With the growth of the online gaming industry and the influence of the internet in our daily lives,

a lot of people are in need to be connected. Unfortunately, not everyone here in the Philippines has access to good hardware and a decent connection. But all of that is changing now, especially with the frenetic rise of Internet Cafes in our country. For the local MMORPG industry, roughly 80% of our business comes from the cafes. So its important to have a good relationship with our partners. Meanwhile, Im certain that a lot of individuals or friends (mostly thru gaming) are considering opening up their own shop. Mind you, its no joke. A business is always serious. I thought Id share with you some practical tips on how to start (and maintain) your own Internet Cafe. One more click, faps HOW TO START YOUR OWN INTERNET CAFE BUSINESS

Budget An internet cafe with around 20 seats will push you back P700 to P1M in capital. Of course, the more seats, the more money you will need. If you dont have the cash, you can find partners to pool in money. I believe that the optimum number of partners for this project will be 4. Expect an ROI (Return of Investment) of 1 to 2 years. Also, I would suggest against forming a business with your close friends. The chances of ruining your friendship is high. Just note that.

Location Aside from the moolah, location is one of the KEY FACTORS FOR SUCCESS. Keywords to look for when scouting; near a school, heavy foot traffic, not too many competitors in the area. You should try to look for a place thats easy to spot (from the customers perspective, ok?). A good monthly rental is P15,000 to P25,000 a month, more than that and youll have to work double time for the return.

Hardware Try to budget P25,000 to P35,000 per PC. Remember, I always tell potential entrepreneurs to invest for the future. Do not scrimp out on memory, processing power or video cards. The logic here is that a) okay, so you save a few bucks but your computers will be trash in less than a year and b) you should have a faster PC than your competitors its your edge. And hey, if you can get LCD monitors for all computers, do so! The cost savings on electricity will more than pay for itself.

Connection again, a faster and decent connection in your cafe will be a key selling point. Dont worry too much about marketing, if you have the best computers and the fastest connection in your area, sheerWORD-OFMOUTH will drive customers through YOUR door. Its a fact. So try to get the best kbps package that you can afford. Also, if you have the money, you can always get another as back-up in case your primary connection goes down.

Set-Up if youre a techie, you can probably do the wiring and the setup of the routers and switches yourself. But if you cant, there are professionals who can do it for you. If you cant find one in your province or city, grab a copy of Buy&Sell or discreetly ask the tech guy at the PC shop where you bought your hardware if he can do a little moonlighting for your new shop.

Software if you plan to start small, you dont have to pay to install MMORPGs. The installers are free. Just tell me if you need it delivered to your new shop and Ill get the Sales boys on it right away. For office applications, openoffice is free and mimics Micro$oft. For a good, free billing solution, try handycafe

Other services Food is always a good extra source of income. Check out my post on Gamer Food 101and youll see what gamers need and want. Printing, Fax and Xerox (photocopying) are other good sources of supplementary revenue. Staff If youve formed a partnership, take turns with your partners manning the shop. Just make a schedule. If youre going to hire someone, hire someone you can trust. You have to set check and balance systems (such as an advance billing system) to avoid fraud and theft. It may be tempting to hire an avid gamer to staff your shop but if he has friends

and he lets them play for free you know what that will bring you. Speaking of free play, tell your all your friends that you cant allow them to play for free. It IS a business after all. But tell them you can give them a discount. If they really are your friends, theyll understand.

A) CAPITAL? How much is enough? The bulk of your capital will go to 2 things; first are the computers. Syempre, an Internet Cafe is useless without them, diba? The second would be deposits and advances for rent or lease. The first thing to do is decide on the SCALE of your operations. Based on feedback, reports, my own feasibility studies, and experience, its best to start with at least 20 or more PC units. Starting with less will mean less income and you wont be able to recoup or head to that sweet spot the R.O.I or Return on Investment. Why? Because the number of seats will be finite. Meaning, you will never be able to cope up with demand whenever you have a lot of waiting customers. So, how much capital is enough? Lets just base it on the current market price of a PC. According to this online PC store, a gaming rig will cost you around PHP 37,000. This already includes the LCD monitor (its a complete set). This means that for 20, you will need to invest P740,000 for the units alone. A lot of readers and would-be business owners ask me online if cutting back on costs on PCs is a good idea meaning, that they try to look for the cheapest PC set and buy that. My advise: No, no, no!!! Why? Because your primary investment are the computers. Cutting down on costs will only be more expensive in the long run. Take note that games and applications will be more powerful in mere months, this means that you have to constantly upgrade your PC to stay competitive (because you dont want your competitors to have the better machines). This translates to more costs rather than investing it at the start. Now, back to the example Lets do a simple computation on capital based on the following assumptions

