A DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) floods your server with so much traffic that real players cannot connect. The server is not hacked; it is drowned. Game servers are popular targets because they listen on fixed ports, have tight latency budgets and the impact is immediately visible to the community.
How a DDoS attack works
The attacker sends traffic from thousands of devices (a botnet) to your server IP. The types:
- Volumetric attacks: sending so much data that the network link saturates. Common: UDP floods.
- Protocol attacks: exploiting network protocols to waste server resources on incomplete connections.
- Application attacks: fake players connecting and sending data that the game server has to process.
Why game servers are vulnerable
Minecraft listens on TCP 25565, FiveM on 30120, Rust on 28015. Those ports are well-known and scannable. A home server on a consumer connection goes offline at a few hundred megabits per second of attack traffic.
How protection works
- Traffic analysis: a filter distinguishes normal game traffic from attack traffic based on patterns, packet size and frequency.
- Scrubbing: malicious traffic is dropped before reaching your server. Legitimate traffic passes through.
- Capacity: the protection network must have more bandwidth than the attack. Professional mitigation services absorb hundreds of gigabits to terabits.
At HostValues, DDoS protection is included with all services at no extra cost. It works automatically.
What protection does not do
- Application-layer attacks: bots that log in as players look like normal traffic. For Minecraft, use a TCP proxy like TCPShield to filter before it reaches your server.
- IP hiding: protection does not hide your server IP. A proxy service (TCPShield, Cloudflare Spectrum) hides the real IP so attacks hit the proxy instead.
What you can do yourself
- Do not share your server IP unnecessarily. Use a domain with an SRV record so the IP is not directly visible.
- Consider a TCP proxy (TCPShield for Minecraft, free tier available) if you have a large audience.
- Enable rate limiting on your firewall if you run a VPS.
- Keep your server software up to date.
Does DDoS protection cost extra?
At HostValues, no. Protection is included with all plans, no additional cost or data limit.
Can a DDoS damage my world?
Not directly. A DDoS makes the server unreachable but does not change data. The risk is indirect: if the server is killed mid-save, the last save can corrupt. Automatic backups prevent significant data loss.
What if I am being attacked?
On managed hosting: the protection handles it automatically. If you still notice issues, open a support ticket. On a VPS: check if the firewall is active and whether the attack is volumetric (network) or application-level (your software).
All game, bot and VPS plans at HostValues include DDoS protection.
