How to play minecraft with friends far away pc

As a hardcore Minecraft fan with over 8 years of playtime, I can definitively say multiplayer is 100% possible without paying for Realms or server hosting. While those offer great quality of life, there are several solid free alternatives.

LAN Worlds – Simple Local Multiplayer

Creating a local area network (LAN) multiplayer world is by far the easiest free option.

I use LAN all the time to play with my younger siblings.

How to play minecraft with friends without realms java

To set up a LAN world that friends can join:

1. Open Minecraft and create a singleplayer world
2. On the pause menu, select "Open to LAN"
3. Have friends on the same network join from their multiplayer menu!

Once connected, it functions just like any small multiplayer server.

We only run into issues when more than 8 people play, but for small groups LAN works flawlessly. I love that gearing up for a LAN party only takes a few minutes. No messing with port forwarding or mod installs – just pure gaming fun!

However, LAN does have strict limitations:

Limitation	Description
Local Network Only	You can only access LAN worlds from the sam how to play minecraft without realms how to play minecraft multiplayer without realms