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GuidesGuidesGive your server an MOTD, a custom icon, a whitelist, operators and bans, plus a group-by-group tour of every server.properties setting — all from the panel, with no config-file spelunking.
A fresh Minecraft server works — but in the multiplayer list it looks exactly like every other one: same dirt-block icon, same "A Minecraft Server" line. This guide turns it into yours. Every change here is done from the panel, and every one of them works on the free plan.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| You need | A Minecraft Java server you can start and stop (no server yet? start with the Java quickstart) |
| Time | About fifteen minutes, with a restart or two along the way |
| Plan | Every change here works on the free plan |
The MOTD ("message of the day") is the line players see under your server's name in their multiplayer list. Open the Properties page from your server menu and find the motd field — this is the one place you edit it. Don't touch server-ip or server-port; the panel manages those. Everything else on this page is yours.
Minecraft supports color and formatting codes in the MOTD (the classic § codes, and newer server software also understands MiniMessage-style tags). You rarely type those by hand — plenty of free MOTD generators online let you pick colors, add a second line, and copy out a ready-made string like this:
motd=§6My Server §7» §aSurvival with friends
Paste it into the motd field, save, and restart so the server re-reads the file. Bonus: the Settings page General tab has an offline MOTD, shown when your server is stopped — handy on the free plan, where the server sleeps when nobody's playing.
💡 Tip: The Settings page's General tab has an offline MOTD, shown while your server is stopped — handy on the free plan, where it sleeps when nobody's playing.
That little image beside your server in the list is a plain PNG, and Minecraft is picky about it in exactly two ways: it must be 64×64 pixels and named server-icon.png — exactly that, no -2 or capital letters. Get those right and it just works.
server-icon.png.server.properties — and use Upload to drop the file in.Rejoin, and your icon appears. (If it doesn't, the troubleshooting section below covers the usual culprits.)
A whitelist is the simplest way to keep a small server to just your friends. Two parts work together:
white-list to true. If you also set enforce-whitelist to true, anyone not on the list who's already online gets removed the moment you enable it — useful for clearing out uninvited guests.Restart after turning the whitelist on. From then on, only listed players get in — everyone else sees "You are not white-listed on this server." Add yourself first so you don't lock yourself out.
⚠️ Heads up: Add yourself to the whitelist first, or you'll lock yourself out along with everyone else.
Operators (ops) can run admin commands — change the time, teleport, kick, ban, stop the server. Grant it from the Players page Operators tab: add a username to op them, remove them to take it back.
Op sparingly. An operator can do almost anything to your world and server, so keep the list to people you genuinely trust.
🎯 Good to know: An operator can do almost anything to your world and server — op sparingly, and only people you genuinely trust. For everyone else, a permissions plugin (see Minecraft plugins) gives fine-grained control without handing over the keys.
When someone needs to go, the Players page has two more tabs:
Add and remove bans right from those tabs; the panel updates the ban lists for you.
MOTD, whitelist, operators and online-mode are the headline settings — but the Properties page holds the whole of server.properties, laid out in groups. You'll rarely touch most of these, but here's what each group is for so nothing is a mystery. Edit any of them on the Properties page, then restart. (The two you never touch, server-ip and server-port, are managed by the panel.)
Gameplay — the rules of your world:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
gamemode |
Default mode for new players: survival, creative, adventure, spectator |
force-gamemode |
Snaps players back to the default mode on join |
difficulty |
peaceful, easy, normal, or hard |
hardcore |
One life — death means a permanent ban from the world |
pvp |
Whether players can damage each other |
allow-flight |
Allows flight from mods/plugins without triggering "flying is not enabled" kicks |
enable-command-block |
Turns command blocks on |
World — how the map is made:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
level-name |
Which world folder the server loads (see Manage your worlds) |
level-seed |
The seed for a newly generated world |
level-type |
Terrain style: default, flat, largeBiomes, amplified |
generate-structures |
Whether villages, temples and the like generate |
allow-nether |
Whether the Nether dimension exists |
Spawning & protection:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
spawn-monsters |
Hostile mobs on or off |
spawn-animals |
Passive animals on or off |
spawn-npcs |
Villagers on or off |
spawn-protection |
Radius around spawn only ops can build in |
Capacity & distance — the biggest performance levers:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
max-players |
How many can be online at once |
view-distance |
How many chunks the server sends to players |
simulation-distance |
How far out the world actually ticks (heavy) |
💡 Tip:
view-distanceandsimulation-distanceare where most lag lives — both stay editable on the free plan. See Fixing Minecraft lag.
Access & identity:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
white-list / enforce-whitelist |
Turn the whitelist on and kick non-listed players already online (covered above) |
online-mode |
Mojang account verification — the Cracked Mode toggle flips this (details) |
op-permission-level |
How much power an op gets (1–4) |
enforce-secure-profile |
Requires signed chat; turning it off helps some cracked/older setups |
Presentation — including resource packs:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
motd |
The line under your server name (covered above) |
resource-pack |
Direct download URL of a server resource pack |
resource-pack-sha1 |
The pack's SHA-1 hash, so clients can verify and cache it |
resource-pack-id |
A unique ID (UUID) for the pack |
resource-pack-prompt |
The message shown when players are asked to accept the pack |
require-resource-pack |
Whether players must accept the pack to play |
Technical — leave at defaults unless you know you need them: enable-rcon (remote console) and enable-query (server-list queries) are off by default and most servers never touch them.
⚠️ Heads up: On the free plan,
player-idle-timeoutis forced to 10 minutes andmax-tick-timeis fixed — the panel re-applies these on save. Premium can turn the idle-kick off. Everything else above is yours to edit on any plan.
Once your server looks the part, you can put it in front of players looking for somewhere to play. Open the Advertise page from your server menu: build a public listing with a live preview, publish it to Falix's server list, and collect votes. It's a friendly way to grow a small community — no premium plan required to list, though a paid boost exists if you want more visibility later.
server-icon.png in the root folder, then restart. Your own client also caches the list entry, so remove the server and re-add it.§ or & symbols — the code style doesn't match your server software, or you didn't restart. Clear the codes to plain text to confirm the MOTD is being read, then re-add colors.white-list back to false while you sort things out.white-list isn't set to true, or the server wasn't restarted after the change.whitelist add <you>, op <you>), or fix it on the Players page; both work even when you can't get in-game.