it to the clipboard (Windows/Linux: Ctrl C; macOS: Cmd C). The IP address is frequently a number or a domain displayed next to its name.
- Start Minecraft, click Multiplayer and click Add Server. There should be two boxes, Server Name and IP Address. The server name does not matter a bit. Call it what you like. Now, enter the IP by typing it in or pressing Ctrl V (Windows/Linux) or Cmd V (macOS) in the Server Address box. Confirm your entries by clicking done.
- You will be taken back to the server list. Green bars on the right side of the screen should display the server.
- Click the server, click Join Server. Normally, you will be brought directly into the server. If not, the list of common errors below will assist you.
Possible errors
There will be times when things go wrong, so here are some error messages and their definitions. These messages might appear when you click Join Server:
If Minecraft updated recently, you might get these error messages. They imply that the software you are using differs from the server’s. Only servers that use the same version of the protocol as your client can be connected to. You can either wait for the server to update, which may take more or less time depending on the server owner’s responsiveness, or you can create a new profile in the launcher with the version the server is currently running.
“You are not whitelisted on this server!”
In order to prevent others from joining, some servers enable a whitelist system; typically, in order to be added to the whitelist, you must ask on an external website, typically the website where you found the server.
“You are banned from this server!”
Your account or your IP got banned from the server. You must speak with the server administrator and ask to be unbanned in order to be unbanned from that server. You may have been IP banned, which means that your IP address was blocked, if it’s a server you’ve never heard of.
“Disconnected by Server. Invalid session (Try restarting your game)”
The Mojang servers keep track of your session ID when you log into Minecraft. One can only join servers (with online mode on) if they have the most recent session ID associated with your account. Do as the message says and restart your game. If you use a cracked version of the Minecraft launcher, you cannot join a server unless the server has set its properties to online-mode=false.
“Cannot connect to server”
This appears next to the list of servers. This means you couldnt reach to the server at all. You may not have an internet connection, the server may be offline, or the server may have exhibited lag in its response. didnt connect.
“Cannot resolve hostname”
This appears next to the list of servers. This means that there is no server with that name. Check the address and try again.
When you look at the server list again after the server was previously shown to you as online but now appears to be offline, this can occasionally happen.
“End of stream”
This might occur if you attempt to connect to a server too quickly; disconnect, wait a while, and then attempt to reconnect; it should work.
“The authentication servers are currently down for maintenance.”
The server that Minecraft uses to check your session ID are currently down. You can check the current status at help.minecraft.net under Service Statuses
Java error, such as java.lang.aMethodWhichReturnedAStackTrace(): An error message
This might be different depending on the error message. Look online for people who have the same issue as you to see if you can find any solutions.
“Buffer overflow”
Check this link for information.
What happens on the server
There are several different types of Minecraft servers, each of which is distinguished by the particular gameplay elements, guidelines, and societal structures they employ. Since no two servers are alike, it is frequently difficult to tell one archetype from another. A lot of specialized servers use modified versions of the server software, like Bukkit Modded server software is not supported by Mojang. There may be plugins on servers running Bukkit (and other modified server software) that change the experience from the vanilla server. If on a bukkit server, one can type /plugins. You can then do research on what the plugins do.
If your device is slow, you might experience severe lag when you first access the server. When there are too many moving objects on the server and the computer is not sufficiently sophisticated to calculate many movements at once, lag occurs. When two (or more) players are far from one another, lag occurs more frequently. Forcing the computer to load in separate distant locations can result in lag because the computer only “cares about” the chunks close to you.
Visit the Server page to see a list of common server types.
This is true for the unmodified server software:
- You will spawn in the servers spawn point. Around the spawn, servers by default have a protected area 16 where you cannot break any blocks or interact with anything.
- The chat, where users can send messages, is located on the left side of the screen. The T key is used by default to type messages in the chat window. You can also enter commands into the chat that accomplish a variety of tasks. Type /help to get a list of commands that you can use.
How To Join Multiplayer Servers in Minecraft 1.16.0 (Pocket Edition, Xbox, PS4, Switch, PC)
FAQ
How do I join my friends Minecraft server for free?
Open Minecraft and go into the “Multiplayer” tab. Towards the bottom, click on “Add Server”. Enter any name you like under “Server Name,” followed by the server’s IP address and port, and click “Done.” When you press “done,” you’ll return to the multiplayer tab where the server should now be listed.
How do I join a Minecraft server with just an IP address?
In any case, enter the IP address that you copied to your clipboard into the Server Address box. For Direct Connection, click Join Server. Click Done for Add Server, then double-click or pick the server from your list and click Join Server to connect.
