My server doesn't show up on server list 2025 HELP NEEDED!!

[y451n3]

Hello Everyone,

Hope you're doing alright,

I've been trying to setup a jedi academy server for 2 weeks now with no success

I've read and applied the tutorials I found on the website, but my server doesn't show up on the internet server list

I found no taystjk specific tutorial though

Anyways here's what I've done so far (Port forwarding, server.cfg, shortcut comand & final result)

If you see something wrong tell me how to make it right

Thank you

 

 

[NAB622]

It's been forever since I ran a JA server, so I'm probably no help, but...if you leave the server running for several minutes, do you see any heartbeat messages? What server(s) are they being sent to?

[Circa]

First thing I noticed is you have the port protocol set to TCP/UDP instead of UDP like the tutorial says but I'm not sure how much that would matter. Having both would presumably be fine but worth a try.

I also noticed the port numbers are mismatched on LAN and WAN lines. I've never seen a router split LAN and WAN like this though so it might be okay. Which connection are you hosting from? Hosting from wireless is generally a bad idea, FYI but maybe your wifi is god tier stable.

You have a lot of combined "set" and "seta" commands in server.cfg, you only need to use set. Might not matter, looks like the server is reading it fine judging by the terminal output but still something I noticed that could be cleaned up at the very least.

Is someone else able to connect to it manually through the console? Find out your public IP address and in the console /connect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
If they are able to connect, then the problem shouldn't be with the ports.

I've been noticing a lot of people saying their server isn't showing up on the master server lately and my assumption is it may take a little bit for it to show sometimes. If you launch it and get mad its not there and then take it down immediately, that's not going to help (not saying you did that yourself but maybe you did). Leave it running for at least a day if you haven't yet and see if it eventually shows up.

[y451n3]

Hello Circa, Hello NAB622,

Thank you both for replying,

 

1) Reply to NAB622:

So I left the server running for 15-20min but I didn't see any heartbeat messages. The last line in terminal stayed the same, no additional lines spawned.

 

2) Reply to Circa:

I had no idea that I needed to leave the server running for a long time I thought it would connect immediately. So I always  closed it when it didn't work thinking there's no point in leaving it open, and that I have to fix what's wrong first to open it again, otherwise I'll get the same result. I was never mad or anything, I just didn't know. 

 

But now that you told me I need to leave it for at least a day to see if it works I'll try that tonight (I still haven't left it running longer than 20min).

 

You'll find below screenshots of what port forwarding in my router looks like (I have a Nokia router), as well as what I did before I clicked add. I've also switched from TCP/UDP to UDP only.

 

I also cleaned up the server.cfg (instead of seta I wrote set). And btw put the server.cfg file in gamedata => base folder

 

So after all that I tried connecting the way you told me (as you'll see below) using another computer that has JA, but it's just stuck at "Awaiting connection", before I took the pictures I let it go to a 127 before I pressed ESC concluding it was a lost cause lol.

 

And you asked me which connection I'm using, yes it's wireless, I'm using my router's Wifi. You can't setup a server with that? I think it's pretty stable

 

And I forgot to mention that the server shows up in the "local" list. I even tried it on another computer connected to the same Wifi, the server also shows up in the "local" list of that other computer. So idk if this detail will help with diagnosing the problem.

 

Another thing when I open multiplayer normally (client side), and I choose "Create game", after I start it, it disconnects and goes back to the main menu, but everything is blurry and weird and you can't read a thing, so your only option is to quit the game. Idk if that's supposed to happen or not.

 

So checkout these screenshots and tell me what I could add or remove to make it work. Or is it just a matter of letting it run for a day or more (so it's just a matter of time)? Or is it because I'm using Wifi instead of an Ethernet cable?

 

Also extra question: Do people join their own server using the same computer that's hosting the server?

 

[Circa]

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

I had no idea that I needed to leave the server running for a long time I thought it would connect immediately. So I always  closed it when it didn't work thinking there's no point in leaving it open, and that I have to fix what's wrong first to open it again, otherwise I'll get the same result. I was never mad or anything, I just didn't know. 

 

But now that you told me I need to leave it for at least a day to see if it works I'll try that tonight (I still haven't left it running longer than 20min).

To be clear, you shouldn't have to but it's a good troubleshooting step.

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

You'll find below screenshots of what port forwarding in my router looks like (I have a Nokia router), as well as what I did before I clicked add. I've also switched from TCP/UDP to UDP only.

