How to create a Minecraft server

Now you are the proud owner of a new Minecraft account!

But you are hear to make a server, so lets get to that now. And you will be happy to know that its justas simple as getting your account, and its free to download!

So head back on over to minecraft.net and click the little blue link named "Download" under nether the big yellow button that say "Buy Now!!!" At the bottom of the page, there will be a section entitled "Multiplayer server" and now all you have to do is download the correct server software that corresponds to the operating system of your computer.

And now you have the minecraft server!!! But your not done just yet. You see, there are things called "plugins" that you can add to your server to "improve" it and make it do awesome things. But in order for plugins to work, you need to head over to bukkit.net and download the version of "craftbukkit" that matches your server version. (By default, your server will be the most recent version of minecraft).

This video should help you with how to install bukkit properly.

And now you have successively installed bukkit and made your server uniquely yours. But at this point, only you can play on your server, so you need to first go to ipchicken.com and wrote down the ip that comes up. you will give this to your friends that wish to play on your server. You will now need to "port forward" your server on your modem to let outside ip's join. This step is often the most difficult for most people making a Minecraft server. I know this may seem confusing now, but maybe this video can clear some of the confusion up about port forwards.

If after watching that video, you are still completely confused on how to port forward, than its ok, most people are. You may want to try running your server through something called hamachi. But thats a different story.

Have a friend test out the IP you got from ipchicken.com and see of they can connect. If they can successively join, than you have done everything correctly and you are DONE!!!

Now all you have to do (not required but recommended) is head over to minecraftforums.net and make a post about your server so people start joining your server!

This may seem like a lot of work but its pretty simple and defiantly worth it in the end!

I hope you were successively able to create your server and enjoy Minecraft!

(server hosting is also an option if creating a server on your computer was to difficult or your computer just can't handle it. It takes the process of setting the server up amd the server often runs better but you do pay monthly fees on the server to have it.)