LAN versus internet: why the address is different
A local address only works inside one home network, and a hosted server is always reached over the internet instead. This explains the difference, why Open to LAN is not server hosting, and exactly what to give your players.
6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
This trips up almost everyone moving from a single player world shared with friends in the same house to a real server. The two use different kinds of address, and the local one does not travel.
Two kinds of address
Every device on a network has an address. Which kind you get depends on where you are looking from.
- A local address (also called a private or LAN address) identifies a device inside one network, like a room number inside a building. Your router hands it out and it means nothing outside your house. Local addresses start with
192.168.,10., or172.16.through172.31.. Narrower still is127.0.0.1, orlocalhost, which means "this very computer". - A public address identifies something on the internet, like a full street address. Anyone, anywhere, can reach it. This is what a hosted server has.
LAN stands for local area network: the devices connected to one router, usually one home or one office. If two players are not on the same router, a local address cannot get them to each other, no matter what you do to it.
Why a hosted server is always the internet case
Your GuavaHost server lives in a datacentre, on a machine with a public address. It is not on your network, and it is not on your friends' networks either. So there is only one kind of address in play: the public one.
That has three consequences worth knowing:
- Everyone uses the same address, including you. There is no special shortcut for the owner. You connect exactly the way your players do.
- You never set up port forwarding. Port forwarding is a router rule for a server inside a home, and there is no home router between your players and a hosted machine. Port forwarding explained covers it if you are curious about the home setup.
- Your own PC can be off. The server is not running on it, which is usually the main reason people rent one.
To get the address: sign in at customer.guavahost.com, open My servers and click Manage on your server. At the top of the server page, next to Address, is your IP and port with a copy button. That is the full public address, and it is the only one you share. Address, IP and port breaks down the format each game's client expects.
Open to LAN is not server hosting
In Minecraft, pausing a single player world and choosing Open to LAN makes your own game act as a temporary host. It is genuinely useful, and it is genuinely limited:
- It only reaches players on the same router as you. Friends elsewhere see nothing.
- It stops the moment you close the world or quit the game.
- It picks a random port each time, so even inside the house the address changes.
- Your world runs on your PC, competing with your own game for hardware.
A dedicated server is the other thing entirely: it runs on its own, it has a stable public address, and it keeps running when you log off. What a dedicated game server is is the longer version of that comparison. If you have been playing a world on your own PC, you can usually upload its save folder to a server and carry on from where you left off.
Other games have similar in game options: a Valheim world hosted from your own client, a Palworld co-op invite, a Terraria "Host and Play". All of them have the same shape as Open to LAN. They depend on the host's machine being awake and reachable, and they stop when that machine does.
Addresses you might see, and what they mean
| What you see | What it is | Who it works for |
|---|---|---|
127.0.0.1 or localhost | This computer only | Nobody else, ever |
192.168.1.50:25565 | A device on one home network | Only players on that same router |
123.45.67.89:25565 | A public address and port | Anyone on the internet |
play.example.com | A hostname that points at a public address | Anyone, once DNS has spread |
If an address you were given starts with any of the private ranges, it was copied from the wrong place. Go back to the panel and take the one next to Address.
The trap where it works for you and nobody else
When someone hosts at home, they test by joining their own server, it works, and they conclude the server is fine. It is not a fair test: their client may be taking a shortcut over the local network and never touching the internet path. Many routers also cannot handle a device inside the house connecting to the house's own public address, so the opposite happens too: everyone on the internet gets in and the host cannot.
Neither of those applies to a hosted server, which is part of why a rented one is less confusing to debug. If your players cannot get in, check the server's status, the address and the version before you touch any router settings, because none of those three live on your network.
When a local address is still the right answer
There are two honest cases:
- Everyone really is in the same house. Two people on one router can use the local address, and it is a touch snappier. If one of them switches to mobile data, it breaks.
- You built a private network yourself. Some people join friends into one virtual network with a mesh VPN tool and use the addresses it hands out. It works, but every player has to install and sign in to the same tool, and you become its support desk. A public address plus a password or a whitelist does the same job with less friction, and whitelist, password or private server compares those options.
What to actually give your players
Keep it to one message with no room for interpretation:
- The full address from the panel, copied, as
IP:port. - The exact game version your server runs, from Startup settings on the Settings tab (or the Version page under Minecraft tools for Minecraft Java).
- The password, if your game has one, or a note that you have to add them to the whitelist first.
Send it as plain text. Chat apps like to turn a pasted address into a link, and a player who copies that gets something the game cannot read. Invite your first players has a message you can reuse every time someone new asks.
Common questions
Do I need port forwarding for my GuavaHost server?
No. Port forwarding is a setting on a home router, and your server is not behind one. The address in the panel is already reachable from the internet, so share it and you are done.
Can my friends join with my home IP?
No. Your home IP has nothing to do with a hosted server, and handing it out tells people where you live and invites trouble. Share only the server address from the panel.
Why does the panel address work for my friend but not for me?
Check the obvious things first: your saved entry may hold an older port, or your game may have updated past the server's version. If both match and you are the only one affected, it is your own network, which is what the firewall and blocked ports guide is for.
Is a LAN connection faster than connecting over the internet?
Within one house, yes, slightly, because the traffic never leaves the building. For everyone else it is irrelevant, and what actually decides how it feels is the distance between each player and the server's location, which is why picking a region close to your group matters.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.
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