Server

Minetest servers allow players to play online with other people. They can be run from a dedicated server, a Virtual Private Server or a home computer. This is not a list of servers, please see the Minetest Server List or Minetest Forum servers section instead.

Managing a server

Server Setup

Setting up a server in such a way so that others may connect to it via the Internet takes some time, and a little technical know-how.
Netbooks and Notebooks generally don't make for good server machines due to the fact that they typically have lower-end hardware.
Do not attempt to host a sizeable (over a few people) server on a wireless network, use a wired network instead.

See Setting up a server, or a discussion in the forum for an explanation on setting up your own server.

Server Configuration

For a detailed explanation of the server configuration file, see the minetest.conf page.

You may also want to consider to use a different database backend for your world.

Server Commands

See the Server commands page for a list of useful commands.

Also see Itemstrings for the itemstrings for use with the /give and /giveme commands.

Privilege System

See the privileges page for detailed information on the privilege system.

Playing on a server

Finding a server

In order to play on a server at all, you need to know the address and a port number of a server first. There are many ways to find those addresses.

Public server list

Public server lists are basicly just lists of server addresses. You can obtain a list of available servers by multiple ways.

Inside the game

The easiest way to obtain a server list is inside the game. You find it in the main menu under “Multiplayer”.

In the web

This webpage contains a server list.

Forums

In the Minetest forums, there is a subforum called “Servers”. The entire point of this subforum is to announce servers and their addresses. Also discussion of these servers.

Friends

If you know a friend who hosts a Minetest server, ask them for the address and port number.

Connecting to a server

If you have obtained address and the port number of a server, you just have to enter those values into the respective fields under “Multiplayer” in the main menu and click on “connect”, or press Enter. In case you used the in-game server list, Minetest automatically enters those values for you.

Some servers require:

a default password for all new users, ask the server owner,
or a non-empty password, to prevent account stealing.

In the server

The gameplay in a multiplayer server is basicly the same as in a singleplayer game. The same rules apply. See Getting Started for gameplay-related concepts. However, in multiplayer servers, some concepts not very important in singleplayer are important in multiplayer:

Privileges: learn what you can and can’t do on a server
Chat: learn how to communicate with other players
Server commands: learn how to use server commands. Server commands are not just useful for server operators but for players as well; for example, you can pulverize an item, teleport, find out about your privileges and more