smith SM
@smith
GTA & Open World Oct 05, 2026

Setting up a FiveM server for friends - where to start?

We want a small private roleplay server for about six of us. I own GTA V on Steam and have a spare PC that could host it. What's the basic setup, and does it need port forwarding?
fivem server setup
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ella_afk Oct 30, 2026
smith
test it from outside your house before you decide the port forward is broken. a lot of home routers won't let you connect to your own public IP from inside the network, so it fails from your pc even when it's fine for everyone else. get a friend to try, or use your phone on mobile data. on the host pc itself just connect to localhost.
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zeelplayz Oct 12, 2026
smith
Basic route: 1. Download the Windows server artifacts from the FiveM site and extract them to a folder on the spare PC. 2. Run FXServer.exe, which opens txAdmin in your browser. It walks you through picking a recipe (the default QBCore or ESX ones are fine for RP) and setting the server up. 3. You need a license key from the Cfx.re portal. Free for a small server, tied to your account. 4. Forward port 30120, both TCP and UDP, to the host PC's local IP and allow it through Windows Firewall. If you'd rather not touch the router, some people rent a cheap VPS instead. For six of you the spare PC is plenty, as long as nobody is also playing on it.
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