LAN only "preferred" server ??

[rottielover]

I'm trying to setup a server so that my Son (8) and I can play LAN only together. I'm on SteamPC and he's on my Xbox One S. I'm an IT guy by profession, so I was able to get a dedicated server setup fairly easily, although I noticed that if you give the server your local IP (a so called "non-routable" like 192.168.x.x) it will not run. I was forced to port forward and use my public IP.

Next I come to find out that Xbox will only connect to a "preferred" server. I can find absolutely ZERO documentation on what makes a "preferred" vs regular? server...

Could anyone kindly direct me to something that states what this is all about? I'd like to play this game with my son, but I want to keep us off the public internet. If that's not possible, then what does it take to become a "preferred" server so I can password this thing?

[Hawt]

A preferred server I believe is only for the paid services.

https://astroneer.space/dedicatedserver/

https://blog.astroneer.space/p/astroneeer-dedicated-server-providers-and-details/

And for cross play, you cannot host your own server. For cross play, you must pay for a dedicated server.

[FisbanRegner]

There are work arounds if running on pc via Xbox games but not sure how safe they are as they require you to use a third party software to manipulate packets before they reach the game (man in the middle hack)

[Birdman]

Originally posted by FisbanRegner:

There are work arounds if running on pc via Xbox games but not sure how safe they are as they require you to use a third party software to manipulate packets before they reach the game (man in the middle hack)

Just happened to come by this as I'm having a similar issue. Do you know any of the software for that? I've been looking around and can't find anything, and I'm willing to take my chances.