i know my firewall. its got the permissions. heres what i did to be able to play on my LAN server from LAN and then how i destroyed it again.

1. set up server.

2. start single player game.

3. hit TAB to open the console, type "open (your servers LAN IP here)" hit enter. example; "open 192.168.1.99"

4. hopefully load into your server.

5. time out after exactly 30 seconds. witness this in your server logs if you wish.

6. if you didnt manage to make a character in that 30 seconds, repeat steps 1-4 and make a random character immediately, awaken on the beach, time out after exactly 30 seconds.

7. go to ark server manager, filter by "survivors", join your server. PLAY WITHOUT TIMEOUTS YAY.

8. test LAN with gfs Epic ark account repeating steps 1-7. it works!

so this is as far as i got with a stable server and here is where it went to hell...

9. get friend on epic outside LAN to do steps 1-6. this time using your external ip and port number. example; "open 66.698.154.16:7777"

10. they load into your ark with their console permanently open and unresponsive rendering their computer unusable.

10. have them restart due to this amateur bug and repeat steps 1-6.

11. they time out immediately.

12. get logged out of your server even tho it is still running. try to reconnect only to time out immediately even tho you're still using lan.

13. START AGAIN.


not sure why this is such a pain in the ♥♥♥ since i can run like... any other server no problem.

why doesnt wildcard have a direct connect option in their server list? short sighted devs.

As a side note. its pretty frustrating you cant cancel downloading mods when you accidentely try to log into a modded server.