mcb

How it works

A console will only join a LAN game. It finds one by shouting on your local network and listening for an answer. The server isn’t on your network, so nothing answers — that’s the whole problem.

This app answers, on the server’s behalf, and quietly forwards your console’s traffic to it. The console thinks it found a game next door.

Setup

1. Run the app on a Windows PC connected to the same network as your console.
2. On the console, open Minecraft → Friends.
3. The server appears under LAN Games. Join it.
4. Leave the app open. Closing it ends the session.
5. Tick “Keep this PC awake” so the machine doesn’t sleep mid-game.

First time joining? You need to be whitelisted. Send your exact gamertag — including spaces — to the server admin.

Troubleshooting

Nothing shows up under LAN Games

Check the PC and console are on the same network, and that the PC’s firewall isn’t blocking UDP 19132. Many routers also have a “client isolation” or “guest network” setting that blocks devices from seeing each other — turn it off for this network.

It says unreachable

The server itself is down or your PC has no internet. The status light above reflects the same check the app makes.

The console loses the server when I walk away

The PC went to sleep. A sleeping machine has no network, so the beacon vanishes — no program can prevent that from the inside. The app asks Windows to stay awake while it runs, but closing the lid can still force sleep regardless. If you want the server permanently visible, run the beacon on something that’s always on instead — see below.

I want it up without leaving a PC on

Any always-on Linux box on the same network works — a Raspberry Pi, a NAS, a mini PC. Run mcb-router --bind 0.0.0.0:19132 --upstream mcb.mgorog.com:19132 and the console will find it with no PC involved at all.

“You are not whitelisted on this server”

Expected on a first join — it means everything else worked. Ask the admin to add your gamertag.