Number of PCs: 20 Monthly Rental or lease for shop: P20,000.00 Operation Hours 9am to 12 midnight (15 hours daily) Number of employees: 2 Connection: DSL 3-4 MBPS (costs roughly P4,000 per month) Rental Rate: P20 / hour

As you can see, the capital needed is nearly a million bucks. Thats ok. Ill help you plan your work and work your plan on how to get back that investment. Lets go to the next topic, shall we? B) RETURN ON INVESTMENT In order to figure out how to get your ROI (the period it takes na bawi na puhunan mo), you have to think in terms of occupancy. This is the single, measurable metric you have in the I-Cafe business. Occupancy will come in a percentage. Simply put, how much will your cafe gross in a day if the computers were rented 100% during your days operation hours. Using that thought, heres the answer; 20 PCs X 20 Pesos per hour x 15 hours in a day = P6,000 Now we know that you will gross 6K a day assuming na walang tatayo and occupied ka whole day. This translates to around P180,000 in a month gross income. Now that we know this value, lets set some goals. Lets target around 40% occupancy on the first half of the year and then increase that to around 50% to 60% before the end of the first year. Btw, 50% occupancy rate for a cafe is actually good enough. Once we have a goal, we have to know what tabs to pick up on a regular basis to know our Net Revenue (Gross income less Expenses). Lets make a list with some projections. This will also allow us to see the B.E.V (orBreak Even Value how much we need to earn daily/monthly to pay for the expenses.) In short, ito ung bawi-bawi lang

mode.

The electric bill is no joke. Trust me. At any rate, lets go back to the tutorial We already know that we will spend around 75k a month. With this value, lets compute the BEV first. P74,500 / 30 days = P2,483.33 per day or around 124 hours of rental time. This is roughly 6.21 hours rental (124 divided by P20 per hour) per PC, an occupancy rate of 41%. Hey! Thats almost exactly what we projected on the first 6 months. Now, we know that we have to gross around P2.5k a day to stay afloat. Anything in excess of that is profit. Thats a good start. Lets now go into computing HOW SOON we can recoup the initial investment of almost P1M. Ive made a simple study based on an average of 60% occupancy rate (monthly) for the entire year;

You will get back your investment in around 2 years and 3 months. Not bad for a 1M investment, right? The key here is to increase your occupancy rate. You could do this via several things

Marketing Value Added Services LU top up cards selling, food, etc Better service than your competitors faster PC and connection, kind and knowledgeable staff, etc Expansion (if you can loan money from a bank, this is a good idea)

This tutorial takes you through the steps of setting up your own serverusing the default server software that Mojang distributes free of charge. The software may be installed on most operating systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux. Regardless of your operating system, you must begin by downloading the server software from Minecraft downloads page. It is recommended that you create a dedicated folder for the server files. (Ensure the filename is precisely minecraft_server.jar or minecraft_server.exe, in case your browser has renamed it to something else.) Note: There is also custom server software available, but note that these applications are not supported by Mojang.

Warning
Since you're about to run your own server, you should be aware of the possible dangers. Although we can not prevent newbies to run their server and putting themselves at risk, we may at least appeal that you don't do it when having no idea what you actually do. Running by the instructions below should not put you at any risk, but since this is a wiki which everybody is allowed to edit, and we don't know about your system configuration, we cannot guarantee you'll be out of danger. In order to run your server and stay out of trouble, we strongly recommend you should at least know about: Networking in general (IP, DHCP, ports etc.) Your network configuration Your system configuration Your router configuration (if you want other people to connect over Internet) How to use and configure your personal firewall (shutting it down is NOT an option!)

