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Host on your local network

If everyone watching is on the same Wi-Fi — a household in different rooms — the server can stay on your network entirely. Nothing is exposed to the internet, and there is no tunnel and no account anywhere.

The address only works for people on that network. Anyone joining from elsewhere needs Render or a tunnel.

1. Start the server​

With Node 22.6 or newer, using gather-and-join-server-<version>.mjs from the latest release:

node gather-and-join-server-0.3.1.mjs

Or with Docker:

docker run -d --name gather-and-join -p 8080:8080 \
  ghcr.io/thatjoaoguy/gather-and-join-server:latest

It listens on port 8080. PORT=9000 moves it if something else is there.

2. Find your machine's address on the network​

SystemCommand
macOSipconfig getifaddr en0
Linuxhostname -I
Windowsipconfig — use the IPv4 address

You want something like 192.168.1.20. An address starting 127. is the machine talking to itself and will not work for anyone else.

3. Check it from another device​

On a second device on the same Wi-Fi, open http://192.168.1.20:8080/ in a browser, substituting your own address. A running server answers in plain words. If nothing loads, see when it does not work.

4. Share the address​

Send everyone the same address with ws:// in front:

ws://192.168.1.20:8080

Plain ws:// rather than wss:// is fine here, because the traffic never leaves your network. Chrome allows it for extension pages.

Your machine's address can change when it reconnects to the router. If the room stops working between parties, check the address again — or reserve a fixed one for that machine in your router's settings.

When it does not work​

  • Your firewall. The first time you start the server, macOS and Windows usually ask whether to allow incoming connections. If you dismissed that, allow it in the firewall settings.
  • A guest network. Guest Wi-Fi normally stops devices seeing each other. Everyone has to be on the main network.
  • Wired and wireless on different subnets. Some routers separate them; put everyone on the same one.