Address, IP and port: what to give your players
A server address is a host and a port joined by a colon, and almost every failed join comes down to one of those two parts being wrong or quietly mangled on the way. Here is the format, the exceptions, and the mistakes to watch for.
6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
Your address is at the top of your server page: sign in at customer.guavahost.com, open My servers, click Manage, and look next to Address. Use the copy button rather than reading it off the screen.
The anatomy of an address
Take 123.45.67.89:25565.
123.45.67.89is the host: which machine on the internet. Here it is written as an IP address, four numbers from 0 to 255 separated by dots. It can also be a name, which we come back to below.:is just a separator. One colon, no spaces either side.25565is the port: which program on that machine. A machine runs many services, and the port says which door to knock on. Ports run from 1 to 65535.
Both halves have to be right. A wrong host means your game talks to a stranger's machine, or to nothing at all. A right host with a wrong port means it reaches the correct machine and gets no answer, which looks identical to the server being down.
On GuavaHost, each server is given its own port on the machine it shares, so your port is frequently not the game's famous default. That is normal, and it is why you copy the address instead of assuming it.
When the port can be left off
Some clients will fill in the game's default port if you only type a host. Minecraft Java does this with 25565, Minecraft Bedrock with 19132, Terraria with 7777, and so on.
That shortcut only helps when your server actually runs on that default. If your panel shows :27043, a player who types the IP alone will fail, and the error will be a timeout that tells them nothing useful.
So the rule is simple: always share the full address, with the port. It is never wrong to include it, and leaving it off is wrong more often than not.
There is one real exception, the SRV record, which is further down.
Clients that split it into two fields
Plenty of games ask for the host and the port separately. Rust, Project Zomboid, ARK and Minecraft Bedrock on some platforms all do it this way, and so does any launcher with an "advanced" connect dialog.
When you see two boxes:
- Put everything before the colon in the address or IP field.
- Put the number after the colon in the port field.
- Do not paste the colon into either box, and do not paste the port into the address box.
If a game only shows one box and refuses host:port, look for a direct connect or favourites screen, which usually has the split version.
Hostnames versus raw IPs
A hostname is a readable name, like play.example.com, that the internet looks up and turns into an IP. Your players can use either, and there are good reasons to prefer a name once your server is more than a few friends:
- It survives a move. If your server changes machine or region, the IP changes. With a name, you update where the name points and nobody has to re save anything.
- It is memorable. People can type it from memory, say it out loud and put it on a banner.
- It hides the raw IP a little. Not a security measure in itself, but one less thing posted around.
The cost is that you need a domain and access to its DNS records, and that a change takes time to spread (the wait is controlled by the record's TTL, the time to live, in seconds). Until it has spread, some players reach the old address and some the new one.
For Minecraft Java there is a neat trick: an SRV record. It stores the port alongside the name, so players type play.example.com with no port at all and the game finds :27043 by itself. Use a custom domain with an SRV record has the exact record to create. Most other games do not read SRV records, so for those you still hand out the port, just with a nicer host in front of it.
Your other ports
The main game port is only one of your server's ports. The Ports & network card on the server's Overview lists them all, with the main one shown as Server address and the rest under Other ports, each with its own copy button.
Those extras exist because games use more than one door. A query port lets server list sites read your player count. RCON is a remote console port. Some games want a separate voice port, and a Bedrock port is needed if you run crossplay. Add and manage your server's ports covers adding one, pointing a feature at it and making a different port your main one.
Hand out the game port and nothing else. RCON in particular should never be shared, because it is remote control of your server.
Copy and paste mistakes, in order of how often they happen
These are the ones we see on Discord every single day.
| What went wrong | What it looks like | How to spot it |
|---|---|---|
| A trailing space | 123.45.67.89:25565 | Click at the end of the field and see if the cursor sits past the last character |
| Smart quotes or a curly character | “123.45.67.89:25565” | Pasted from a document or a chat app that autoformats |
| A protocol in front | http://123.45.67.89:25565 | The player pasted it into a browser first |
| A comma instead of a dot | 123,45.67.89 | Phone keyboards, and some locales |
| Two colons, or a semicolon | 123.45.67.89::25565 | Usually a double paste |
| The whole address in the port box | Port field reads 123.45.67.89:25565 | The port box rejects it or silently uses the default |
| A missing digit | 12.45.67.89 | Compare against the panel character by character |
| An old port after a move | Everything looks right and still times out | Recopy it from the panel |
Two habits remove nearly all of this. Share the address as plain text, not inside a link or a styled message. And have the player delete their saved entry and paste a fresh copy rather than editing the old one, because an invisible space at the end survives editing.
When the address is right and it still fails
If the player's address matches the panel exactly, the problem has moved somewhere else: the server may not be Online yet, the versions may not match, or the player's own network may be blocking the port. When a firewall or network blocks your game port covers that last one, and the full connection checklist runs through all three sides in order.
Common questions
Does my server IP ever change?
It stays the same while your server lives on the same machine. If you change region, or the team moves your server, the IP and often the port change with it, so recopy the address from the panel afterwards and re share it.
Can I pick my own port number?
You can choose from the ports that are free on your machine, and you can make any of your ports the main one. You cannot claim an arbitrary number, because other servers on the same machine are using theirs.
Is it safe to post my server address publicly?
Yes, that is what it is for, and every GuavaHost server includes DDoS protection so a public address is not an invitation. Post the game port only, never your RCON port, and never your own home IP.
Why does the panel show several ports for one server?
Because games use separate doors for separate jobs: the game itself, a query port for server lists, RCON for remote commands, sometimes voice or a map viewer. Players only ever need the main game port.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.
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- ip-address
- port
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Still need help? Our team is online 24/7 to answer questions.