If you decide it's too risky, you're welcome to join other servers that fit your taste. A bunch of lists are available here. [edit]

Windows Instructions
Verify and Install the Latest Version of Java

[edit]REQUIRED:

1. Make sure that you have Java 6 installed. Avoid Java 7 unless you are debugging it, or until Oracle has officially released it. To do so, we first need to open up a command (CMD) window. In Windows 7/Vista/XP hold the Windows key down and press R to open the Run command. At the command prompt, enter the following command, and press enter: java -version

Java then should display its version, which should read "Java version 1.6"

2. If you get this error, "'Java' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.", then you may have a previous version (less than 1.6) of Java or Java may not be in your system path. For 32-bit users you can obtain the latest version here: Java download page. If you use a 64bit OS ensure you download the Windows x64 package. After you have installed the latest version of Java try again with java -version.

If you get an error at this point, try the following to add Java to your system path. 1. Right click Computer. 2. Click properties. 3. Click "Advanced system settings". 4. Click "Environment Variables". 5. Under system variables, find the Path variable. 6. Click edit, and append to the end of the value: ;"c:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin". If you use 32-bit Java on a 64-bit OS use: ;"c:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin" 7. Restart your computer. 8. Now re-open the command prompt and try again. [edit]Start

the Minecraft Server (.exe version)

1. Double click on the "Minecraft_Server.exe" file you downloaded and the server should start with a default configuration. Upon its initial start, it may throw some "file not found" error messages. This is normal. The files are being created. After the first start, you'll probably want to shut it down (enter stop in the server command window) and then edit some configuration filesas is explained below. [edit]Increasing

the amount of RAM allocated to the Minecraft server

If you would like to start your server with more RAM, you will need to create a Windows batch file and run your server that way. Don't worry, it's easier than it sounds. 1. Open up Notepad (not Wordpad) to create a text document with no formatting (italics, boldface, etc.).

2. Identify your Windows OS type (32-bit or 64-bit), which may be done through the Control Panel. Also, identify which version of Java you are running32 bit or 64 bit. 3. Based on your OS and Java types... 1. If Windows is 32-bit or Windows is 64-bit with 64-bit Java, copy this into your document (on a single line) (adjust the following line for Java 6 if used): "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe" -Xmx2G -Xms2G -jar "Minecraft_Server.exe" 2. If you are, for some reason, running 32-bit Java on a 64-bit system, upgrade Java. Also, if you have installed Java to a different directory or changed the name of your Minecraft server .exe file, see below. 3. If you do have 32-bit Java on a 64-bit system, Java.com recognizes Java by browser, and some browsers are 32-bit, so downloading both 32-bit Java and 64-bit Java may be needed to run everything correctly So what does all of this mean? The executable command ("C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe") is the file path to the location of your most current javaw.exe file. If Java updates to Java 8, you will need to change 'jre7' to 'jre8'. If you installed Java to a different location, you will have to locate it and paste that file path in instead. The next part (-Xmx2G -Xms2G) is your RAM allocation, in gigabytes (GB). By default, your server runs with about 100 MB of RAM, which is very little. Most people will change their server to run on 1 GB of RAM; 2 GB of RAM is also common. As for the -jar, this indicates that Minecraft_Server.exe is a Java archive. Lastly in the executable command is the name of our .exe file (Minecraft_Server.exe). Typically, it is named Minecraft_Server.exe. Upper and lower case does matter.Rename Minecraft_Server.exe to whatever you named your file. Then click File->Save As... and for the file name call it run.bat, and make sure you select *.* All File Types from the drop-down arrow (Note: If you do not see *.* All File Types as a file type, you must put run.bat in quotes. "run.bat"). Then save it in the same location your server is saved, and double click your run.bat file. If all goes well, you will notice that you will have much more RAM available on your server! If Windows does not recognize the filetype (You are being prompted to select a program to open it with), it may be because Minecraft_Server is missing the .exe extension. This can be fixed by renaming the Minecraft_Server file to Minecraft_Server.exe. If it worked, the icon should now be the Minecraft symbol.

