Port Forward on a MacBy SPooK
IntroductionHello Mac users! Ever since the beginning of Blockland it has been everyones desire to host a server of their own to show people their creations and have fun with friends. But with the knowing that the only way to do that was to forward (open) their ports to the game, this task became a little tricky. For PC users there are already hundreds of thousands of tutorials that give a clear explanation on how to do this. But for Mac... not so much. That is why I have created this tutorial for Mac users so that you can not only forward your ports for Blockland, but hopefully for other things as well. By forwarding ports, you can even access your computer from anywhere in the world! (Sorry if some things in this tutorial are obvious to some people, but I designed it so it was very "noob" friendly. So please don't flame, I've been playing the game since December 4, 2008 and believe I have learned enough in order to create this topic.)
What Exactly Does Port Forwarding Do?I'm going to keep this brief. Port Forwarding is the process of opening ports in your computers LAN network to be accessed on the Internet. The reason why you need to forward your ports to Blockland is so that other users can connect to you and download the content on the server which is stored in
YOUR computer. Get it? Good, let's get started!
InstructionsAlright, on to the beef. The very first thing that you need to do before anything else is figure out what your routers LAN IP Address is. To do this click on the little Apple icon in the very top left of your screen and select "System Preferences..." then "Network" As you can see, I have selected my router in the menu on the left. Where you see that black line is where your routers LAN IP Address is. Remember this or write it down for later.
Now, go to "Applications\Utilities\Airport Utility" Airport Utility is a utility that Apple provides with every Mac so that users can modify their Airport's contents and connections. Once the application is open, select "Manual Setup" in the bottom left corner of the window. Once clicked, it should look like the picture below, but, as you can see, you need to select your Airport if not already selected, click on Advanced in the top toolbar, and select the Port Mapping tab.
Next, select the "plus" button to add a new port.
Alright, now we can enter the ports. For all of the UDP Port(s) and TCP Ports(s) enter 28000-28030 as shown in the picture below. This is basically saying to allow the ports 28000 through 28030 to be open when asked to. Now, in the Private IP Address box you need to enter your routers LAN IP Address. Guess what? In this box you enter the IP Address that you copied from the beginning of the tutorial! Makes sense right? Once you have filled out everything properly, hit the "Continue" button as displayed in the picture.
You will then be prompted with another window that asks for you to give a description for the port mapping entry. Don't panic, all you need to do is place Blockland in the "Description" box. (The Description name doesn't actually matter.) Then press the "Done" button.
Now all you need to do is update your router to the settings that you entered. So all you need to do now is press the "Update" button in the bottom right corner of the window. Your router will restart and it will have the settings that you entered.
Now here comes the really important part. You need to make sure that you follow these directions carefully. When you launch Blockland and select Start a Game, select Internet. Now, enter your desired Server Name, Admin Passwords and if you want your server to be password protected enter a password in the "Password" box. When you go to select your Max Players, you need to remember how many players you set. For example, I have selected 10 as shown in the picture below. Now select the "Advanced Config" button.
Here is the crucial part; in the box that is labeled "Port" you need to type in the port that you need to open in order for the server to work. How do you figure this out? Well, remember how I selected 10 players as the "Max Players" setting? That is where the port comes into play. In the picture below, I have entered 280
10 as my selected port. This is because I have
10 players that could join; and 28010 is a port between 28000 and 28030. So basically think of it this way. The last 2 digits of the port is like the amount of people that could join. So for example, you wanted a server that could host 30 people. You would enter 28030 as the port. If we backtrack to the Airport Utility step, we entered that the ports 28000 through 28030 could be opened. That means that the maximum amount of people that we could select is 30. So if you wanted the maximum 32 players, you would have to go back to Airport Utility and enter 28000-28032 as the ports.
Now you can go ahead and start the server! Don't host crap... please.
A Few More WordsIf you have any questions or concerns please post a reply. Also if you find any spelling errors please let me know. If you are wondering why I am posting something that is almost identical to CrazyGoodDude's tutorial just with added info, it is because his tutorial misses a couple of things that need to be covered in order to forward ports to Blockland. That is why everyone that followed his tutorial wasn't able to host a server. And also the fact that he hasn't logged into the Forums since December 24, 2009 means that people with questions won't be getting an answer anytime soon. This is simply the "updated" and working way to forward ports.
Thanks for Reading!
