How to Set Up Geoblocking on Your SCP: Secret Laboratory Server

With geoblocking, you decide from which countries players may join your server. You can either allow only certain countries or block individual countries. All settings for this are in the config_gameplay.txt file. You can find the basics of editing the configuration files in the Edit configuration files guide.

Warning

The path to the configuration files contains the game port of your server: /.config/SCP Secret Laboratory/config/<Port>/. Replace <Port> with the actual game port of your server. You can find the game port in the dashboard under Overview.

The geoblocking settings

In config_gameplay.txt you will find the #Geoblocking section. By default, it looks like this:

#Geoblocking
#If your server is on the public list, please refer to Verified Server Rules for more details.
#Modes: none, whitelist, blacklist
geoblocking_mode: none

#If enabled, players on the whitelist are able to ignore geoblocking.
geoblocking_ignore_whitelisted: true

#ISO country codes, eg. PL, US, DE
geoblocking_whitelist:
 - AA
 - AB
 - AC

geoblocking_blacklist:
 - AA
 - AB
 - AC

Setting	Meaning
geoblocking_mode	none (default) – geoblocking is off. whitelist – only players from the countries in geoblocking_whitelist may join. blacklist – players from the countries in geoblocking_blacklist are rejected, everyone else may join.
geoblocking_ignore_whitelisted	If true (default), players from your UserIDWhitelist.txt bypass geoblocking.
geoblocking_whitelist	List of allowed countries for the whitelist mode
geoblocking_blacklist	List of blocked countries for the blacklist mode

You enter the countries as two-letter ISO country codes, e.g. DE for Germany, AT for Austria, CH for Switzerland, PL for Poland or US for the USA. Each country goes on its own line, indented by one space and preceded by a hyphen. The entries AA, AB and AC are only placeholders and must be replaced.

Note

Only the list that matches the selected mode is used. In whitelist mode, geoblocking_blacklist therefore has no effect, and vice versa.

Set up geoblocking

1. Find out the game port
   Open the dashboard of your server and note the game port shown under Overview.

2. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

3. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP.

4. Open the configuration file
   Open the following file – replace <Port> with your game port:

   /.config/SCP Secret Laboratory/config/<Port>/config_gameplay.txt

   Find the #Geoblocking section in it.

5. Choose the mode
   Set geoblocking_mode to whitelist if you only want to allow certain countries, or to blacklist if you want to block certain countries:

   geoblocking_mode: whitelist

6. Enter the countries
   In the matching list, replace the placeholders AA, AB and AC with the country codes you want. You can add or remove as many lines as you like.

7. Start the server
   Save the file and start your server via the dashboard.

Example

This is how you only allow players from Germany, Austria and Switzerland on your server:

geoblocking_mode: whitelist

geoblocking_ignore_whitelisted: true

geoblocking_whitelist:
 - DE
 - AT
 - CH

Warning

With the whitelist mode, you also lock yourself out if you are currently in a country that is not on the list. It is best to add your own ID to UserIDWhitelist.txt and leave geoblocking_ignore_whitelisted set to true – then you can still get onto your server. You do not need to enable enable_whitelist for this.

Exceptions to geoblocking

Players on the whitelist: If geoblocking_ignore_whitelisted is set to true, all players from UserIDWhitelist.txt may join regardless of their country. This lets you allow individual friends from abroad without opening up their whole country.

For the geoblocking exception it is enough to add the ID to UserIDWhitelist.txt in the same port folder (one ID per line, e.g. 76561198000000001@steam). You do not need to enable enable_whitelist – if you leave it on false, all other players from allowed countries can still join.

Warning

The Set up a whitelist guide shows you the format of UserIDWhitelist.txt. If you only want the geoblocking exception, skip the step there that sets enable_whitelist to true. Otherwise, only players from UserIDWhitelist.txt can join.

Northwood ban team: The config_remoteadmin.txt file in the same port folder has the setting (default true):

enable_banteam_bypass_geoblocking: true

This allows members of Northwood's official ban team to bypass your geoblocking. Leave this setting set to true.

Important

If your server is verified and visible on the public server list, Northwood's Verified Server Rules apply to geoblocking. The comment in config_gameplay.txt explicitly points this out. Check the rules before enabling geoblocking on a public server. You can find more about verification in the Get your server verified guide.

Detect rejected players

If a player tries to join from a blocked country, they are rejected and the server records the attempt in the console of the dashboard and in the server log, e.g.:

Player 76561198000000001@steam (203.0.113.10) tried joined from blocked country US.

This lets you check whether your geoblocking works as intended. The Read the server log guide explains how to read the log.

Note

Geoblocking is only checked when a player joins. Players who are already connected are not removed after a change – the new rules only apply once they reconnect.

Further options

Geoblocking restricts access by country. If you want to restrict access to individual players, use the whitelist. The Protect your server without a password guide explains why there is no server password and which alternatives you have.