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Is that possible? Basically having some security issues with having the port open. Wondering if I can expose the Minecraft Server to a VPN only so that users will need to authenticate and join the VPN prior to being able to resolve the Minecraft Server from their home.

There is a cable modem and a router which has the port forwarded out.

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migrated from serverfault.com Mar 27 '12 at 15:05

This question came from our site for system and network administrators.

@SvenW Next time I will re-phrase my question so that it is in a professional context. I mean of course it's impossible that a professional would work from home or host a game server as part of a business! Apparently this guy is also in violation? serverfault.com/questions/159/… –  ioSamurai Mar 27 '12 at 14:38
@SvenW: FAQ or not, it doesn't matter in this case. It's going to be the same question and answer with "Minecraft" replaced by another word. –  gparent Mar 27 '12 at 14:39
@Ryan - yes, that's correct. If the question is regarding anything in a non-professional capacity, it's off-topic, even if the OP is a professional in his/her day job. –  EEAA Mar 27 '12 at 14:41
@Ryan, that question is three years old - a time when the site's "topics" were not clearly defined. If that question was asked now, it would be closed. –  tombull89 Mar 27 '12 at 15:14
@ErikA that's not what I meant at all, what if they were a professional who's home was their office and server hosting location, just had to ask –  ioSamurai Mar 27 '12 at 16:08

1 Answer 1

Sure. Just install OpenVPN Server on the machine, configure it properly, then make your clients install OpenVPN client. You'll need to think of some way to distribute keys/passwords. Last thing, you have to configure Minecraft so it cannot be contacted from your real IP. For this You can use a firewall or maybe Minecraft's configuration itself.

Once this is all done, traffic from the outside will not reach your minecraft port. Once connected to the VPN, your minecraft clients will of course need to use the VPN IP Address and not your internet IP address to connect to the minecraft server.

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How do you suppose "your clients" will be able to route packets to "the VPN address" (which would be an RFC1918 address)? They wouldn't. The only globally-routable address in this situation is the public internet IP that gets assigned to the router's WAN port by the OP's ISP. –  EEAA Mar 27 '12 at 14:38
Because they are connected by VPN. Have you ever used VPN before? Obviously the encrypted traffic will go to the public internet, but you wouldn't point your Minecraft client to the WAN IP, you'd point it to the local IP (whether it's the VPN endpoint itself or another local address) –  gparent Mar 27 '12 at 14:41
Sorry, your last paragraph was not clear that you were talking about the minecraft clients as opposed to your VPN clients. Downvote removed. –  EEAA Mar 27 '12 at 14:43
Oh, my bad. I understand now :) –  gparent Mar 27 '12 at 14:44
Oh, and I'm not a troll, thankyouverymuch. As you can see, I have legit reasons for downvoting (even though a valid reason isn't required). –  EEAA Mar 27 '12 at 14:55

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