First things first: Your going to need to install FarmSim on your desired server/PC you want to run it from. Downside here is that if you plan on running it, AND playing, your expected to purchase another copy of the game... I won't go into details about how I feel about that, or how one might get another copy of the game without purchasing it, you can google that.

Now that you have it installed: Open up the game installation folder, the easiest way to do that is probably just right clicking and going to "Manage > Browse local files"



Inside the game folder: The first thing you need to do is open the "dedicatedServer.xml" in your preferred text editor, I am using Notepad++ but default windows Notepad will work.



This is your remote access settings: Giants server is a two piece mechanism, this file holds the settings you'll need to be able to remotely connect and make changes. From here you need to change the Initial Admin username and password. You can add more users later if you want but this is how you will first get in to the web-server.



Firing up the web-server: Now that you have that set (Spoiler, it shouldn't be your in game username) save and close that file and launch the actual web-server. It will be the red icon labled "dedicatedServer.exe" or "dedicatedServer file type Application"



Half way there: Before you get into the fun stuff, Steam has the annoying habit of popping up asking you if it can start the server when you send the remote command with something like this. So unless you want to sit there and babysit the server all the time, and I know I don't, you need to add this file. Just right click, create new text document, and change its name to "steam_appid".



In this file, put the steam app id "2300320", you can verify that app ID in the forums of any game, its part of the path at the top of the steam page, heck you probably see it here.

From here: You can access the web-server and start setting this up the way you want for your sever. Remember that boring black window with white text, that's your web-server, and it is gong to be your little helper making changes on your behalf on the server and its settings and even starting, stopping and reloading your Farm server.


Server access time: See those addresses in the JRL, copy one, (probably just that top one) and paste it into the browser of on your desired play machine.

(additional information)
Those two addresses take you to the same web-server, the difference is

http = HyperText Transfer Protocol
where as
https = HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure

So your new web-server has opened up two ports, by default 8080 as an unsecured open port, and 8443 as a secure/encrypted communication port. If you are connecting to this over your local network by all means use the 8080/http port, as encrypting the data will just slow it down and you aren't too afraid of anyone listening in on your secure local network.

If however you are connecting over the internet to your server from your play machine, you really should be using that https/8443 address. If you are doing that, you should probably already know this, as there are some other setup steps you will likely need, like forwarding that port through your router/firewall.

You may also notice your servers IP address is similar or even the same as mine. That's because this is a local IP address, most home networks work on a 192.168.xxx.xxx or a 10.10.xxx.xxx, so depending on who made your router and what their preference is, you will have the same local IP address as millions of other people at the same time. So don't try to give this address to your buddy and assume he can connect from his house, to do that you will need to give him your public IP address and have the forwarding setup to route that through to your server. Again I am not going to explain how to forward your ports, google it. If you want to know your public IP address, find it in your router settings or just go to ipchicken.com or something.

What you may need to know about forwarding your ports though, is HOW it works.

Your LOCAL IP address is like your appartment #,
Your PUBLIC IP address is like your buildings mailbox address.
Your PORT is what box number you want it put in.

So for your buddy to communicate with your server, they need to know where to send information to you, and what box it goes into. This means your PUBLIC IP (or domain name... but I am not getting into that here, that's way outside the scope of this guide) and your PORT.

The port forwarding on your router, tells it how to deliver it to you. So if you setup port forwarding on your router, it gets a message on a specific port, and then your router says, "Oh, hey, I have a rule for this. That message goes to LOCAL IP address 192,168.1.19 on port 8443 !" and it forwards it on to your server. Your sever then gits its response, and sends its message back to the return address of your buddies computer.

Those ports do NOT need to match either, your PUBLIC IP address's PORT can be 12345 and the router can be set to forward that to port 8443 on your server if you have the port forwarding setup right. If you don't, your buddy will not be able to join, because his computers message isn't getting through to your new server.

PHEW, hopefully that is clear is mud now. Keep in mind now though, the above PORT is ONLY for accessing the web-server, not the game.



Now lets see that web-server!: Remember that username and password you put into the dedicatyedServer.xml, this is where you need that. Go back to it on your server if you can't remember what it was or what you set it to. Once in it should look something like the above.

Name your server, this is how it will show up on the server list in game.

Administrator password is what you'll need to put in to be able to make changes in game.

Game Password is the password your buddies will need to put in to login to your game.

Much further down, the PORT "Port" is the box your server will be expecting to communicate for playing the game. Whatever you set this too, or if you feel like just leaving it default, to access it outside your local network you will need to setup port forwarding through your router. If that's done right, the server will reach out to Giants server and register itself on there, and you will see it on the Join Game list. If you are just playing it locally, you shouldn't need to worry about it, it will be visible on your local network to the game, and show up on top of everything else in the Join Game section with a different Icon showing that its a local game.

Hopefully that helps, cause my fingers are tired of typing now. Happy farming y'all!