Did you try rebooting your router after applying those changes? Some routers require that for changes to go into effect.

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

And you asked me which connection I'm using, yes it's wireless, I'm using my router's Wifi. You can't setup a server with that? I think it's pretty stable

Wifi by nature is not stable, and I'm not sure you can determine if its stable enough before you have played on your server yet. lol. It might be good enough but generally a wired connection is going to be a much better experience for players. Hosting a stable sever for gameplay is much different than browsing the web, downloading games, or even playing on other servers yourself. And by "stable" I mean consistent, not necessarily reliable. Wireless networks use waves in the air that are inherently prone to interference by many factors like other waves, literal physical objects, humidity, etc.

That's more detail than you asked for but is good info to know.

3 hours ago, y451n3 said:

And I forgot to mention that the server shows up in the "local" list. I even tried it on another computer connected to the same Wifi, the server also shows up in the "local" list of that other computer. So idk if this detail will help with diagnosing the problem.

I'm not too familiar with this but I don't think if it's set to dedicated 2 that it would not show up in local, but I could be wrong. At least you know its running the game properly enough for that to work.

3 hours ago, y451n3 said:

Another thing when I open multiplayer normally (client side), and I choose "Create game", after I start it, it disconnects and goes back to the main menu, but everything is blurry and weird and you can't read a thing, so your only option is to quit the game. Idk if that's supposed to happen or not.

Definitely is not supposed to happen, but that sounds like a different problem entirely, you shouldn't need to use Create Game in this scenario, that's only for playing a LAN/WAN game, not a dedicated server.

4 hours ago, y451n3 said:

Also extra question: Do people join their own server using the same computer that's hosting the server?

I believe you can but I'd assume the main downside would be sharing performance between them which could be a challenge for low end machines.

 

 

I noticed you are using the 64 bit dedicated server executable. I wonder if using the 32bit version would be better. I also wonder if using OpenJK would be better as well, as I've never heard of anyone running a TaystJK server before, generally that is used for clients only.

[NAB622]

3 hours ago, y451n3 said:

So I left the server running for 15-20min but I didn't see any heartbeat messages. The last line in terminal stayed the same, no additional lines spawned.

I believe the heartbeat is how your server reports to the master servers. If there is no heartbeat, it will not show up. Either you have no master servers specified in your config, or your game server failed to start.

 

3 hours ago, y451n3 said:

Also extra question: Do people join their own server using the same computer that's hosting the server?

Yes. As long as you have decent hardware, you can do this without issue. On a lesser computer, you may want to restrict it to testing only, to prevent the server from getting choppy for other players.

 

4 hours ago, y451n3 said:

And you asked me which connection I'm using, yes it's wireless, I'm using my router's Wifi. You can't setup a server with that? I think it's pretty stable

It's not the end of the world, but Wi-Fi adds some extra latency, and it gets much worse when the signal gets weak. By all means, use whatever you have, but if you can use a wired connection, it's a great idea.

[Circa]

I should also mention to look into your firewall on your server PC. Perhaps that is blocking the outgoing and incoming connections.

I just managed to spin up my server on my home server PC doing all of the steps and it's working and showing in the server list ingame, however I am using OpenJK instead of TaystJK for the dedicated server. I recommend trying that.

[y451n3]

Ok so I tried it with OpenJk and here's the result:

(I recorded my screen explaining where I'm at and asking you questions, the following link is for that video, I uploaded it to a video sharing website cause I couldn't directly attach it here)

 

https://imagekit.io/tools/asset-public-link?detail={"name"%3A"2025-01-27 22-27-00.mkv"%2C"type"%3A"video%2Fx-matroska"%2C"signedurl_expire"%3A"2028-01-27T21%3A48%3A09.166Z"%2C"signedUrl"%3A"https%3A%2F%2Fmedia-hosting.imagekit.io%2F%2F603d2ba584944f87%2F2025-01-27%2022-27-00.mkv%3FExpires%3D1832622489%26Key-Pair-Id%3DK2ZIVPTIP2VGHC%26Signature%3DmQtMkP9KxOJvIUhi3NQHAiK29p4DEFwhiqP1bK1z4dhBrwI1LjM5~MJuq8rS4TezIfO9A7IcCyQiwiWImYaLSDAbVxfRCfGFWfwxqyC7NnFPdmB-3UvINJPCISn656iBkYtWqJGUOzz8xSd13qNf~IIsd4EMEvSTvV1aMCu-~~im3p6IdBB5n9t~3rpcaa7wfx3-o4QpYh5ftsOuYUOKW6AOAdxOk-N-8Xs-xlXEGt~2j6xmHxJGB5R1tVgE9lvu2ovKpVQdkB652E0~tIfJIQyFIVTjHGhlJvkc~XDjr0GBj-KIJegWY6JVB5UrWYhxxAwlrrC8IXBEqXmR30JTLA__"}