If this does not work, you will have to go into a command window by opening Run, typing cmd and pressing enter. Once there you need to navigate to the folder you have created. To do this: 1. Ensure you are in the proper drive (usually C drive). Type C: and then hit enter to access the c drive 2. Now you need to call the directory (open the folder). Type cd \"folder name" then hit enter. Make sure to include the quotation 3. Ensure you are in the proper directory. Type dir and command will generate a list of contents of the folder, you should see minecraft_server there. 4. Rename Minecraft. Type rename minecraft_server minecraft_server.exe then hit enter. This should add the .exe extension to the executable and it should now operate correctly [edit]Start

the Minecraft Server (.jar version)

1. If you have the .jar version, you will need to have a path variable set up for Java in order to start the jar version of the server. Refer to step 3 of "Verify and Install the Latest Java" above to set up a path variable. 2. To start the jar version of Minecraft on Windows, create a new file in Notepad, and paste in java -Xms512M -Xmx1G -jar minecraft_server.jar 3. Save the file as startserver.bat, and place the file in the same folder as minecraft_server.jar. The .bat extension saves the file as a batch file. 4. Double click startserver.bat, and the Minecraft server will run. [edit]Starting

the jar version without altering your system path

To start minecraft.jar server without having to change your system path variable you need to instead express the path variable for Java in the "start.bat" file. This is handy because it allows you to still run commands from command prompt using the default system path, without having to constantly edit the system path. 1. To do this open your start.bat file (or whatever you've named it) with Notepad 2. On the very first line add the command @echo off so that a command window isn't opened to show the output from our start file 3. On the next line, make sure the system can find Java (also called the Java Runtime Environment or JRE) by adding it to the Path Environment Variable. On a current Windows PC Java will be

most commonly located at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe", so what you would then write is path=%PATH%;%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Java\jre7\bin where %PATH% contains the existing Path values and %ProgramFiles(x86)% contains the location of your 32bit Program Files - usually "C:\Program Files (x86)" (adjust this if you are using Java 6) 4. Finally, make sure on the last line you have the command that starts the Minecraft server itself: java -Xms512M -Xmx1G -jar minecraft_server.jar 5. If you prefer not to use the server's Graphical User Interface (GUI) to enter administration commands, simply add the option nogui to the end of the last command above, so that it reads: java -Xms512M -Xmx1G -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui [edit]

Mac OS X Instructions

Setting a server up in Mac OS X is "more involved" than in Windows because an executable file has not been made available. A video tutorial of the process can be seen here. Keep in mind that the server won't run correctly on OSX 10.4 and may crash your machine. [edit]Downloading Ensure you have the latest server application software. Look above for instructions. [edit]Installing

Java

Mac OS X already comes with its own version of Java that is updated automatically via Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update). [edit]Setting

up the Minecraft Server

Ensure you have followed the download step before proceeding. Create a folder, if you haven't already, and put minecraft_server.jar into it. For example, create a folder on the Desktop named minecraft_server and drag the jar file into it. Open TextEdit, set the format to plain text (Format > Make Plain Text), copy and paste in the following: #!/bin/bash cd "$(dirname "$0")" exec java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -jar minecraft_server.jar

Save the file as "start.command" in the same folder as minecraft_server.jar. This will give the server enough RAM to run. The amount of RAM can be changed by editing the 1G to something else, such as 2G for 2 GB.

Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal). Grant execute permissions on file start.command to Owner, Group. and Public. To do so, type in chmod a+x , with a space after it; drag and drop the start.command file into the terminal window; and then press enter. (This gives run permission to the start.command script.)

Double-click the start.command file to start the server. A new Terminal window will open and, the first time you run the script, several error messages about missing files/directories will appear. This is normal. You're now ready toconfigure your server.

[edit]Run

as a daemon

Alternatively you can automate the startup of the Minecraft server. Create a Mac OS X startup daemon [edit]

Linux Instructions

This tutorial for how to set up a Minecraft server on Linux was designed for people who don't have a lot of experience with Linux. There is a more advanced tutorial in the forums. This tutorial was tested on Ubuntu 9.10 32-bit but should work with the descendants of Debian. [edit]Downloading Ensure you have the latest server application software. Look above for instructions. [edit]Installing

Java

If you get java: command not found (which may be followed by more text) or if you do have another Java version than 1.6 then you need to install or update java. The official Oracle Java is recommended. A few individuals have experienced issues with OpenJDK. Others report that running on OpenJDK is completely fine. [edit]Debian Ensure that the non-free repository is being scanned by apt. You do this by adding non-free to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. e.g.: deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main non-free

