Do any of my #gamer friends know if the updated #HaloInfinite mashup pack for #Minecraft is able to be used on #MinecraftRealms ? 🤔 ( The earlier Minecraft: #Halo Edition was disabled on Realms ) 😔

Things to do today: play with the kids outside, #Videogames Tonight, Configure #MinecraftRealms Server for me and the kids.

@mhamzahkhan

Minecraft Realms would require you pay a monthly subscription fee, but it does pretty much everything for you to manage it and it offers worlds to enjoy as games and still be able to have a 'main world' to explore. Mojang pretty much made this option for people in your situation. Best part: You really *REALLY* want to have some oversight into who your kid interacts with. This would allow YOU to be in control of that.

There are many other servers to choose from, but the fatal flaw in your case is that servers of interest to someone age of 5 would tend to be ones also of interest to child *predators*. Some servers work to monitor and boot out predators. More or less. More often much, much less.

My suggestion is to look at the "Realms" option and subscribe for a month or two. I would be quite happy to answer questions you may have as best as I am able. There are also a few Mojang devs here on the Mastodon federation who can also answer questions.

Month-to-month lets you drop the service if it doesn't do what you want to move on to other options. Also be aware there is "Minecraft" which is the Bedrock version for your phones, Windows PC machines, and so on, and is most likely the option you are already using. There is also the Java version of Minecraft which is the version I prefer. Without some clever behind the scenes work, the two versions DO NOT cross-platform play. Windows will allow you to play "Minecraft" (Bedrock) and "Minecraft Java".

If you have questions, please do post those here. I will try to watch and answer, and I expect quite a few other very wonderful to chime in. #Minecraft #MinecraftRealms

@sanitz

That wonderful age old response to technical questions with subtle parts: "It Depends."

You don't indicate much on your profile, which is fine, but it's the first place I looked to guess your technical skill.

Presuming you have no skill, no resources, and *ONLY* want to kick something around like a private LAN game for a couple of days...

You can start running a game (on Java) and use "Open to LAN", others on your home LAN can start playing RIGHT NOW, and you don't have to spend any money or do anything. But that's only cool if "family" means "sitting with me in my living room."

If you are using Bedrock, they don't even have to be in your home. I'm "XBox Friends" with my young nephew, and he and I can play on one another's games from across the country so long as that game is being played. If he closes it down, I'm "kicked" from the game he's playing, of course. It's very "I don't have to do anything."

#MinecraftRealms is a safe bet to just get started NOW playing among family in your home. Either Bedrock or Java, for a low price you can have up to 10 players at a time enjoying a game that's up all the time, as long as you pay.

As you have more detailed requirements *AND* resources, the "recommendations" change, but without info it's really hard to anticipate.

In my case, I can compile JAVA so I'm using the following:

https://extravm.com/minecraft.php, a hosting provider that does NOT hold your hand like other providers, but is less expensive and I can do my own hand-holding anyway. It's paid for by a friend who plays with us, but otherwise trusts me to handle all the support questions.

#SpigotMC, a "server binary" that takes the Official Java Code and makes alterations to it to better support the needs of a server.

#GeyserMC, (A mod, known as a plugin) allows my nephew playing Bedrock to connect to my Spigot Java server. My wife will be spending a month with her adult daughter, and without a PC this will also be her way to use her Android pad to connect to the game and play on it, if she wishes.

I update the Spigot version... from time to time there are bug-fixes that should be done to the version I run. I do that on my local machine and upload it to ExtraVM. I also make backups, and I can verify those backups work on my machine at home.

I *can*, and I *have* run Spigot on a "headless" (no video) machine at home, but it performs better on ExtraVM, and besides... Comcast really frowns upon that. Don't tell them, though. People I allowed could connect to it from the outside, but you *really* have to have expertise to do it securely. ExtraVM just makes all that fuss go away.

So that's a sketchy overview of what's possible, but without more info on 1) your expertise, 2) your resources, 3) what exactly it is you want to do... Java only? Bedrock Only? Mixed? People not living under your roof? ... Without more info, it's really hard to say.

But I'm here, and I'd be happy to help.