LAN vs Server?
- Thread starter NucleusSeal
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What exactly is the question? Are you asking if it is better to open a game up to LAN or rent a hosted server? Or are you asking if it is better to rent a hosted server or buy a dedicated machine and run it on your own LAN? Or are we talking about setting up a server on the same PC as you are running the client? Or something else entirely?
I meant :
Playing our own LAN, or playing a server which is being hosted by the same computer which is running the client.
Playing our own LAN, or playing a server which is being hosted by the same computer which is running the client.
Well to start with the obvious advantage of running the server is that the hosting player don't have to be playing for everyone else to be.
Besides that it really comes down to the load on the PC from running both the client and server part(you run the server part both when opening to LAN and when hosting the server). Minecraft is not good at multicore processing, so you can gain a bit from splitting things up into running the Client and the Server programs I think. But this will in turn require more overhead RAM allocated, when you count up all the extra buffer RAM required etc.
All in all you might gain a little bit, but I probably wouldn't bother with it unless it was for the first point I mentioned.
If you at all can and you are enough players to warrant it, I would probably go down the road of a dedicated server(big up front investment that can do other things than MC, like file/media host etc.), or rent a hosted server(slow gradual expense that is only a MC server).
The server would only ever really being running two people (who are in the same house)
Does LAN provide most of the features of a server?
Does LAN provide most of the features of a server?
That depends on the server software you use. If you just download the server from the Launcher then yeah, pretty much the same features(if not exactly).
You can however go more advanced and install a server on more advanced server "environments" such as Cauldron to gain access to MANY other features such as Bukkit plugins. And you can then install than in something like McMyAdmin to gain remote access to settings, console and status of the server. BUT all this is really minded for use on bigger servers with many people playing. Plugins are usually used for things like permissions(you can use these commands but not thes) and protections(this is my home and only I can break and place blocks here). I doubt you will find any need for that, specially if just hosting it on your own PC. If you set up a dedicated server, then some of these might be handy. I personally did this to use the McMA stuff(backup, sleep when noone online, scheduled reboot, etc.) on my own dedicated server which it is just me playing on
That reminds me: how would I go about setting up a dedicated server just for myself?That depends on the server software you use. If you just download the server from the Launcher then yeah, pretty much the same features(if not exactly).
You can however go more advanced and install a server on more advanced server "environments" such as Cauldron to gain access to MANY other features such as Bukkit plugins. And you can then install than in something like McMyAdmin to gain remote access to settings, console and status of the server. BUT all this is really minded for use on bigger servers with many people playing. Plugins are usually used for things like permissions(you can use these commands but not thes) and protections(this is my home and only I can break and place blocks here). I doubt you will find any need for that, specially if just hosting it on your own PC. If you set up a dedicated server, then some of these might be handy. I personally did this to use the McMA stuff(backup, sleep when noone online, scheduled reboot, etc.) on my own dedicated server which it is just me playing on
On a LAN, one of the systems IS the server.
[Edit] The only differences between the two are:
1.) On an internet-based server none of the clients are shouldering the load of keeping the game synced for everyone... On a LAN one of the systems is both the "master" server and a client. This is similar to single player mode with a bit of extra communications overhead thrown in.
2). On a LAN, all the players are directly connected so wire-based lag or latency shouldn't be a problem. By LAN, I refer to a strict single subnet... no ethernet/Wireless mixing as that's two subnets and WiFi can be interfered with. Also, you aren't paying for Server rental and you don't need internet connectivity to play if everything is on the LAN.
Probably the most efficient setup would be a LAN with a dedicated Server connected and every client on a seperate system.
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I used this as a baseline guide(sort of, it is for 1.7 and my server is running 1.6 so several things were different, but it was easy enough to figure out on my own) on how to set up a Cauldron server:
https://www.mcmyadmin.com/
It was kinda obvious where to put what.
I am not really using the Cauldron setup for much. Installed all the Essentials plugins, but not really using them for anything(yet?). The real cool thing(for a server just for myself) is the McMA control panel and the features it adds.