Getting started

The big picture of how you go from a spare computer to a running game server.

Welcome! This guide takes you all the way from a spare laptop or desktop to a game server your friends can jump into. There are three parts to it, and we walk you through each one.

You’re going to take a spare computer and turn it into a dedicated game server. That means installing a fresh operating system on it, which wipes whatever’s on there now, and then linking it to Server Reforged with one command. Here’s the whole journey.

The short version

  1. Get your computer ready. You’ll install Ubuntu Server on your spare machine. It’s a free operating system built for exactly this. Installing it erases whatever’s on that computer, so pick one you don’t mind wiping clean. We give you click-by-click steps.
  2. Connect it to Server Reforged. Once Ubuntu is running, you copy one command from your dashboard and paste it into the server itself. It links up automatically.
  3. Create your game server. Pick your game, tweak the settings you care about, and share the connection details with your friends.

That’s the whole journey. The first time through takes about half an hour, mostly waiting on downloads. After that, everything happens from your dashboard in a browser.

Before you start

Take a minute to check the requirements so you know your computer is up to the job and you’ve got everything on hand. The most important one: your server computer needs to be plugged into your router with an ethernet cable.

Where to go next