I couldn’t find many guides on how to connect to a Roblox Studio test server over a small computer network. The ones I did find used old methods that don’t work anymore, so I wrote this guide to share what I found while experimenting.
Despite Team Create’s Team Test feature making networked test servers largely obsolete for game development, it is still useful to do in some cases. For example, you can play an almost lag-free game with a friend in the same house, or you can test a game with two computers side-by-side without using separate accounts in Team Create.
This guide assumes that you know most common computer functions, you know the client-server model, and you have at least some experience with LAN (Local Area Network) gaming. If you don’t know some of those, patch your knowledge quick!
This guide also assumes you are using Windows 10 on every computer. You’ll need to adapt if you’re on Windows 7 or 8. Sorry Macintosh people, I know nothing for you.
Plan your LAN game.
You need to have the place file for the game you want to play. You can create your own game, or you can use third-party place files. They are hard to find, but some good third-party games include Doomspire Brickbattle and Roblox Battle (2018 Edition).
You also need to pick a computer that will act as the game’s server. This should be a computer with an Ethernet connection, as it will reduce the lag across all the computers connected to it.
In addition, you need to choose the computers that you will be playing on. The server can also be a computer you’re playing on. However, these computers must be connected to the same local network, otherwise you’ll have a really hard time connecting the computers to the game server.
Start the server.
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Open your place file with Roblox Studio on the server computer.
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Navigate to the Test tab.
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Change the player count to 0 if no one is playing on the server computer, or 1 if someone is.
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Click the Start button.
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You may get a window from Windows Firewall. Check all the boxes in the window and click Allow Access.
If you have seen the window before and quickly dismissed it...
You will need to go to Windows Firewall with Advanced Security and delete all the robloxstudiobeta.exe rules, and then restart the test server, otherwise Windows Firewall might block other computers from connecting to your server.
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Open your Start Menu and type Windows Firewall, then click Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security.
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Navigate to Inbound Rules in the management window.
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Find all the rules in the list that are named either RobloxStudio or robloxstudiobeta.exe.
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Delete them.
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Close your test server and client Roblox Studio windows, but leave your place file window open.
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On that place file window, start the server again from the Test tab, and when the Firewall prompt shows up, allow access on all network types.
Get the server computer’s IP address.
You need to get your server computer’s IP address so that you can connect your other computers to your game server.
Follow the following steps to get it, or skip to the next section if you already know how.
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Right-click on the Wi-Fi or Network connection icon on your task bar, and then click Open Network & Internet Settings.
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In the window that shows up, click Change connection properties.
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Scroll down until you find a field called IPv4 address.
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Write down what you see next to it somewhere, unless you can stuff all of the numbers into your head!
You’ll need these numbers later.
Connect the other computers.
You don’t have to do this on the server computer, as its Roblox Studio conveniently started a connection for you.
On each computer that will be connecting to the server, follow these steps:
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Open the command line by pressing the Win + R keys, typing cmd into the window, and then pressing Enter.
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To find where Roblox Studio is installed, on the desktop, right click on Roblox Studio, and then click Open file location
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In the new file explorer window, click on an empty space on the address bar to get the folder location, and then copy it out.
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Go back to your command line window, and then type the following command. Where
<Folder Path>is the folder location you just copied from the other window. Paste it in by right clicking on the command line window or pressing CTRL + V.cd "<Folder Path>"For example:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Roblox\Versions\version-da54286828a74527"Press Enter once you’re done typing it.
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Type the following command and replace
<IP Address>with the IP address of your server computer, then press Enter.RobloxStudioBeta.exe -task StartClient -server <IP Address> -port 53640For example:
RobloxStudioBeta.exe -task StartClient -server 192.168.1.22 -port 53640
Enjoy your LAN session!
[Advanced] Start the server from the command line.
If you want, you can start the server window from the command line like you would a client. Use this command as a template, but make sure to point -localPlaceFile to where a place file is located:
RobloxStudioBeta.exe -task StartServer -localPlaceFile "C:\ServerPlace.rbxl" -port 53640
You can copy the location of a file by right clicking it while holding Shift, and then clicking Copy as path.