Update your sources list (as root):

apt-get update

Then to install Java, simply type this in terminal and press enter (as root): apt-get install sun-java6-jre [edit]Ubuntu For Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and on, the sun-java6 packages have been dropped from the Multiverse section of the Ubuntu archive. You must add these sources: For Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx):

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner" For Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat):

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner" For Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal):

Some distros have the command "add-apt-repository" removed. If this is the case, you will need to add the python properties by running the following command: sudo apt-get install python-software-properties Then you can proceed to add the source: sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu natty partner" For Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/java Then install the packages:

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sudo update-alternatives --config java [edit]openSUSE On older versions, you can simlpy type zypper in java-1_6_0-sun into a terminal.

On newer versions, there is a tutorial here describing how to install Java. [edit]Arch

Linux

Open a terminal and run pacman -Sy openjdk6 as root. [edit]Gentoo Use: emerge virtual/jre [edit]Other

Distros

Alternatively, you can visit Java's website directly to download the Java package for Linux. Most distros work with this (either 32 or 64-bit). Instructions for the installation of those different packages are given on the site. If during installation, it asks for a password, enter your password. If you get asked "Is this OK [Y/N]" Enter Y and press enter if required. Java should now be installed. [edit]Start

the Minecraft server

Open the terminal again Applications > Accessories > Terminal Enter the following commands, substituting 'minecraft_server' with the name of the folder you extracted the server to: cd minecraft_server java -Xms1G -Xmx1G -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui [edit]Less

than 1GB free RAM

If you have less than 1024MB RAM, the above line may cause problems with swapping and out of memory conditions, which makes the game hard to play. cd 'minecraft_server' java -Xms1G -Xmx1G -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui free -m It may look like this:

You are interested in the last number in the third line, 2163 in this case. Subtract some RAM as safety. On this computer, the server may use up to 1536 MB RAM. Now, replace the 1024 in the above example with the calculated number: java -Xms1536M -Xmx1536M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

Voila, it should run smoothly now Tip: If you want to spare more memory, you may set the -Xms parameter even lower, say: java -Xms32M -Xmx512M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui The parameter controls how much memory is reserved on startup Your server will start with 32MB RAM and whenever it needs more memory it will allocate some until it reaches the maximum of 512 MB. However, this will result in a little slowdown whenever the allocation is done. [edit]Startup

and maintenance script

Alternatively you can automate the startup of the Minecraft server. Server startup script M3tal_Warrior Server Startup Script for Debian FreeBSD startup script [edit]Configure

and connect

Now it is time to configure and connect. [edit]

Configuring the Minecraft Server

Be certain to edit the file with a text editor that does not add formatting (e.g., for italics). Additional configuration may not be necessary as many servers run fine from the default values.

1. Configure the server by editing the server.properties file, the format for which is explained here.

2. Add your username to the admin.txt and/or ops.txt (newer Minecraft versions may not have an admin.txt file). Ops.txt and admin.txt determine who may execute server commands. In other words, operator ("op") privileges allow you to control certain aspects of the game (e.g., teleporting players). Op privileges may also be granted from the server GUI: type "op <username>" and it will automatically add <username> to the ops.txt file. [edit]

Connect to the Minecraft Server

If you are playing on the same machine on which the server is running, select the "Multiplayer" option in the game client, click direct connect, and then type in "localhost" instead of an IP address.

This is not recommended unless you have a powerful computer, with more than 4 gigabytes of ram (.5 for the server, 1 for the client, and remainder for system).

Users within your network can connect with your internal IP address. (You do not need to port forward for connections that are within your local network.)

People connecting from the Internet (i.e., outside of your local network) must connect using your external IP address. You must port forward for someone outside your network to connect to the server.

[edit]IP

address notes

Unless you set a static IP for the computer that is hosting the game, the internal IP address can change. This affects port forwarding rules, and can make them invalid. Each modem or router has a different way of setting a static IP address. You should refer to the manual for your device(s) or online documentation for further instruction.