[Circa]

On 1/27/2025 at 4:57 PM, y451n3 said:

Ok so I tried it with OpenJk and here's the result:

(I recorded my screen explaining where I'm at and asking you questions, the following link is for that video, I uploaded it to a video sharing website cause I couldn't directly attach it here)

 

Okay, great video. I loved your analogy of texting the girl, even though it is inaccurate. What you're seeing is good! A master server like master.jkhub.org is essentially a destination-only type server. Heartbeat in this context means your server is shouting to the master server saying "hey I'm here" - then the game's server browser uses that master server to display any game servers that are doing that in the server browser.

So a better analogy would be you're texting a girl but instead of texting back, she shows your message to the whole class, along with all of the other guys she's texting. Except in this case its a good thing. lol

So far I believe you've got it running properly, however if it's still not showing in the server list I think the only step preventing this is the router. I don't think you addressed if you ever rebooted your router after forwarding those ports.

Can you verify that the computer you have those ports forwarded with are your computer that you're hosting from? It says the generic DESKTOP-BLABLABLA name and if you have multiple computers those can be easy to mix up. You can find your computer's name in Windows by going to the Settings app -> System -> About. Whatever is in the very first box should be the computer name.

That should be the one you select for those ports.

You can also try maybe matching the ports for WAN and LAN for each entry. Right now you have them mixed, which may be fine. Or maybe it requires you to do that? If it will let you, have 29060-29062 set for both WAN and LAN in the same entry. Hopefully that makes sense.

Another thing you should verify is if you can connect to the server manually from the console again, now that you know openjk is working properly. Find you IP address again, it may have changed since you last checked it.

Oh and to answer your questions, no the country doesn't matter. A server can be hosted anywhere in the world and still point to the master server. And you shouldn't have to leave it running for days to have it show up, I only said that as a way to eliminate it as an issue. If its not there after 15-30 minutes then it's not working. When I launched mine it was in the server browser instantly. Since yours is sending heartbeats, it should be as well, it just doesn't seem to be getting out. It's like texting that girl with no signal.

[y451n3]

DUDE!! IT'S FINALLY WORKING!!

I can't describe how happy I was when it showed up on the server list!

One dude even joined it and we played together!

 

Now I can host games with my hometown friends with the lowest ping possible (cause we tried joining other servers but we were lagging a lot, that's why I decided I needed to make a server)

 

So I tested it and it worked great. I connected with another computer using cellular data and got a very low ping (30-40), and it was very stable. I should mention though that I bought an Ethernet cable and used that instead of Wifi, so that's what gave the stability. I even optimized the Ethernet cable's advanced settings in Device manager (chatGPT told me which settings to use) so that boosted it even more.

 

But what actually solved the issue was doing the port forwarding again the way you described it. And ngl, yes it didn't make a lot of sense at first when I read it, my brain froze for a few seconds but then I got it. And when I got it I said to myself: "Why didn't you do this from the start? It's much more simpler! Why did you mix them when you could've done them this way?" and the answer is simple: the idea of doing them that way (matching them for each entry) never came to my mind lol. Idk why  

I also noticed that the last digit of my device's internal IP changed. However its name didn't. My public IP address definitely changed though, idk what's the deal with that.

And by the way when I sent the video I did reboot my router multiple times at that time. So doing the port forwarding the way you told me (matching the ports for LAN and WAN for each entry) is what solved the problem.

 

Also, I also loved your corrected version of my anology of texting the girl   Although if you think about it literally what the girl in your analogy did is worse than what the girl in mine did. Like the girl in my analogy didn't text back and that's it. But the girl in yours not only she didn't text back, but she showed all her classmates, as well as the other guys texting her, that you're texting her, and she was  like "oh look at this loser texting me hahaha he thinks he has a chance hahaha what a loser"  But hey after my server showed up in the server list she definitely changed her mind. This time she was like: "omg look at this super handsome guy, omg I think I'm in love!" 

