So I've just set up my own server but i can't seem to connect, let alone get my friends to connect. I have port forwarded through my router and through windows, but the only way I can connect is typing "connect :28961" into the games console which i believe is just a local connection, if i try to connect with my IP "connect 2.216.168.41:28961" I have no luck, and neither does anyone else trying to connect to my server... This is really annoying me, I've been tinkering with it for about an hour and a half and it's slowly got on my nerves So I was wondering if anyone could help me sort this out? If anyone is wondering, I have a sky netgear router, and I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit any help would be highly appreciated as I've often wanted to host a server on here but seem to just keep running into numerous problems xD

 

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You have to join your own server with you local IP...

Just to clarify... My friends can't connect with my public IP. I am aware that I have to connect with my local, but my friends still can't connect with my public.

Make sure you port forward 28960 and 28961 with both UDP and TCP

Thanks, but still no luck

the server is 2.216.168.41:28961, im not advertising, but I was just wondering if anyone else could connect, because none of my friends seem to be able to

Thanks, but still no luck

Disable or Add port exceptions to your Windows Firewall and also Disable your Router Firewall..

Thanks for the help guys. But I'd tried all of the suggestions, but after trying all that, i had a look at my routers firewall settings. The internal IP that the server uses is 192.168.0.3, so I allowed that through the routers firewall along with the ports and now people can connect to my server. Thanks for the help!