If you are having players connect to your external IP, your external IP can change if you do not have a static IP from your internet service provider. Use a tool such as MyWANIPto periodically check on the external IP address. You may also search "my ip address" on Google and it will show your IP address. Alternatively, you can look into a DNS service that will allow you to have a name, rather than an IP address, that will remain the same. The name will point to your external IP address, regardless of whether or not it changes (the DNS is updated when changes occur).

[edit]Firewalling,

NATs and external IP addresses

You must open the TCP port (default is 25565) on the firewall. If the server in question is not reachable via a globally routable IP address, you will need to add appropriate address and/or port number translation rules to the gateway usually your router has the global IP address.

For help with address translation, opening the firewall and routing (these three make up what people call port mapping/forwarding), portforward.com is a good source. Select your router from that list, skip the ad that comes after selecting the device, and you will see instructions for setting up port forwarding. Alternatively, you can read the documentation supplied with your router, modem, or other ISP related hardware.

Verify the port is open, and note your external IP by using a port checker tool, such as You Get Signal. The default port you should test is 25565, unless you specified something else. Have the Minecraft server running when you test the port.

You can obtain your external IP address from YouGetSignal.

[edit]Local

Network Dedicated Servers

This only applies to Classic (v0.30) servers. A common problem for server administrators is the inability to connect to your own server via another machine on your local network. A typical scenario for this is that you have a Classic server running on a dedicated machine, and you have your own machine which you play on. They're both connected to the same router/switch, and have internal IP's with the octets '192.168.x.x'. Normally, connecting via the URL generated for your server will result in an error message claiming that the server is offline. To correct this, you must add a function to the end of your URL, bookmarks, or whatever else you connect by. The function is: ?override=true Example: http://www.minecraft.net/classic/play/4c3bebb1a01816acbe31c5ece1570da5?override=true Previously, (before the 1.8 beta and website update) this was &override=true. This caused much confusion since the change was not announced by Mojang, and wasn't announced on the website applet pages either. Before the update, connecting to your own URL via the website resulted in red text under the applet window saying "If you can't connect, try this linkinstead." The link returned the same thing, with the &override=true affixed to the end. Note: This situation does not effect Beta servers, and you should be able to connect via an internal or external IP. [edit]Setting

Up a VPN (Hamachi)

An easy way to set up a server between you and your friends is to set up a VPN (virtual private network). A free software utility that can be used to set this up is Hamachi by LogMeIn. Don't use this for public servers. Many users will not take the extra time to install the client and such. Advantage of doing this saves you configuring ports on your router and if you have a dynamic IP address using Hamachi will provide you with a static IP. 1. Install software on you and your friend's computers https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/ or https://secure.logmein.com/US/lab s/?wt.ac=73-516-440 for Linux (32-bit and 64-bit .deb and .rpm packages are available, you can install it on Gentoo by emerging "net-misc/logmein-hamachi") 2. One person sign up for admin via logmein website 3. Create new network 4. Pass these details onto every person concerned and get them to login 5. One person set up a server. 6. Everyone else connect via their Hamachi ip address and use port number 25565 (default)

[edit]

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Q: I have a problem which is not answered in here! What should I do to? A: Go to the Talk page and post your problem there. To help you, we do need some information: Operating System(s) Java version(s) One machine or multiple computers Exact description of the problem WITH WhatHaveYouDone and error message What you were trying to do What you did so far Any errors you encountered Screenshots of the problem (if possible) Everything else that might help us to solve your problem - there almost never is too much information (passwords would be too much information!) And please, if we were able to help you, post where the problem was exactly and what the fix was for that. Other people will appreciate that (and we will be able to get a grip on the common problems)!

Q: When I try to connect to my server this is what it says: Connection lost The server responded with an invalid server key

A: Wait a minute then try again. It should work, but if it doesn't connect within a few tries, you have a problem. Update the server to 1.0.1 (aka 1.1) (this should fix it)

Q: On a Windows computer, when I double click the batch file it opens a command prompt window, but quickly disappears and the server does not start. What should I do? A: This is probably due to an incorrect path for javaw.exe. You may just need to change /jre7/ to /jre6/ . Or search your system for javaw.exe and adjust the path accordingly. (It's probably under c:\program files or c:\program files (x86).) Also, you must have the offline version of Java installednot just the Java plug-in for your browser.

