How to set up a BeamMP server

What you need

BeamMP is the community multiplayer mod for BeamNG.drive. A BeamMP server is the small program your friends connect to: it relays every player's vehicles to everyone else and hands out the mods you have put on it. You can run that program on a PC at home or on a server you rent. Either way you need the same four things.

BeamNG.drive

Owned on Steam. BeamMP is a mod for the game, not a replacement for it, and every player needs their own copy.

A Discord account

The BeamMP Keymaster signs you in with Discord. It exists to stop spam, and there is no other way to get a key.

A machine for the server

Windows or Linux at home, a VPS, or a hosted BeamMP server from a game host. The server itself is light: the physics run on each player's PC, so the server is mostly network.

The BeamMP launcher

Installed on every player's PC from beammp.com. It patches the game for multiplayer and is where you find Direct Connect and the server list.

1. Get an auth key from the Keymaster

The authentication key, usually written AuthKey, is what links your server to the BeamMP network. It is required for a public server to appear in the server list, and the docs recommend it for private servers too. In practice every server you want people to join needs one.

1. Sign in to the Keymaster

   Go to keymaster.beammp.com and log in with Discord.

2. Open Keys

   Click Keys in the menu on the left, then the green + button in the top right.

3. Label the key and create it

   The Server Name field here is only a label for the key. It is not the name players see in the server list; that comes from the config file later.

4. Copy the key

   Use the clipboard icon next to the Key field. It is a long string of letters and numbers. Keep it somewhere safe until step 4.

Full guide: how to get a BeamMP auth key, key limits and every key error

2. Decide where the server runs

This is the decision the rest of the guide hangs on, so make it now. The official docs put it plainly: creating a home server is free, hosting one on a VPS is easier and more secure. Both are legitimate. Here is what each actually involves.

A PC at home

Costs nothing. You need a public IPv4 address from your ISP (not carrier-grade NAT), you have to forward port 30814 on your router and allow the server through your firewall, you hand your home IP to everyone who joins, and the PC has to stay on whenever anyone wants to drive. Updates after a BeamNG.drive release are yours to do by hand.

A hosted BeamMP server

A monthly fee. The server has its own public IP with the port already open, so there is no router work and no CGNAT problem. It runs around the clock, updates from the control panel, and comes with DDoS protection. You manage it through a browser rather than a desktop.

If you are a group of friends who play a few evenings a week and one of you has a decent connection and a spare PC, home hosting is a perfectly good answer. If you want the server up when you are not, you are behind CGNAT, or you are building a public community, rent one. Steps 3 and 5 below are split into the two routes where they differ.

3. Install the BeamMP server (or order one)

On Windows

1. Install the Visual C++ redistributable

   The server will not start without the x64 Visual C++ runtime from Microsoft. Install it first and you save yourself a confusing error later.

2. Download the server

   From beammp.com. The file is BeamMP-Server.exe. Put it in a folder of its own, for example C:\BeamMP-Server\, because it creates its config and resource folders next to itself.

3. Run it once

   Double-click it. It writes ServerConfig.toml and a Resources folder, prints an error about the missing key and closes after ten seconds. That is expected.

On Linux

1. Download the build for your distribution

   The Download Server link on beammp.com goes to the GitHub releases page, which has a prebuilt binary per supported distribution. Install the runtime dependencies listed there. For anything else, build from source.

2. Make it executable and run it once

   chmod +x BeamMP-Server-xxx
   ./BeamMP-Server-xxx

   Replace xxx with the name of the build you downloaded. The first run generates ServerConfig.toml next to it.

3. Run it as its own user

   Create a dedicated user such as beammpserver and run the server as that user. Not as root, not with sudo, not from your personal account. The docs are firm on this and so are we.

On a hosted server

There is nothing to install. Choose a slot count, check out, and the server is built with the BeamMP software already in place. On our plans it is usually online within a minute, and the control panel login arrives by email. What the home routes do in a config file, you do in the panel's settings fields in step 4.

4. Configure ServerConfig.toml

Open ServerConfig.toml in a plain text editor. It looks like this on a fresh server:

[General]
Port = 30814
AuthKey = ""
AllowGuests = false
LogChat = false
Debug = false
IP = "::"
Private = true
InformationPacket = true
Name = "BeamMP Server"
Tags = "Freeroam,Modded,Racing,Police"
MaxCars = 2
MaxPlayers = 10
Map = "/levels/gridmap_v2/info.json"
Description = "BeamMP Default Description"
ResourceFolder = "Resources"

The official docs explain four of those fields. Here is every one of them, because the other eleven are where beginners get stuck.

Port

The port the server listens on, for both TCP and UDP. Leave it at 30814 unless you have a reason to change it, and if you do, change your port forwarding to match.

AuthKey

Paste the key from step 1 between the quotes. Without it the server shuts down on start.

AllowGuests

Whether players without a BeamMP account can join. Set it to false on a friends server if you want everyone identifiable.

LogChat

Write in-game chat to the server log.

Debug

Verbose logging. Leave it off unless BeamMP support asks for it.

IP

The address to bind to. Leave the default. The server only supports IPv4 connections for now.

Private

true keeps the server out of the public server list, so only people you give the address to can find it. Set false to be listed.

InformationPacket

Whether the server answers status queries. Leave it on.

Name

The name players see in the list. It accepts colour and style codes: put ^1 before text for blue, ^l for bold, ^r to reset. The full code list is on the BeamMP server maintenance page.

Tags

Comma-separated words the server browser can filter on.

MaxCars

How many vehicles each player can spawn. Vehicles beyond the limit are removed. This, not the player count, is what keeps a busy lobby smooth.

