How to Join Your Colony Survival Server

You do not connect to your Colony Survival server via IP address and port. Instead you use the in-game server browser: search for the name of your server there and join it with a click.

Important

The most important thing for joining is a unique server name. You can see the name of your server in the dashboard. If your server is called the same as hundreds of others, you will barely find it in the list again.

Join the server in the game

1. Start Colony Survival
   Launch the game and wait until the main menu has loaded.

2. Open Multiplayer
   Select Multiplayer in the main menu.

3. Choose the right list
   At the top you will find several tabs:

   Tab	Content
   Internet	All publicly listed servers – this is where you find your own server
   Friends	Servers of players on your Steam friends list
   LAN	Servers in the same local network
   History	Servers you joined most recently

4. Search for the server
   Look for the name of your server in the list. Use the filters above the list – such as Show Empty or Show Full – to narrow down the selection.

5. Join
   Select your server and click Join.

6. Enter the password
   If a password is set for your server, you will be asked for it now.

Tip

After joining for the first time you can find your server again through the History tab, without searching the whole server list every time.

Why don't you need a port?

Note

Your server uses Steam networking: this is how it registers with the server browser, and the actual connection is established through Steam as well. That is why you enter neither an IP address nor a port in the game.

You can see the Game Port and the Query Port of your server in the dashboard. You do not need them for joining normally – they are used in the background.

Warning

Older guides are usually written for self-hosted servers and explain port forwarding in your router. That is not necessary on your rented server – the ports are already set up and are listed in the dashboard.

Server does not show up

If your server does not appear in the list, work through the following points:

1. Is the server running?
   Check in the dashboard whether your server is started and whether the console shows any errors.

2. Refresh the list
   Leave the multiplayer menu and open it again. After a server start it takes a moment until the server shows up in the public list.

3. Search for the exact name
   Search for a distinctive part of your server name. The list is long – without searching you will hardly find your server.

4. Join through friends
   If someone from your Steam friends list is already on the server, you can also find it through the Friends tab.

Note

If you get a message when connecting that you are blacklisted or not whitelisted, you have been excluded from the server. To learn how to manage those lists, see Kick & Ban Players.