How to run your own Minecraft server, from zero to friends joining (and the shortcut that skips the work)

You want a Minecraft server for your group. The work has two halves: getting the server running (easier than people expect — ten minutes to first results) and making it reachable for friends who live somewhere else (the real boss fight). This article walks through both halves without skipping steps, is honest about the limits of hosting from home, and ends with the shortcut for people who would rather not maintain any of it.

Three ways to get a server, compared

"Having a Minecraft server" can mean three different arrangements, and each trades something different — see the whole board before picking:

Choosing the do-it-yourself path? Let's go step by step. Everything below assumes Windows, since most people run this from the family PC.

The do-it-yourself path: from zero to friends joining

Install Java 25

Minecraft Java Edition is a Java program — the machine needs a Java new enough for the game version you plan to run. The current versions (the year-style numbers, like 26.x) need Java 25; older versions follow this table:

Java is a free download from adoptium.net (the package is called Eclipse Temurin) — pick the number from the table. During installation, watch for the Add to PATH and Set JAVA_HOME options and tick both, so the java command works from anywhere.

Check it worked: open a fresh Command Prompt (Win + R, type cmd) and run java -version. It must print the version you just installed. If it prints an older number, the machine has several Javas and the system still points at an old one — uninstall the old one, or reinstall with Add to PATH ticked.

Download server.jar

The official server is a free download on minecraft.net's server download page (search "minecraft server download" — first result). The file arrives as server.jar, and the page always offers only the latest version.

Make a dedicated folder first, for example C:\mcserver, and put the file there — on first run the server creates a pile of files and folders around itself.

Run it once and accept the EULA

Open Command Prompt and run these two commands:

cd C:\mcserver
java -Xmx2G -jar server.jar nogui

-Xmx2G is the RAM ceiling you grant the server (2GB here). How much you should give it depends on the group size and mods — see the table in how much RAM a game server needs.

The first run works for a moment and then stops by itself, leaving behind a file called eula.txt — that is normal behavior, not an error. Open it in Notepad, change eula=false to eula=true (that is you accepting Mojang's usage agreement), save, and run the same command again.

This time wait until you see a line like Done (3.2s)! For help, type "help" — the server is up. Test immediately from the same machine: open the game → Multiplayer → Add Server → address localhost. You should see the server and be able to join.

If instead the console shows UnsupportedClassVersionError, the Java on the machine is older than this game version needs — go back to the Java step and re-check java -version. (If you hit this error after installing mods or a modpack, on a game version that is already correct, the full fix is in Java runtime and modded servers.)

Configure server.properties

After the first run, the folder contains server.properties — the server's main control panel, editable in Notepad. The keys worth knowing before letting anyone else in:

After editing, save and restart the server for the changes to apply (the same "only on restart" rule governs the Settings tab on uniz.host) — shut down properly by typing stop in the console (it saves the world before exiting), then run the start command again.

Open port 25565

At this point the server genuinely runs, but nobody outside the house can reach it: routers pass no inbound connections to any machine by default. You need port forwarding — point port 25565 (protocol TCP) at the machine running the server, and open the same port in Windows Firewall too. The screen-by-screen walkthrough, including pinning your internal IP so the rule doesn't silently break, is in what is port forwarding and how to let friends join.

Check it worked: test your public IP against an online port checker on port 25565 — it must say open. If it says closed even though everything is configured correctly, suspect CGNAT first (how to check is in the same article) — a large share of Thai home connections have it, and it makes port forwarding impossible no matter what you configure.

Share your IP with friends

Search "what is my IP" and send the number to your friends. On their side: open the game → Multiplayer → Add Server → enter IP:25565 (or just the IP — the game fills in the standard port 25565 by itself).

One testing caution: don't test from a phone on the same home Wi-Fi. Many routers can't loop a connection back into their own network (NAT loopback), which produces the classic "works for me, not for them" confusion — or the reverse. Turn Wi-Fi off and test over 4G/5G to see exactly what your friends will see.

The limits you will meet hosting from home

All of this is what actually awaits everyone hosting from home — facts, not sales copy. Some have workarounds, some don't:

• Your home IP changes almost daily — home connections use dynamic IPs: whenever the router reboots or the ISP rotates addresses, your server's address changes and you're re-sending the new one to friends. The mitigation is DDNS (a free domain that tracks your IP automatically, e.g. DuckDNS) — but DDNS does nothing about CGNAT.
• CGNAT closes the door before you start — if your ISP shares one public IP across many households, forwarding on your own router changes nothing. The only fix is requesting a public IP from the ISP (free with some, a monthly fee with others) — check this before spending time on any other setup.
• The PC must stay on — friends can join only while your machine runs. A PC drawing 100–150W around the clock is 2.4–3.6 kWh/day, roughly ฿11–16/day at about ฿4.5/unit — ฿330–490 a month, which is more than a hosted 2GB server's cap for a whole 1-month round (฿149).
• Home upload speed is the player ceiling — the more players, and the more they spread out exploring, the more chunk data the server pushes. Upload bandwidth, not download, is what actually limits your player count.
• The upkeep never ends — you update versions yourself, you back up yourself (the world folder is your server's entire life — copy it before every update), and an open port is a real door that internet scan bots will visit as a matter of routine. Turning the whitelist on removes most of that concern.

The shortcut: up on uniz.host in 3 steps

Everything above is genuinely doable and free — in exchange for the upkeep and your home network's limits. The other path is letting a host run the machine and network layers while you manage just the game:

1. Sign up and top up — log in with a Google account at uniz.host and top up credits, minimum ฿20 (฿1 = 1 credit).
2. Create the server — pick Minecraft, choose the version and server software (Vanilla, Paper, Fabric, Forge, or a CurseForge/Modrinth modpack), and pick a RAM size — starting at 2GB, the smallest size on sale, is fine, and you can resize later without moving the world.
3. Send friends the address — the server gets its own domain from the moment it's created, like yourname.uniz.host, joinable from any network immediately. No port forwarding step exists, and CGNAT never enters the picture.

Billing is hourly, only while the server is online, and never past the cap of each 24-hour round and each 1-month round (a round starts when the server is turned on):

Larger sizes and the disk allowance included with each are on the pricing page — that first minimum ฿20 top-up equals roughly 40 hours of a 2GB server actually online.

System behavior worth knowing up front:

• Auto-sleep is available in the server's settings (pick a window of 5–120 minutes with no players; it defaults to off — you enable it yourself). A sleeping server accrues no hours, and a friend pressing join wakes it automatically: the server list shows a message saying the server is asleep, join to wake it. On that first join while it wakes, the game may report a timeout — wait a moment and join again.
• A server left stopped for more than 7 days (1 day if you have never topped up) has its world archived automatically; it can be restored free within 90 days (30 if you have never topped up), after which its data is deleted.

Before picking a size, read how much RAM a game server needs — starting small and growing on real symptoms beats over-provisioning every time.