Q: Whenever I try to get the server up, it says "Failed to Bind to Port." A: This usually means that you have tried to use a port that is already in use or that you do not have permission to use (ports < 1024 are privileged and require root to bind to). You can try a different port by changing it in your server.properties file in this line: server-port=25565. Note: You should avoid using the following ports for your server as some ISPs may block these ports for security reasons and you shouldn't be running the Minecraft server as root (in the case of a Linux type OS and ports < 1024): 21 (Used by most FTP Servers) 22 (Used by Secure Shell daemon) 25 (Used by Mail Servers for SMTP) 53 (Used by DNS Servers) 80 (Used by most Web Servers) 110 (Used by most Mail Servers for POP3) 115 (Used by Simple File Transfer Protocol) 143 (Used by Mail Servers for IMAP) 443 (SSL port for Web Servers) 3306 (Used by most MySQL Servers)

Generally avoid any port below number 1024, since those ports are generally referred as well-known ports and are registered with the IANA for important services.

Q: I tried to run the server with Solaris/OpenSolaris and got the following error: java.io.InterruptedIOException: Operation interrupted at java.net.SocketInputStream.socketRead0(Native Method) at java.net.SocketInputStream.read(SocketInputStream.java:129) at java.net.SocketInputStream.read(SocketInputStream.java:182) at java.io.FilterInputStream.read(FilterInputStream.java:66) at gq.a(SourceFile:131) at ji.g(SourceFile:197) at ji.c(SourceFile:17) at oq.run(SourceFile:84) 2011-05-31 16:57:26 [INFO] /:44673 lost connection

A: For whatever reason, out of all of the operating systems, only Solaris throws that exception when a thread interrupts a connection. A workaround is to change the default behaviour on the command line: java -Xmx1G -Xms32M -XX:-UseVMInterruptibleIO -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \ -XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing -XX:ParallelGCThreads=$CPU_COUNT XX:+AggressiveOpts\ -jar minecraft.jar nogui

This instructs Java to use an interruptible IO stack instead of the default IO that is sensitive to interrupted threads.

Q: I cannot break/place any blocks!? A: Walk away from your spawn area. You cannot break or place blocks near spawn (unless you are operator on the server).

Q: My server runs fine but I cannot connect to it! A: Your server may be running with the IPv6 stack. You can check this in linux by running netstat -ln | grep 25565 where 25565 is the port your server is running on. If a line is returned with tcp6 then you need to add Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true to the startup parameters. Example: java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

Q: How do you give a .jar server more ram? A: Change the numbers in the server launch command "-Xmx1G -Xms1G". The -Xms part specifies how much memory the server starts with, and the -Xmx part is the maximum amount of memory the server can use. Values are in megabytes. --Q: How do I play on a LAN without access to the internet?

A: Set up an ad-hoc server -- instructions for that are available elsewhere, and vary by your platform. In server.properties, change online-mode to false. Each player that wishes to join must use the following batch: @ECHO OFF java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -cp "%APPDATA%\.minecraft\bin\*"; Djava.library.path="%APPDATA%\.minecraft\bin\natives" net.minecraft.client.Minecraft "USERNAME" PAUSE Find your local IP, and other clients connect to that; you connect to localhost.

Setting up a server
Contents
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1 Preliminary notes 2 Windows 3 Linux 4 Mac OS X 5 Community Guides

Preliminary notes
Note: The name of the craftbukkit .jar file must match the one you download. (currently craftbukkit-1.1-R4.jar) Note: Unless you have a multi-homed machine and know what this means/requires, serverip= in server.properties MUST remain unchanged from default and be blank. Note: When running a server for the first time, errors will show up. Do not worry as this is normal; the server is generating files and folders needed to run as they do not exist yet.