MaxPlayers

How many people can be on the server at once. Minimum 1. It does not affect the vehicle count. On a hosted plan this is your slot count.

Map

Always in the form /levels/NAME/info.json. The vanilla BeamNG.drive names are gridmap_v2, west_coast_usa, east_coast_usa, italy, utah, johnson_valley, jungle_rock_island, small_island, industrial, hirochi_raceway, automation_test_track, driver_training, derby and smallgrid. Sizes, notes and the legacy names are in our BeamMP map names guide.

Description

The text shown with your server in the list. ^p starts a new line here.

ResourceFolder

Where mods live. Leave it as Resources; client mods go in its Client subfolder.

5. Port forwarding and firewall (home servers only)

Skip this step on a hosted server or a VPS; their ports are already reachable. At home it is the step that decides whether anyone outside your house can join, and it is where most failed setups fail.

1. Give the PC a fixed local address

   Either a static IP on the PC or a DHCP reservation in the router, so the forwarding rule does not break when the address changes.

2. Forward the port on the router

   Create a rule that sends external port 30814, both TCP and UDP, to the PC's local address on port 30814. Routers name this port forwarding, virtual server or NAT rules. If you changed Port in the config, forward that number instead.

3. Allow the server through the firewall

   On Windows, add an inbound and outbound rule for BeamMP-Server.exe, TCP and UDP. Turning the firewall off entirely usually does not work. Preinstalled Linux firewalls need the same port opened.

4. Check you are not behind CGNAT

   Compare the WAN address shown in your router with the public IP a website such as whatsmyip.org reports. If they differ, your ISP is sharing one public address between customers and no port forward will work. Ask the ISP for a public IPv4, use a tunnelling service, or use a hosted server.

6. Start the server and read the log

Run BeamMP-Server.exe, run the Linux binary as your server user, or press Start in the hosting panel. Watch the console or the log for a few seconds.

It stays open with no red lines

Done. The server is registered with the BeamMP network and waiting for players.

No AuthKey specified in the "ServerConfig.toml" file

Step 4 was missed or the key was pasted outside the quotes. The server closes after ten seconds. Fix the line and start again.

Other [ERROR] or [WARN] lines

Read them. A wrong map path, a missing dependency on Linux, or a port already in use each announce themselves here.

The docs page also has a CheckBeamMP connectivity tester near the bottom: enter your public IP and port and it tells you whether the server can be reached from outside. Use it before you blame your friends' connections.

7. Connect and invite your friends

Everyone connects through the BeamMP launcher. If a friend has never used it: download the installer from beammp.com, run it, open the launcher and let it start the game, make sure multiplayerbeammp is the only mod enabled in the repository, accept the BeamMP terms and create a BeamMP account. From the multiplayer menu there are two ways in.

Direct Connect

The tab on the left of the server list. Enter the server's IP and port and connect. If the server is on the same PC as your game, use 127.0.0.1 and the port. On the same home network, use that PC's local address. From anywhere else, use the public IP, which on a hosted server is shown in the control panel.

The server list

Only for servers with Private = false. Players search for the Name from your config. If it does not show, turn the search filters off and set the map filter to Any. The Keymaster also shows your server's address once it is online.

For a private server, send friends the IP and port and nothing else. On a home server that address is your home connection, so share it with people you trust. On a hosted server it is the server's own address, which is one of the quieter advantages of renting.

Adding mods and maps

Mods are most of the point of a BeamMP server, and they are simple. Any mod .zip you put in the Resources/Client folder is sent to players when they join, so nobody installs anything by hand. Vehicle packs, skins and maps all go in the same place as the file you downloaded, without unpacking it. Restart the server after adding files.

To run a modded map, upload its .zip to Resources/Client, look inside the archive for the folder under levels, and set Map = "/levels/THATFOLDER/info.json". If the map still will not load, install it in single player, enter it, open the console with the tilde key and run print(getMissionFilename()) to get the exact name. If joining players see a done or start message and nothing else, a mod is broken or incompatible: remove the newest one and try again. The server console also has protectmod <file.zip> true for paid mods you are not allowed to redistribute; players then supply that file themselves.

Pack sizes, updating and removing mods, the done/start fix and what players do on their side are in our guide on how to add mods to a BeamMP server.

Troubleshooting

Connection Failed with 10060, 10061 or 10030

The server cannot be reached. At home: port forwarding, the firewall or CGNAT, in that order. On any server: a typo in the IP or port, or the server is not running.

Server not in the list

Private is still true, the search filters are on, or the map filter is not set to Any. Give the list a minute after start-up.

Friends can join but nobody outside the house can

Classic CGNAT. Check the WAN address against your public IP as described in step 5.

Worked yesterday, not today

BeamNG.drive updated. BeamMP ships a new server build after each game update, and until you install it players on the new game version cannot join. Hosted servers update from the panel.

Radmin VPN or Hamachi

Not supported by BeamMP, and UDP traffic often does not pass through them. Use real port forwarding or a hosted server.

Still stuck

The BeamMP Discord has a support channel and the forum has a server section. On an EUGameHost server, open a ticket and we will look at the log with you.

What a BeamMP server costs

The mod is free, the server software is free, and running it on your own PC is free. The cost is the PC, the electricity and the connection, plus the time spent on steps 3 and 5 every time something changes.

Hosted BeamMP servers are priced by player slots. Our BeamMP server hosting starts from £5.00 a month for a private friends server and includes instant setup, the auth key field in the panel, mod and map uploads, automatic backups, always-on DDoS protection and UK servers on a 10 Gbps network, with no contract and a 48-hour money-back guarantee. If you have read this far and the port forwarding section made your heart sink, that is the version of this guide with four fewer steps.