I’ve never done anything involving a dedicated server and don’t know a thing about it. What I’d like to know is are they like your own password protected multiplayer game that is open to you and your select friends at all times? Do they interfere with your single player/co-op games at all? Can I run a dedicated server and still play single player is what I mean. I’m really wanting to play with a friend or two, but don’t want to disrupt our game by still playing in co-op without them. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
As I’ve said, I know nothing about them and am looking into maybe getting one for us if I can still mess about in single without them.
Legal Disclaimer: I have never ran a server. Someone may come along and correct me.
What I’d like to know is are they like your own password protected multiplayer game that is open to you and your select friends at all times?
Yes
Do they interfere with your single player/co-op games at all?
No
Can I run a dedicated server and still play single player is what I mean.
Yes
I’m really wanting to play with a friend or two, but don’t want to disrupt our game by still playing in co-op without them.
My understanding is that when you rent a server, you or the people of your choice are server admins and can make any changes to settings that you deem appropriate (increased harvest rates and increased XP are popular choices). When you rent a server, you most likely will be given an IP address for where the server is located in cyberspace. When you want to connect to that server, you would connect using the “Play Online” option, just as you would if you wanted to connect to one of the official servers. Thus your Solo/Co-op game is safe. If your server will be private, then you will need to distribute the server’s IP address and/or name and server password (created by the server Admin - you) to players before they can join the server. I don’t know anything about GPortal, except it’s a popular service when it comes to renting game servers. It most likely streamlines the process of setting up a server, but that’s just my guess.
To add to @bbtech answer, I run a server on a spare PC on my LAN, so completely separate from my solo game (and PC). To let friends access that from outside your LAN, you need to allow access to that dedicated server PC both through your external firewall and the firewall on the PC that hosts the server. Then share your external IP with your friends.
I would advise you use the Funcom dedicated server tool to setup and manage it if you do go down the self hosting route, as it makes it much simpler.
As noted above, paying GPortal or someone like that means they have to worry about security and most setup, so much easier…