Creating a Steam Server as Hostname instead of IP

[Rabisco]

Hello everyone,

 

I have a very important question that it's affecting our players.

 

When we start the PZ Server as Steam, automatically my IP is assigned to the server.

 

That is what we saw in the Public List of servers. So users when joining will save the server as IP and his character local files will be created using this IP Address.

 

But sometimes my IP changes and players have to manually change the local files to reflect the new IP.

 

I already have a hostname assigned to my server but I can't make the Public Server list reflect the hostname instead of IP.

 

Is there a way to do that?

 

Thanks in advance,

[MountainSage]

There is one option but how useful it is depends on what kind of player base you're looking for.

 

Surprisingly, the folder is named based on the IP that was entered by the user to connect to your server, not the IP the server has registered with steam as.

So what you can do is either get a DynDNS that resolves to your server's IP or set up a domain you own to resolve to your server's IP dynamically.

 

Then players wanting to connect can enter the DynDNS or your domain into the "IP" field on the Server browser screen in Zomboid along with their details like Name, Account Username, Account Password etc and save this to their saved servers list.

 

The server will show as "Server not responding" in the saved server list but if you try connect despite that, you'll connect just fine and the save folder that is created will use the domain or the dyndns you entered as it's name instead of the current IP of the server.

 

The downside of this is that this will only work if the player knows what to enter in the IP field before hand.

The server will still show as normally in the public server list with the IP it's registered as instead of your domain, meaning any users connecting through there will continue to have the save invalidation issue.

 

So TLDR?

Yes there's a workaround but you'll need to find a way to give connecting users the IP to use.

If you're looking to host a server for a group of people you can easily give said info to? Not that big an issue, just hand it out in a group chat or something.

If you're looking to do a public server for anyone to join? Eh...Maybe add the domain they need to connect to in the server description along with a notice to connect manually?

[Rabisco]

There is one option but how useful it is depends on what kind of player base you're looking for.

 

Surprisingly, the folder is named based on the IP that was entered by the user to connect to your server, not the IP the server has registered with steam as.

So what you can do is either get a DynDNS that resolves to your server's IP or set up a domain you own to resolve to your server's IP dynamically.

 

Then players wanting to connect can enter the DynDNS or your domain into the "IP" field on the Server browser screen in Zomboid along with their details like Name, Account Username, Account Password etc and save this to their saved servers list.

 

The server will show as "Server not responding" in the saved server list but if you try connect despite that, you'll connect just fine and the save folder that is created will use the domain or the dyndns you entered as it's name instead of the current IP of the server.

 

The downside of this is that this will only work if the player knows what to enter in the IP field before hand.

The server will still show as normally in the public server list with the IP it's registered as instead of your domain, meaning any users connecting through there will continue to have the save invalidation issue.

 

So TLDR?

Yes there's a workaround but you'll need to find a way to give connecting users the IP to use.

If you're looking to host a server for a group of people you can easily give said info to? Not that big an issue, just hand it out in a group chat or something.

If you're looking to do a public server for anyone to join? Eh...Maybe add the domain they need to connect to in the server description along with a notice to connect manually?

 

Lol

I put into the server description to change the IP to Hostname but ask me if anyone even read that?

So I was trying to avoid this issue by having my server in Public Server List showing as a Hostname and not my current IP Address.

[ModdedTibby]

 

There is one option but how useful it is depends on what kind of player base you're looking for.

 

Surprisingly, the folder is named based on the IP that was entered by the user to connect to your server, not the IP the server has registered with steam as.

So what you can do is either get a DynDNS that resolves to your server's IP or set up a domain you own to resolve to your server's IP dynamically.

 

Then players wanting to connect can enter the DynDNS or your domain into the "IP" field on the Server browser screen in Zomboid along with their details like Name, Account Username, Account Password etc and save this to their saved servers list.

 

The server will show as "Server not responding" in the saved server list but if you try connect despite that, you'll connect just fine and the save folder that is created will use the domain or the dyndns you entered as it's name instead of the current IP of the server.

 

The downside of this is that this will only work if the player knows what to enter in the IP field before hand.

The server will still show as normally in the public server list with the IP it's registered as instead of your domain, meaning any users connecting through there will continue to have the save invalidation issue.

 

So TLDR?

Yes there's a workaround but you'll need to find a way to give connecting users the IP to use.

If you're looking to host a server for a group of people you can easily give said info to? Not that big an issue, just hand it out in a group chat or something.

If you're looking to do a public server for anyone to join? Eh...Maybe add the domain they need to connect to in the server description along with a notice to connect manually?

 

Lol

I put into the server description to change the IP to Hostname but ask me if anyone even read that?

So I was trying to avoid this issue by having my server in Public Server List showing as a Hostname and not my current IP Address.

 

As of right now that isnt possible.  For some reason they haven't written in IP binding for severs (for dedicated servers with multiple IPS) OR the ability to advertise with subdomains rather than raw ips, which well honestly is much safer and smarter.

[Rabisco]

 

 

There is one option but how useful it is depends on what kind of player base you're looking for.

 

Surprisingly, the folder is named based on the IP that was entered by the user to connect to your server, not the IP the server has registered with steam as.

So what you can do is either get a DynDNS that resolves to your server's IP or set up a domain you own to resolve to your server's IP dynamically.

 

Then players wanting to connect can enter the DynDNS or your domain into the "IP" field on the Server browser screen in Zomboid along with their details like Name, Account Username, Account Password etc and save this to their saved servers list.

 

The server will show as "Server not responding" in the saved server list but if you try connect despite that, you'll connect just fine and the save folder that is created will use the domain or the dyndns you entered as it's name instead of the current IP of the server.

 

The downside of this is that this will only work if the player knows what to enter in the IP field before hand.

The server will still show as normally in the public server list with the IP it's registered as instead of your domain, meaning any users connecting through there will continue to have the save invalidation issue.

 

So TLDR?

Yes there's a workaround but you'll need to find a way to give connecting users the IP to use.

If you're looking to host a server for a group of people you can easily give said info to? Not that big an issue, just hand it out in a group chat or something.

If you're looking to do a public server for anyone to join? Eh...Maybe add the domain they need to connect to in the server description along with a notice to connect manually?

 

Lol

I put into the server description to change the IP to Hostname but ask me if anyone even read that?

So I was trying to avoid this issue by having my server in Public Server List showing as a Hostname and not my current IP Address.

 

As of right now that isnt possible.  For some reason they haven't written in IP binding for severs (for dedicated servers with multiple IPS) OR the ability to advertise with subdomains rather than raw ips, which well honestly is much safer and smarter.

 

 

Ya that's sad. Players have to learn how to change their own folders to not lose their progress.

 

Let's hope that they will make this better as soon as possible.