Starting a LAN server 101

[storksle]

Hey everyone,
I am a super noob. My partner and I love playing Ark together however it would be nice if we could do it over LAN rather than online to reduce internet data usage.

The issue is that I have no idea what needs to be in place to start a LAN sever from our computers in general and I am not entirely sure how to designate a LAN non-dedicated server. Are there any clear guides anybody can point me to? I have mostly found old threads that are not really clear at all on what I should do.

We do not mind the tethering since we work closely anyway, although I may look into running the dedicated server in the background eventually.

Any help is appreciated!!

[Metal_Masher]

One problem the server still needs internet for verification purposes and ark (steam) needs to be online in order to connect to a lan server for the same reason.
Reason why I know is I tried to do the same thing as you, if you have no problem having an active internet for this reason then you can set up a lan server, since you are planning to use non dedicated option for hosting there is a setting for the tether distance in the game settings I would recommend manually type the numbers so that you can increase the distance that you and your friends can explore/gather/taming with minimal bungee effect etc 999999
Make sure that the host pc has plenty of system memory of 8 gig or higher like 16 or more and cpu itself is has plenty of juice in it, your friends should use the lan tab to find the server but if you know what then server ip is then use this launch option for the game +connect ip:7777

[storksle]

Okay cool. Are these options available through the base game or do I use the server manager or something? I haven’t seen LAN options in the base game.

[Metal_Masher]

It is available in the base game you just have to look through list before starting the game (for the tethering) when one is hosting (you can tweak other options to your fancy) and the other one is you for connecting to the server is before one starts the the game by right clicking it choose the property's and look for the launch option add in what I mentioned but the server browser should work for the lan just tweak it from filtering its currently whatever its on eg from official to lan which is easier than adding in the command options since it's likely going to be the only game running on the lan you are using.

[storksle]

So we setup a nondedicated server on one computer with all the settings we want, but it does not show up in the LAN filter on the server screen. We are connected to internet, so it does show up through the online non-dedicated filter, but not in my LAN filter. I suspect this means that if I connect I am going to be playing through the internet rather than LAN. Why might this be? What settings should I have to configure in my network? The two laptops have seamless wireless file sharing and both work through the same modem router internet connection. What am I doing wrong?

[GodWreck, Wrathful Mind]

Just use ASM. Makes it very easy to setup a dedicated server at home.

[GodWreck, Wrathful Mind]

https://arkservermanager.freeforums.net/thread/3/downloads

[woodsguide]

here is quick and dirty how to create a server


setting up ark server
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create folder
C:\ark_server_1

run steamcmd

login anonymous

force_install_dir C:\ark_server_1
app_update 376030 validate
quit

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forward ports
7777 udp ark client port
7778 udp ark raw socket
27015 udp querry port steam server browser
27020 tcp rcon optional

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create the bat file, goes in C:\ark_server_1\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64



start ShooterGameServer.exe TheIsland?listen?SessionName=<server_name>?ServerPassword=<join_password>?ServerAdminPassword=<admin_password>?Port=7777?QueryPort=27015?MaxPlayers=20
exit

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connect to my ark at external IP
74.260.35.173

connect to my ark at internal IP
10.0.0.8

[Synth]

I second the notion of using ASM (Ark Server Manager, just Google it for the official site). When playing as single player or non-dedicated host, you will experience much more lag as opposed to running a server on your own machine and connecting to it with your client. The game was not made to play as the host, even though the feature is there.

[vanflyhightanzek]

so if i get ASM i can just put in the right codes an it will start a sever on my pc just likle that an i can still play on it from my pc? been trying to figure this out my family an i cant find a sever we like an we are just a little confused on this matter if we can start one an still play on the pc that the sever is on.

[Ancient]

Originally posted by vanflyhightanzek:

so if i get ASM i can just put in the right codes an it will start a sever on my pc just likle that an i can still play on it from my pc? been trying to figure this out my family an i cant find a sever we like an we are just a little confused on this matter if we can start one an still play on the pc that the sever is on.

You can play on the dedicated server, but it requires more hardware in terms of CPU and RAM to run both the server and the client. 8GB is enough to run the client and connect to another server, but 12-16GB will be needed on that machine to run both the client and server simultaneously along with having at least a decent stock or overclocked older CPU that can handle both at the same time.

How much RAM and CPU time the server itself will use depends on the player count. A 3-5 or even 10 player server can be run on significantly less hardware than you would need for a 70 player server. The more the server is using, the less will be available to the client so it can affect FPS for the person playing on the server quite a bit if the CPU is slower or lower-end with few cores/threads. Any higher-end CPU like a Haswell+ i7 or Coffee Lake i5/i7 (or Ryzen equivalent) should be sufficient to run both and still leave a little headroom on the CPU.