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Set Up A Minecraft Server In Azure VM

  My son is addicted to Minecraft, a single or multi-player game with a client/server architecture, millions of players, a recently released version (as of last Wednesday), and a vibrant, engaged community. The game's primitive graphics initially put me off. It was a cube-constructed world with overlaid textures. But I soon got over it when I saw how much it was fun to play and how it stimulates creativity. I'm also impressed by the huge and vibrant community of people playing and extending the game with plug-ins (mods), custom maps, and public server worlds (sites you can go to play, such as http://planetminecraft.net). With Minecraft you can play single-player on a local machine, or you can connect to remote servers. If you're a power user or an IT pro, you can set up your server yourself. There are numerous tutorials to help you get started. You will need to download the server software, run it, disable any firewalls and enter a server IP on the client. Of course what comes next is Dad, can my friends connect to my Minecraft server? I chose that route and set up port forwarding on my router, which in turn allowed open internet traffic to the Minecraft-active port of our home network. This was very easy and there are many tutorials available to help you. The scary part: Poking holes into the firewall. Minecraft factions servers This allows unknown (and sometimes malign) parties to your home network and onto a computer that may have additional personal information. There is also the issue of bandwidth. This is an important aspect of smooth gameplay when a host is involved. If you don't have a screaming-fast internet connection, or bandwidth limitations on your connection, you could really be setting up an unusable server. Enter Windows Azure Virtual Machines As a Microsoft Windows Azure Insider I realized that Windows Azure was the ideal infrastructure for this type shared access. Windows Azure offers many capabilities including storage, access control, shared host roles, storage, and what is commonly referred to as PaaS – Platform as a service. But a relatively new offering from Windows Azure is IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service - which includes virtual machine hosting. Finally, a reason to get started with Azure VMs! [Wait... That sounds kinda snarky... It's not intended to be. I was trying not to be funny... I guess I should keep my day job... ;)] The more I think about the idea, the more I like it. You can spin it down when you're done and you don't have to mess with your home firewalls. Yada, yada...

Minecraft factions servers