Windows
1. Download CraftBukkit's latest build: CraftBukkit - Recommended Build 2. Put the .jar file in the directory you'd like the server to run from 3. Open notepad and type: @ECHO OFF SET BINDIR=%~dp0 CD /D "%BINDIR%" "%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre6\bin\java.exe" -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar

PAUSE Note: If you are running java in 32-bit mode on a 64-bit machine, change %ProgramFiles% to %ProgramFiles(x86)% If you are running Java 7, type this instead: @ECHO OFF SET BINDIR=%~dp0 CD /D "%BINDIR%" "%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe" -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M jar craftbukkit.jar PAUSE

4. Save the document as RUN.bat (not as a .txt) 5. Double Click RUN.bat and you're away! 6. When you're done toying, issue "stop" command in console. Please note that the full directory of the java.exe doesn't need to be entered. just entering "Java" will do just fine, so one could use the following codes to ensure universal compatibility. @ECHO OFF SET BINDIR=%~dp0 CD /D "%BINDIR%" java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar PAUSE

Or, the following can be used (although may not work on all machines) It is a lot shorter than the previous ones. @ECHO OFF java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar "%dp0craftbukkit.jar" PAUSE

Linux
See also: Setting up a remote Linux server

1. Download CraftBukkit's latest build: CraftBukkit Recommended Build 2. Put the .jar in a folder, for this example we'll use a generic one: ~/craftbukkit 3. Move to the above directory in terminal with 'cd ~/craftbukkit' 4. Create a new text document in the minecraft folder and name it craftbukkit.sh 5. Edit the document and paste this into it: cat > craftbukkit.sh << EOF #!/bin/sh BINDIR=$(dirname "$(readlink -fn "$0")") cd "$BINDIR" java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar EOF chmod +x craftbukkit.sh 6. Save the shell and make sure that it is executable, then open it in terminal. A console window will open and close quickly. 6. Then, in terminal, type '~/craftbukkit/craftbukkit.sh' to run to start the server. 7. When you're done playing around, issue the "stop" command in console. If you plan to run the server more permanently an init script like this one (recommended) [1] If you want to run your server with screen, you can use a script like this one (recommended) ABM For CentOS Users - A little more detailed page for CentOS.

Mac OS X
1. Install Java Since OS X 10.7 Java does not come packaged with OS X. You will need to install java from the Apple's website http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1421 2. Obtaining the Server Files To run a server you will need the server jars, i.e. the server files. We will need a place to put the files. 1. Create a New Folder

Open up finder, and create a new folder in your Home folder named CraftBukkit 2. Download the File Download the server files. You can download the latest builds from the front page of the wiki. Note: Download the stable build if you are not chasing the cutting edge in the development build 3. Move the File Move the file from the Downloads folder to the CraftBukkit folder you created. 4. Rename the File We will rename it craftbukkit.jar 3. Obtaining startup script To easily start the server you will need a startup script. The following is a basic server script to start your server. 1. Open up TextEdit and paste the following in #!/bin/bash cd "$( dirname "$0" )" java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar 2. Save the file Save it in your CraftBukkit folder as start_server.command 3. Allow the script to run 1. Open up Terminal.app 2. Type into Terminal.app chmod +x Warning: Do not hit return 3. drag the start_server.comma nd into Terminal.app 4. hit return 4. Starting the server

From this point on you can start the server by double-clicking start_server.command. You will need to run the server once for it to generate some configuration files. Warning: To stop the server, do not close the terminal/command prompt window. Instead, type 'stop' into the console. Closing the terminal window without stopping the server could lead to corruption of the save files. ALTERNATE METHOD [Only for Advanced Users]: Open Terminal (Found in Application/Utilities) and paste: cd ~/Desktop/ mkdir BukkitServer cd BukkitServer/ curl -O http://cbukk.it/craftbukkit.jar mv craftbukkit-1.1-R3.jar CraftBukkit.jar echo "cd ~/Desktop/BukkitServer/" >> start.command echo "java -Xms[RAM]M -Xmx[RAM]M -jar CraftBukkit.jar" >> start.command chmod +x start.command open -a TextEdit start.command Textedit should open a document called "LaunchServer.command". Find [RAM] and replace it with: 512 or 1024 or 1536 or 2560 or 3072 or 5120

That is the ram amount the server will have. 512=512MB; 1024=1GB; 1536=1.5GB; 2560=2.5GB; 3072=3GB; 5120=5GB The server is installed on your Desktop, in "Bukkit Server". To start it double click "LaunchServer.command".

Community Guides
Ubuntu Server x64 Setup. (Beginner-Friendly!) How to Install Bukkit (Beginner-Friendly!) CraftBukkit Auto Installer (Beginner-Friendly!)