Your first 30 minutes with a new AndroHost server

You bought a server. You got an email. You logged into the panel and now there's a screen full of buttons. This article walks you through the first half hour: change a few defaults, take your first backup, get your friends connected, and end the session with a server that's actually ready to play on.

If you're in a hurry, the short version is in the box at the bottom. If you want to know what each step actually does, read the full thing.

1. Find your connection info (60 seconds)

In the panel, your server has a main page. Look for a label like IP Address or Server Address, followed by a host and a port like wings-paid01.androhost.com:25577.

Two ways to give this to players:

• The simple way: copy the whole thing and tell friends to paste it into "Direct Connect" in their game.
• The nice way: point your own domain at it (this article) so they type play.yourname.com instead. Set this up today and never deal with port numbers again.

Either way works. The nice way costs $12/year for a domain and 5 minutes of setup.

2. Open the Console tab and watch the server boot (2 minutes)

Click your server → Console tab. You'll see green and white text scrolling. This is the actual server logging what it's doing.

What to look for:

• For Minecraft: a line ending in Done (X.XXXs)! For help, type "help".
• For Valheim, Vintage Story, etc.: similar "started" or "ready" lines.
• If the server won't start, the error is usually in the last 20 lines.

When you see the "ready" line, you can connect.

3. Connect from the game and verify (3 minutes)

Open the game. Add the server using the connection info from step 1. Try to join.

• Joined successfully? Excellent.
• Stuck on "logging in"? Wait 60 seconds the first time; the game is downloading initial assets.
• "Connection refused" or similar? See our connection-refused checklist.

This is the first sanity check. If you can join now, the rest is configuration.

4. Make yourself the admin (90 seconds)

By default, you join as a regular player. To run admin commands you need to op yourself (Minecraft) or use the equivalent in your game.

Minecraft (Java): in the panel's Console tab, type:

op YourMinecraftUsername

Press Enter. You're now operator on the server.

Other games: the admin command cheat sheet covers each one.

Tip: only op accounts you fully trust. Op is god mode. For everyone else, use permission plugins (Minecraft) or game-specific admin lists.

5. Take your first manual backup (2 minutes)

Backups tab → Create backup → name it "fresh install". Wait for it to complete.

You now have a clean restore point. If anything goes wrong in the next hour while you're poking at settings, you can roll back to "fresh install" and start over instead of paying for a fresh server.

Reflex from day one: take a manual backup before any risky change. It's free, it takes a click, and it has saved more communities than any anti-grief plugin.

Long version: How backups work on your AndroHost server.

6. Set up an automatic daily backup (3 minutes)

Schedules tab → Create schedule → name "Daily backup". Cron: 0 4 * * * (4 AM every day, pick whatever low-traffic hour fits your community). Add a task: Create backup, leave the rest default.

Now you don't have to remember. Every night at 4 AM the panel snapshots your server. Combine with the manual snapshots before risky changes from step 5, and you have a real safety net.

7. Set up an automatic daily restart (2 minutes)

Heavily-used servers (especially Minecraft) accumulate memory pressure and chunk-loading garbage over time. A nightly restart prevents the slow-degradation problem.

Schedules tab → Create schedule → "Nightly restart". Cron: 0 5 * * * (5 AM, after the backup). Add a task: Send power signal: restart.

That's it. Player drop briefly during the restart (~30 seconds) but the server is faster afterward.

8. Decide on the basics: difficulty, whitelist, view distance (5 minutes)

Files tab → server.properties. Open it. Skim through.

The few you probably want to change immediately:

• difficulty= (peaceful / easy / normal / hard)
• view-distance= (8 is a fine default; lower if performance is rough, higher if you have RAM to spare)
• simulation-distance= (mostly leave at 6 unless you know what you're doing — details)
• motd= (the message players see when browsing servers)
• white-list= (set to true if you want a closed server; see whitelist alternatives)

Save the file. Restart the server (Console: stop, or panel: restart button).

Some games have different config file names (Valheim has command-line arguments, Vintage Story has serverconfig.json, etc.). The principle is the same.

9. Install one plugin or mod (5 minutes, optional)

This part is optional for day one but most communities want at least one quality-of-life addition.

Plugins (Paper, Purpur, Spigot):

• Find the plugin (Modrinth or SpigotMC).
• Download the .jar.
• In the panel: Files tab → navigate to plugins/ → click Upload → drag the .jar in.
• Restart the server.

Mods (Forge, Fabric):

• Server-side mods need to be in mods/ AND every player needs the same mods client-side.
• Modpack-based servers are easier (use AndroHost's modpack catalog at /modpacks).

If you're not sure where to start, EssentialsX for Minecraft Paper covers ~80% of typical "I need command X" requests. One plugin, dozens of features.

10. Tell your friends + take one more backup (2 minutes)

Tell people the address (from step 1, or the friendly domain from the article in step 1).

Take one more manual backup, name it "after first-day setup", before opening up to everyone. If the first day is chaotic and something gets broken, this is the rollback point that lets you skip the "before plugins" state and just undo a single day of damage.

Done in 30 minutes

You now have:

• A reachable, running server players can join.
• You as admin.
• One safety-net backup taken manually.
• One automatic daily backup.
• One automatic daily restart.
• Sensible config defaults.
• Optionally one plugin/mod installed.

That's a stable foundation. From here you can spend the next session adding more plugins, configuring permissions, picking out a modpack, or just playing.

Day 1 checklist

If you're stuck on any of these steps, open a ticket in our Discord. We read every one.