Invite your friends

Your friends need three things:

1. A connect line.
2. The server password, if you set one.
3. One sentence: the classes and the weapons start locked, clearing waves unlocks them, and everybody shares.

They install nothing. A normal Team Fortress 2 client is enough.

Choose who can reach the server

Launcher page: Settings, then Networking, row Who can reach it. In .env, it is SRCDS_REACH.

Steam relay is not finished. No run has taken it all the way to a client that joined. Use Forwarded port for friends over the internet.

A server with no login token stays on the local network, whatever you chose. The log says so.

The login token

Forwarded port and Steam relay log the server in to Steam. That needs a Game Server Login Token.

1. Open steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers.
2. Create a token for App ID 440.
3. Paste it into Login token on the Networking page, or into SRCDS_TOKEN in .env.

The token is not a password anybody types. It identifies the server to Steam. Without one, the server never gets a Steam session and refuses every player with no useful message.

Local network

Nothing to set up. The Join line shows the address. Your friends type it in the developer console:

connect 192.168.1.20:27015

The game refuses players from another network with LAN servers are restricted to local clients (class C). A guest Wi-Fi, a VPN and a server in a container count as another network.

Forwarded port

1. On your router, forward the game port to this machine, on UDP and TCP. The default port is 27015.
2. Open the same port in the machine's firewall.
3. Set Join address on the Game server page to your public address.
4. Give out the connect line:

connect your.public.address:27015

UDP carries the game. A rule that forwards only TCP answers the server browser and drops every join.

Steam relay

The server asks Valve for a relay address and prints it in the log:

FakeIP allocation succeeded: 169.254.13.42:20232, 20233

The launcher shows it on the Join line. Your friends connect to the first address. You forward nothing, and your own address stays hidden.

The address changes at every start. Send the one from this run.

The server password

Set Server password on the Game server page, or SRCDS_PW in .env. Empty lets anybody with the address join.

Your friends type this before they connect:

password friends-only
connect ...

Do not confuse it with the console password, SRCDS_RCONPW. That one runs admin commands. Never give it out.

Staying off the public list

A server with a login token can appear in the public server browser. Set a server password, and strangers who find it cannot get in.

The developer console

The console is off by default in Team Fortress 2. To turn it on:

1. Open Options, then Keyboard, then Advanced.
2. Tick Enable developer console.

The key that opens it is ` , left of the 1 key on a US keyboard.

When a player cannot connect

Check these in order:

1. The token. With Forwarded port or Steam relay and no token, the server refuses everybody. The console says Could not establish connection to Steam servers.
2. The network. With Local network, the player has to be on the same network. See Local network.
3. The port. With Forwarded port, the router has to forward the port on UDP as well as TCP.
4. The address. With Steam relay, the address is the one from this run.
5. The machine. A laptop that sleeps is a server that is down.

Next: The first session.