Minecraft Pocket Edition (running / connecting to private server)

[Mistake Not...]

I have an 11 year old niece who wants to play mine craft with some friends. Her family is (rightly) concerned about her, the internet, and a forum where strangers could be present. I piped up and said "We'll just run a private server."

Hours later and "research" reading posts in forums full of "d00d" and "ur", and...

Anyone have any experience with any of the Minecraft PE hosting services? And can anyone tell me why I don't seem to have any other connection options in the latest Android PE? Just the stupid microsoft account or xbox live. Assuming I -could- setup a private MC server... how the heck do I get the android client to connect?

 

[darrell]

Setting up a personally-run server for Pocket Edition is probably not worth the time. Those versions lack AI (and therefore have no mobs at all) and also lack redstone. You can rent a Realm for like $8 per month and I think those support PE? I'm not sure. If you are talking about the desktop version of Minecraft then the server software for that is free and you can easily run your own server on just about any platform. I run servers for my daughter on an Amazon AWS virtual server.

 

[Mistake Not...]

Problem is, she plays on her ipod. I understand there's a "Better together" update coming Real Soon Now that will make all platforms capable of interoperating (I assuming there will be no more pocket edition servers, for example). But until then, iOS/Android can't play on desktop, right?

Realms would require her and her friends to have Microsoft accounts and parents weren't crazy about that. Neither was I, honestly. Private server seems to be the best compromise... I can control access and we don't have to give MS personal information.

I'm just about ready to stand up a linux server and run my own binary rather than continue to try to figure out wtf is wrong on some of these. Went through three hosting providers last night until I found one that Just Worked. I think it's working now... we'll see how stable.

Thanks.

 

[darrell]

Yeah right now the PE and Desktop version are separate. But I should point out that even if you get the desktop version and put up your own server, you'll still need a Mojang account to use multiplayer, even if you only ever connect to a private server.

 

[JustinD]

Pardon me for being very off topic but @darrell that's a Johnny Cupcakes logo as your avatar!

I swear I own probably close to 70 JC shirts and they are about the only T-shirts I wear aside from a few flying and airplane related T-shirts here and there!

Again sorry for being off topic but so few people know it when I see someone else who does I get excited

 

[darrell]

Another Johnny Cupcakes fan! My "callsign" is cupcake at work and it seemed like a natural fit. I have the stickers everywhere!