How to start an online multiplayer server

While Hamachi can be a useful tool for this, it is not necessary. However, if you decide against using it, you will have to run a port forward, which is both difficult and dangerous. Hamachi might run a bit more slowly, but if you're trying for a private server it is much, much more effective. I'm going to assume you're using Hamachi for the purpose of this explanation. Once you have the program open, you'll have to either create or join a network; you'll probably be creating one. Name it whatever you want, and apply a password. Keep a record of these for your players. Tell your players the network name and password, and wait for them to join. Now run the server program (either minecraft_server.jar or minecraft_server.exe. Linux/Mac might use different formats, I'm not sure) and have your players connect to your Hamachi IP; it'll show up next to your name in the list of network participants. You yourself can just connect to "localhost" without quotes.

It is pretty simple really. Basically you need a thing called Hamachi and you need to create a network. Then download the server applet from minecraft.net. Then you need to find out your ip. To do that go to Hamachi and look for a number close to the top and ip would look like this: 5.143.134.33 Next you go into a file called "server" it should be a properties file and you open it with notepad. Then change the port to 25565 and change the server ip to whatever you found it to be on Hamachi. For more info go to this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U3BFS5G7K4