How to set up public WoW Server

Reaper-X | Feb, 4 2008 253 Comments Related Posts Share RSS Feed

If you prefer the manual way of doing this (which mean there’s no batch file to help you at all), then please follow the manual guide to setup public / private wow server

Because many people still having problem on setting up their own World of Warcraft server to be accessible by public, i’ve decided to rewrite the guide again (perhaps the previous guide on setting up wow server for lan party a little bit hard to understand for some people or probably because i didn’t write it clearly) … hopefully this new guide can help you on setting up your wow server to be accessible by public and more easier to understand despite my bad english language

So here goes the guide :

Requirements :

1. Know how to set up port forwarding (very important if you’re behind router or no one will be able to access your wow server no matter what you do) … but since every router has their own configuration page, i’d suggest you to read your router manual on how to configure it

btw i’m using Linksys AG241V2 and Aztech DSL600EU as seen on above image

2. Know how to configure firewall to allow connection on specific port, as a note Windows XP built-in Firewall is enabled by default (Windows Firewall) … btw if it’s for me i’m using Ghostwall as my personal firewall

3. DNS Name for your WoW server to make things easier and you can get it for free from Dyndns.com, no-ip.com, etc

4. Your friend to test whether it works or not :P

Let’s start the guide :

PART 1. Find your public IP Address

1. First you’ll need to go into whatismyip.com to get your public ip address (public ip address is ip address that is broadcasted while you were browsing / doing any internet activity)

PART 2. Get a DNS Name

2. Now you’ll need to pay a visit to various dynamic dns service to get your free name, but since it’ll be very long if i write the detailed process here, so i’ll leave that to you to decide what your dns name going to be, and in this example i’m going to call the wow server, mycoolwowserver.com

PART 3. Using Reaper Mangos to configure realmd

3. For the third steps you just need to run the reaper-x-mangos inside the reaper-eazy-mangos directory and choose option 5 like below for an example

Now you can just simply ignore the message that is basically saying that you need to write your LAN IP Address (well … creating public server is against mangos terms of use) :P … and write your wowserver dns name that you get from Dynamic DNS Service (in this example i’m using mycoolwowserver.com which is a fake name of course) and followed by writing your desired Realm Name

(click the image to see the full size)

Now we’re done with the Mangos part but don’t start mangosd.exe and realmd.exe process yet, because we need to configure your router first

PART 4. Find your LAN IP Address and your Router IP Address

4. Now for this step, you’ll need to find what is your router ip address and your LAN IP Address that is connected to your router, this can be done by :

1. Double clicking on your active connection status on Windows System Tray (the area near clock) or
2. from Control Panel » Network Connection » and double clicking on your Ethernet Card listed there or
3. Browse to any website and lookup your active connection status by typing netstat -n via the command prompt and look at the local address followed by typing netstat -rn

See example image below :

Now based from the above image, you can get your router ip address and your lan ip address that is connected to your router. And in this case the router ip address is 192.168.1.1 while the ethernet ip address is 192.168.1.2

PART 5. Set up Port Forwarding

5. After getting your router ip address now we need to open it’s configuration page by simply typing 192.168.1.1 at your address bar of your internet browser

Note: Screenshot were taken from my Linksys AG241V2 router (click the image to see full size)

The default port used by Realmd is 3724 while the default port for World is 8085, now … since we have that information … we can set up port forwarding by writing that value into your router configuration page at port forwarding section … and we’re done configuring our router … but wait …

Since every router have their own configuration page, i’d suggest you to look at your router manual on how to set up port forwarding on your router or you can also visit portforward.com if you need help on setting up port forwarding

PART 6. Configuring Windows Firewall

Although i’m not using Windows Firewall as stated before at the requirements section, i’ve decided to write a guide on how to configure your windows firewall to allow connection to your computer for your World of Warcraft server purpose … because … most people seems to not have installed 3rd party firewall and i’m thinking probably they still use Windows Firewall … but let’s get back to the topic shall we ? :)

Note: This is based from Windows XP SP2, and i can’t remember if there’s configuration like below on Windows XP SP1 or below because of the same reason i stated before

6. Now you need to go into Control Panel » Windows Firewall and make sure that Don’t allow exceptions is unchecked

Then you’ll need to open the Exceptions tab, and then click on Add Port and add value as shown below and click OK

and then click on Add Port again and this time write below value

And then Click OK and then Click OK again to leave the Windows Firewall Configuration Window, and we’re done configuring Windows Firewall :)

If you’re using other Firewall, then you’ll need to configure it as shown above

PART 7. Port Scanning

Now we need to use online port scanner to test whether the port is accessible from the internet or not, and we can do this by using uTorrent Port Scanner (simple but useful) and the steps to do these are :

1. Start Realmd.exe and Mangosd.exe process (do not run WoW.exe yet, or in other words don’t run world of warcraft yet)

2. Go to below url to scan your pc :

http://www.utorrent.com/testport.php?port=3724

http://www.utorrent.com/testport.php?port=8085

3. See if you get message that is saying your port is open or not (you’ll get two results)

4. If you get the above message that means you’ve finished creating your own wow server to be accessible from the internet … Congrats! … but wait there’s still one more step for you to do ;)

PART 8. Editing Windows HOSTS File

Now you need to edit your Windows HOSTS file located at C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and add below line after everything else (do not replace any value there)

192.168.1.2 mycoolwowserver.com

or in this format :

lanipaddress dnsname

and that’s it you’re finished (seriously) :D

I’m still having problem even after doing all of the above steps!

Usually if you still having problem probably that’s because :

1. You didn’t set up port forwarding properly
2. You didn’t configure your firewall properly
3. The default realmd port (3724) conflict with Blizzard Updater (Blizzard Updater use P2P to transfer update data by default unless you disable it to let it only update from HTTP Protocol on Blizzard server) or conflict with other program

For most people it seems number 3 is the source of their problem, so try doing these :

1. Open Realmd.conf and search for 3724 and then replace it with another value (above 10000 to be safe) and then continue setting up port forwarding, etc (from Step number 5 in this guide until finish) for the new port value

2. Then open realmlist.wtf file on your World of Warcraft Directory and change the realmlist to use the new port (if you’re not using default port then you’ll need to write the port used by your realmd process too or else your friend or you won’t be able to connect to your own server)

here’s an example of what the realmlist.wtf file should look like if you changed your realmd port from it’s default value :

set realmlist mycoolwowserver:9999

at the above example the realmd port is set to 9999, if you use another value then make sure to use that value instead

That’s it hopefully this new guide can help you on setting up your own World of Warcraft Server for … erm LAN Party :P and i didn’t miss anything