BetterLANBroadcaster

A Spigot plugin that broadcasts Minecraft servers over LAN using UDP multicast, allowing clients to discover servers without manually entering addresses.

Features

• Follows the Minecraft LAN discovery protocol, sending server information to 224.0.2.60:4445
• MOTD supports {online} (current online players) and {max} (max players) variables, automatically replaced in real-time
• Dynamic start/stop broadcasting via commands
• Online modification of broadcast MOTD and broadcast delay
• View current broadcast status
• Custom broadcast port (manual or auto-detect)
• Debug mode for real-time broadcast packet logs
• Multi-language support (English, Chinese)
• Hot-reload all configurations

Commands

Command	Description
/blb	Show plugin version info
/blb start	Start broadcasting
/blb stop	Stop broadcasting
/blb status	View broadcast status
/blb setmotd <MOTD>	Set broadcast MOTD
/blb setdelay <milliseconds>	Set broadcast delay
/blb setport <port|auto>	Set broadcast port (use auto to auto-detect)
/blb debug <on|off>	Enable/disable debug mode
/blb reload	Reload configuration files
/blb help	Show all subcommand help
/blb version	Show plugin version info

Tip: /betterlanbroadcaster is the full command, /blb is its alias; both are equivalent.

All commands require the betterlanbroadcaster.admin permission, available to OPs by default.

Configuration

plugins/BetterLANBroadcaster/config.yml

# Language setting: en or zh
language: en

# Server MOTD displayed on LAN
# Available variables:
#   {online} - Current online player count
#   {max}    - Maximum player count
motd: "A Minecraft Server"

# Broadcast delay (milliseconds)
# Default: 1500 ms = 1.5 seconds
broadcast-delay-ms: 1500

# Debug mode: when true, each broadcast packet is logged to console
debug: false

# Broadcast port: set to 0 to auto-detect server port, or specify a port number
broadcast-port: 0

Multi-language

Language files are located in the plugins/BetterLANBroadcaster/lang/ directory:

• messages_en.yml - English language file
• messages_zh.yml - Chinese language file

Set language to en or zh in config.yml to switch languages.

Color Codes

MOTD supports Minecraft color codes using the & symbol followed by a color character to color the server name.

Common color codes:

Code	Color
&0	Black
&1	Dark Blue
&2	Dark Green
&3	Dark Aqua
&4	Dark Red
&5	Purple
&6	Gold
&7	Gray
&8	Dark Gray
&9	Blue
&a	Green
&b	Aqua
&c	Red
&d	Light Purple
&e	Yellow
&f	White

Format codes:

Code	Effect
&l	Bold
&o	Italic
&n	Underline
&m	Strikethrough
&k	Random
&r	Reset

For example, setting a colored MOTD in the config:

motd: "&6&l✦ &eBetterLAN &7- &aSurvival Server &6&l✦"

In-game, it will display as gold ✦ BetterLAN - Survival Server ✦.

LAN Discovery Protocol

The plugin implements a protocol fully compatible with Minecraft's vanilla LAN broadcast:

• Protocol: UDP Multicast
• Address: 224.0.2.60
• Port: 4445
• Message format: [MOTD]Server MOTD[/MOTD][AD]Server Port[/AD]
• Encoding: UTF-8

Build

git clone https://github.com/myxxr/BetterLANBroadcaster.git
cd BetterLANBroadcaster
mvn clean package

The build artifact will be at target/BetterLANBroadcaster-1.0.0.jar.

Dependencies

• Spigot 1.20.4+ API
• Java 17+

Installation

1. Place BetterLANBroadcaster-1.0.0.jar into the plugins/ directory
2. Start the server
3. Use /blb start to start broadcasting
4. Minecraft clients on the LAN can discover the server in the Multiplayer menu

Author

Immyxxr

• Email: myxxr1999@163.com
• QQ: 2855848368

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL v3). For details, see the LICENSE file.

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