Tutorial:Setting up a LAN world

A local area network (LAN) game is a type of multiplayer game that allows other people in your local network (i.e., just the people connected to your home network via router, switch, or mobile hotspot) to join a Minecraft world. Players over the internet cannot connect unless other workarounds (such as port forwarding or VPN) are set up.

To open an active single player world to LAN:

• Navigate to "Pause menu" → "Open to LAN",
• Optionally change the default game mode and/or whether players may use commands,
• Click "Start LAN World".

It is also possible to start a LAN world by the command /publish [<allowCommands>] [<gamemode>] [<port>].

After the world has been opened to LAN, a confirmation message will be sent in the chat, for example: Local game hosted on port 2121. Notice the port, this is useful for players to help connect to the LAN game later.

If you're looking to port forward, or set up LAN via some zero-trust VPN with strict ACLs; while the game does not allow to set a constant port, you can choose one every time you open to LAN by clicking on the Port Number box, the randomly generated port has been editable since snapshot 22w45a (1.19.3)

If joining from the same local network, the game should automatically appear in the server list in the Multiplayer menu. Otherwise, check if the computer hosting the LAN game has firewall properly configured, by allowing the port shown by the confirmation message sent in the world previously. This port may be inserted into the server address with the host's local IP address in the Multiplayer menu for the players to connect explicitly.

The server host's local or internal IP address is important for connecting to your server in LAN. It's also may be used in port forwarding, specifying which internal IP and port for your router to port forwards to.

With that in mind, here are the steps to retrieve the internal IP address:

• Using one Minecraft account on two or more computers will not work to join the same world. Alternatively, you may use offline mode server (by disable the online-mode setting on server.properties) to join with alternative names without a Minecraft account.
• Players over the Internet can connect to a LAN game if one forwards the game's port on the host's router. If done, people over the internet can connect to your game using your public IP in place of your computer's local IP. See Tutorial:Setting up a Java Edition server § Port forwarding for further reading.
• Third-party virtual private network (VPN) services can be used to simulate LAN connections over the Internet, see Tutorial:Setting up a Java Edition server § Virtual Private Network for further reading.

In Bedrock Edition, LAN multiplayer is on by default. You can set "Visible to LAN Players" setting to turn it on or off in "Edit World" → "Multiplayer" menu, though you cannot change this while playing in the world. The host must be connected to a local network, either by Wi-Fi hotspot or router, in order to make their world discoverable to other players and let them join the multiplayer game.

The host can set the number of available slots by using /setmaxplayers up to 30, and the default game mode upon players joining in "Edit World" → "Game" → "Default Game Mode" setting.