 

Alright with all of that said I'd like to take this moment to thank you guys for helping me out: Thank you Circa, thank you NAB622. You guys are awesome! 

At the very bottom you'll find two pictures: one for the correct port forwarding, and the other for my server showing up in the server list (it's called "The DBK Server" it's the one at the very top)

 

So what's the next ? I'm thinking making a better server.cfg using the tutorials in server management. The server.cfg I used is just a basic one for testing. Can you link me some good tutorials?

How about downloading some multiplayer mods? Which ones do you recommend? how can I make my server have a grappling hook for example?

And how can I optimize my server so that the players in my server don't lag (if someone other than my friends connects for example? And they're far geographically)

Also I have a question concerning security? Can I be hacked or attacked or something while hosting a server? How can I protect myself?

 

 

 

[Circa]

Oh I'm really glad that worked because I was all out of ideas after that. I've never seen a router interface like that so I wasn't sure if having those ports mixed up would even matter. Nice!

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

I also noticed that the last digit of my device's internal IP changed. However its name didn't. My public IP address definitely changed though, idk what's the deal with that.

Some ISP's have dynamic public IP addresses, that's normal. Requesting a static one from some ISP's can be expensive, but you could look into getting one if you wanted to. That would make it so you could set the server as a favorite in the game for easy connection, or to share around for manual connection. Otherwise you'll just have to rely on the server browser to connect.

For device IP addresses, those are dynamic normally too, especially on wifi. Routers use what's called DHCP to assign local IP addresses and if a device is disconnected and reconnected, it might get a new address. You can set Windows to use a static IP address, but since your router sets the ports according to either hostname or MAC address, that isn't really necessary. Unless I'm wrong about your router, then in which case you should do that.

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

So what's the next ? I'm thinking making a better server.cfg using the tutorials in server management. The server.cfg I used is just a basic one for testing. Can you link me some good tutorials?

Give this tutorial a read and follow links there that may interest you. We don't have a ton of tutorials on server stuff but the basics are there. You'll want to learn the RCON commands for controlling your server ingame or from the terminal.

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

How about downloading some multiplayer mods? Which ones do you recommend? how can I make my server have a grappling hook for example?

That's all up to you. Maps are the main thing that makes the MP experience endless fun. There are hundreds of maps out there for you to check out and explore with your friends. Some of the most popular ones and ones I recommend first are these:

• https://jkhub.org/files/file/517-sith-council-v2/
• https://jkhub.org/files/file/138-the-academy/
• https://jkhub.org/files/file/939-jedis-home-jl/
• https://jkhub.org/files/file/425-taspir-power-complex/
• https://jkhub.org/files/file/981-terminative-3-home/
• https://jkhub.org/files/file/375-grand-jedi-skills-flaw-stories/

For the grappling hook, that is an exclusive feature of the JA+ server mod. Instead of running OpenJK you're going to need to run this for your dedicated server:

https://jkhub.org/files/file/953-ja-server-side/

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

And how can I optimize my server so that the players in my server don't lag (if someone other than my friends connects for example? And they're far geographically)

There's not much you can do there other than use a wired connection, don't play the game on the server PC, don't run anything else on the server PC. Limit other device's usage of your network bandwidth. If someone is streaming Netflix or something that could effect things. But overall, ping is king; meaning the best experience a player can have is playing on a server close to them (lower ping).

2 hours ago, y451n3 said:

Also I have a question concerning security? Can I be hacked or attacked or something while hosting a server? How can I protect myself?

Using OpenJK and anything based on it is a big step in keeping secure. Unfortunately JA+ is not based on OpenJK as it was created many years before the source code was released. So if you switch to that, it could have some vulnerabilities that wasn't patched in OpenJK (I'm no expert on that though, I could be wrong). If you're really wanting JA+ you could try using JA++ instead which was a rewrite of JA+ and should provide the grapple hook too and is newer and though I'm not sure if it was based on OpenJK, it is much newer and was created by one of the JACoders that created OpenJK as well.

Though most of the popular servers have run JA+ and most players of the game consider it to be the best Jedi Academy MP experience, I personally prefer basejka vanilla. The grapple hook can be fun but is kind of a goofy gimmick imo. I prefer base saber damages as well. But no shade to anyone who loves JA+, of course. I've learned to cope with it.