Questions about VPN services for server hosting

[Tentons01]

Hi everyone! First time poster here! I'll go ahead and ask my question then give you all the details. Can I buy a VPN service to allow people to connect to my game server? It would need to be able to bypass port forwarding. I know a lot of you are going to suggest trying to port forward instead but i'll go ahead and say that after 30+ hours dealing with several technicians and support staff my port forwarding will not work so I'm trying to find a way around it haha.

I generally know very little about VPN so I have a few questions about it. Will it give me a separate external IP address that people can use to connect to my server? Will it bypass my port forwarding issues? Since I will have to download a program for it will anyone else who wants to join my server need to have the program installed or do I only need it on my own computer? A lot of the information I have is from friends so I'm not sure if it is correct.. I really appreciate anything you guys can tell me!

The server is for the game Terraria. I hosted one for several years but it was forced to close after the port issues came up. I am attempting to bring it back online after many requests for it but it is pretty difficult finding a way to do it

 

[Samwell9854]

Hello Tentons01,

SHORT VERSION is:
- VPN is not what you need, although it can work.
- You can indeed pay a VPN service to which you and your friends will connect to in order to be "together" and host your server, but there are free ways, and that paid service might require specific software and not be very easy.
- You can host your own VPN, but by doing this you still need to do some Port Forwarding in order to access it, and this is not what you need (as this would give the other peers access to your whole home network).
- The most direct and reliable way to proceed for your needs is through Port Forwarding. I hosted myself Terraria, Minecraft, and many more games directly accessible from the Internet through Port Forwarding, no clients or third-party software required. Only requirement is a minimum of computer/network knowledge.
- If you're really sticking with "VPN" service, check out Hamachi. Free (if not too many users), but a pain in the ass for many reasons, I'm not going there.

LONG VERSION is:

How communications actually happen in a network is as followed:
From the internet point of view, the only thing which can be seen is your router. Every devices behind (inside your house, so an iPad on wifi, your PC, laptops, etc.) cannot be accessed directly as the router blocks everything which goes FROM the internet TO the router. Well, almost everything. (The following is not theoretically true, but for a matter of understanding, that's how it works>) If your computer wants to talk to a server on the Internet, it sends a REQUEST to the router, which then the router transfers it to the Internet until it receives the ANSWER from the specified server, and then gives it back to your computer. The router is like a bridge from your hidden home network into the wild and unknown Internet, and the router will block everything from the Internet which is not something it was expecting.
Knowing this, then how do you access your computer? This is where you need to do some Port Forwarding: You can tell your router to listen to a specific port (for Terraria it's 7777) and redirect everything to your computer. And you also need to make sure to disable your Firewall (easiest), or configure it accordingly. Once you forward that port, all you need to give to your friends when they want to connect directly to your game is to provide them your WAN IP (the router's IP on the side of the Internet). It can be found here: whatismyip.com
Example (considering the setup is well done): let's say the website gives you the ip "24.37.0.1". Once the other persons will select multiplayer and need to input a direct IP, they only need to type that IP address and "Connect". That's it!

If this option isn't possible, you can have a fearsome experience filled with headaches with Hamachi. You can have only a limited amount of peers in a network for free, and it serves as a "VPN"~ish service and will allow you to connect your friends altogether. Unfortunately I won't explain how to as it makes the network of the computers themselves with Hamachi to go weird at some times... Very useful when you don't know what you're doing, otherwise not recommended.

 

[Tentons01]

I appreciate the tips! I would love to simply port forward as I did in the past but somehow my ISP screwed my ports up. Port forwarding no longer works and nothing is able to connect to me whatsoever even after bypassing the router and getting ethernet straight from the modem. Everything on my end is configured correctly (and has been verified by several technicians, support from time warner cable, and support from netgear) yet no one seems to be able to locate the issue. So unfortunately port forwarding is not as option anymore.. I have replaced the modems and routers several times as well tried 3 different computers

It's very difficult to find a solution that meets my requirements and most likely I will end up paying for someone to run a dedicated server. My needs are quite high as i'm not just hosting a small server for my friends, i'm reopening my large public server that was shut down a couple years ago due to port issues. Incase you are wondering, the only thing that triggered the port failure was my internet speeds getting increased. After the many many hours trying to fix the issue over the last 2 years I have pretty much tried everything aside from switching internet service providers