While Minecraft is an endlessly replayable single player game, its multiplayer aspect is pretty popular as well. New players to the game have probably heard about "SMP Servers" as some of the best ways to get an enjoyable multiplayer experience. In this article, we are going to showcase everything you need to know about SMP servers in Minecraft, including how to join or create your own server.
1. What are SMP servers in Minecraft?
SMP is a common term used in the Minecraft multiplayer community. It stands for Survival Multiplayer, which refers to a server with many players trying to survive on the same world map simultaneously.
In these Minecraft servers, instead of fighting each other, players enjoy a Minecraft survival world together as a community. Usually, they explore the world, farm resources, build constructions as a party. SMP servers can also have specific themes and sets of rules, depending on the server owner.
Recently, these servers have become extremely popular due to YouTubers. Many popular Minecraft streamers such as Dream has been featuring an SMP server. Dream and his friends engage in roleplay elements on the Dream SMP, which draws in a lot of views.
2. How do you join a Minecraft SMP server?
The majority of the popular Minecraft SMP servers seen on YouTube, such as DreamSMP, are private. Normal players cannot access or join them, which means no griefing and raiding. There are still free-for-all SMP servers, of course. Players can follow the below steps to join them, just like any other Minecraft server:
- Open Minecraft and navigate to the Minecraft Multiplayer menu
- Press the Add Server button and enter the name "SMP Server"
- Enter the server IP Address of "purpleore.com" and hit the Done button
- Afterward, you can join the server by double clicking on the listing. Many other servers can be joined using the same method.
3. How to make your own Minecraft SMP server?
Similar to creating your own Minecraft server, making a Minecraft SMP server is actually fairly straightforward. Getting people to join, however, is the hard part. You would usually need a pre-existing group of friends who play Minecraft to create a server. Below is a step-by-step guide for creating a Minecraft SMP Server:
Step 1
Download the Minecraft Server client software from the website of Mojang. Make sure that the latest version of Java is installed on your PC.
Step 2
You need to create a Batch File to run the server. Firstly, make a new folder and put the file in step 1 inside it.
Afterward, create a new text file inside that folder and name it "Run". Edit the file and paste this exact line "java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar {server file name} nogui". Save the file as "all files" then change its name to "Run.bat".
Step 3
Bypass the EULA by opening the eula.txt file and changing eula=false to eula=true. After this, the server would boot up. You can now launch it by double clicking the Run.bat file created in step 2. A window should appear if all the steps have been done correctly.
Step 4 (optional)
You need to Port Forward to allow other players that are not on the same internet connection as you to join. This is a pretty complicated process and might even depend on your router. Below is a step by step video guide for porting.
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