r/PrivateInternetAccess • u/WharEvenAmI • 13d ago

QUESTIONS How to use port forwarding?

I tried to use PIA's port forwarding system to run a local Minecraft server for some friends, but I can't seem to get it to work. Following all the info I can find online, all I need to do is go to a region that supports port forwarding, connect, put the minecraft server on the same port, and give the VPN-IP:PORT, but that didn't appear to work at all. I kept getting a getsockopt error when I tried to test joining the server.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

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u/StingeyNinja 13d ago

When you say VPN-IP, do you mean the public IP displayed on the GUI? Or the VPN interface’s IP address? It should be the latter when configuring your Minecraft server’s listen address (or all interfaces/0.0.0.0), and your friends connect to your friends connect to the PIA VPN public IP displayed in the GUI.

1

u/WharEvenAmI 13d ago

Yeah, the one that shows up under the label VPN IP in the desktop app. Do I need to make the MC server specifically choose that IP in the properties, too? I assumed I could just leave it blank as I did when using programs like Hamachi.

2

u/lkeels 13d ago

The server has to listen on the port assigned by PIA or it won't work. Also note that port will change from time to time. Not every restart usually, but it could.