Have you ever wanted to play with your friends on vanilla Minecraft in Java Edition? It can be hard but this should make it simple. We are going to be going over how to join a dedicated server, make a vanilla Minecraft server with server hosting, and play Minecraft Bedrock with friends using Gamertags.

Joining a dedicated server is simple. Choosing the right one for you is hard. There are larger ones like Hypixel, Mineplex, Cubecraft, and HiveMC. Smaller SMP (Survival Multiplayer) Servers are more for players who want to people who want to play Vanilla Minecraft with people who you don't really know. So there are a lot more small servers that are SMP Servers than big Minigame servers meaning that you have a lot of servers to choose from. Keep in mind that you might have to be invited to these SMP Servers and if you are not invited (also known as whitelisted) to the server you cannot play. You can usually request to be whitelisted on there server page on PMC or any other site. Since there are a lot of servers out there you can find them on server lists. You can search up "Minecraft Servers" on Google (without the quotes) and it should bring up popular server lists. Even PMC has a server list! So we talked about how to find servers. Now let's talk about how to join them. So when you launch Minecraft it will bring up a moving panorama. Click "Multiplayer." Now you have two options. You can press "Add Server" or "Direct Connect." (Or something of that sort...) If you click "Add Server" it will bring up two bars: One says, "Server Name" (Errr... Something like that) and the other one says "Server IP Address." What you put in "Server Name" won't affect what server you join but it is good to know what server you will be joining so I recommend putting the name of the server in the box. The IP Address is much more important. You can usually find the IP Address on the Server's website or on their page on PMC or any other server list. Copy and paste the IP into the last box. It should bring you back to where you were originally before you clicked "Add Server" but there should be a box that has the Server Name that you put into it. Double click that and it should bring you into the server! If you click "Direct Connect" there should only be one box to put the IP into. Then click the button under where you put the IP in and it should bring you into the server!

You can also make a server using server hosting programs. Keep in mind that you will have to make an account and you will have to pay to get the best server. If you don't want to pay I would suggest Aternos. You just have to create an account, make a server, and choose the settings and Admins. You can also use/make plugins for your server to make new commands and stuff. See above for how to connect to your server.

You can also join Vanilla Minecraft with friends on Minecraft Bedrock by signing into your Microsoft account and friending the person (or people) that you want to play with. Then join a Singleplayer world and invite those people that you want to play with.

You can also play on Bedrock on a dedicated server. There will be six servers that Minecraft has already suggested to play on but you can also follow the steps above about joining a dedicated server that is different from the six already listed.

Hope this is useful!
-Zockinstien514
(Image Credit: Google)