In this short article we will be looking at what bridging Minecraft servers are, and why is it used, and I'll also show you how to bridge the Minecraft servers.
Bridging Minecraft servers is very useful as it connects all servers to a single server and helps the moderation and development in them.
The term “Bridge” is used to make a connection between two things or places. Similarly in Minecraft, bridging the server means connecting different servers to some host or a server, so they can all be linked with one another.

We might have seen that we can select between different servers while playing on a single server. This can be done by making the bridge connection between different servers. This can be done using the making the network proxy
What is the Network proxy?
Network proxy makes a network that allows the person to connect the several other running servers within that network. Using this, you can create a large network of servers connected with one. It can be used as the controller of a network of servers.
It acts as a proxy between the server and the Minecraft client. It allows switching the server from one to another within that server, without disconnecting from the previous one.

Network proxies do not need a lot of RAMS as it only forwards the traffic from one server to another server if they are both connected to the same network. Using this you can give the IP of only the server where you have added a Proxy server and can connect with other servers within that server without needing the IP of its other servers.
Network proxies are like the other .jar servers, additionally, they are used to connect the different servers to one proxy and direct their IP, so others can directly travel between the servers without leaving them.
What are the types of Network proxies?
There are different types of Network proxies, which can be used to make a bridge connection between different servers. Depending on the requirements and the server you are using you can select one of these. Some of the most used are:
- Bungeecord
- Velocity
- Waterfall

Download files :
• Bungeecord: https://ci.md-5.net/job/BungeeCord/
• Velocity: https://papermc.io/downloads#Velocity
• Waterfall: https://papermc.io/downloads#Waterfall
Some hosts provide pre-downloaded proxy servers as well.
What network proxy is best to use?
From the above three mentioned network proxy servers, Bungeecord is one of the oldest servers. It is also the most used network proxy. It Supports many unmodded servers and gives access to a lot of the plugins, and it is easy to use.
But with some of the servers that are modded such as forge, Bungeecord does not work, because Bungeecord ended its forge support. For the modded servers Velocity can be used as a Network proxy as it supports all types of modded and unmodded servers.
Velocity uses fewer resources as compared to the other type of proxy servers.
How to download the Proxy server?
To download the proxy server, firstly we need to stop all the running servers and then remove all the server files present in the server you want to create a Bungeecord or get a new host to run the Bungeecord.
These proxy servers require a separate host same as the normal server files. They are also .jar files.
hen download the Bungeecord and past/upload it to your server. After that click on the .jar file and click on Bungeecord and click save. Start your server and when it is started and all the files are loaded completely, stop it.
In your file folder Open the config.yml file and replace the host:0.0.0.0:25565 with the IP of your server IP.
How to add servers to the proxy servers?

Once you have downloaded and installed the Bungeecord, go to the config.yml and find the server: and there you can add the servers.
You can give the names to the server and enter the IP of the server in front of the address:
You can add or modify many servers here. For them to work go to the server.properties and then change online-mode to false of every server you have linked with Bungeecord and not the Bungeecord.

Bad Configuration of Proxy server
As the proxy servers act as a controller of the other servers, it needs to be fully secure and well configured. Bad configuration of the proxy servers can cause fatal damage to the servers and can also make you lose the servers.
Proxy servers act as a firewall and provide the connection between the other servers. Poor or bad configuration can give easy access to the proxy and can cause the proxy to get hacked.

After getting access to the console, one can corrupt your server files/ world files. These proxies are needed to be well/good configured.
We can make the IP of the other servers added secure and then a player can be only able to join using the Proxy making your other servers fail and thus they cannot bypass the proxy.
How to make proxy server secure
We can make these proxy servers secure using some additional plugins. For this, we need to go into the Bungeecord hub plugins file and then add the BungeeGuard plugin. After this add this plugin to all the servers as well you have added to the network.
Then restart the server and you will see the config.yml file inside the BungeeGuard folder in plugins. Open it and it will give a random set of numbers (e.g., 0a1b2c3d4e5f), copy it, and go to the BungeeGuard’s config.yml file and enter it there. Repeat the same with all the servers connected to the proxy.
This will disable the direct connection to the connected server and only join using the bungee server.
Another way to make it secure is using IPWhitelist. Firstly, download it on all the servers added to Bungeecord and not in Bungeecord. This will let people connect only using the Bungeecord and not to the server directly.
After this is done, start all the servers and they will be running.
Bridging Minecraft Server Conclusion
Network proxy servers are used when we are to link different servers into a single server so we can switch between them without leaving them.
They direct/forward their IP to a single server where these network proxies are preset and using the IP of that single server we can connect to any connected server. But good configuration is required to prevent the server from getting attacked by hackers.
We can make other servers safe by disabling their IP so the only possible way to connect to the server is using the IP of the proxy server.
If you want to read about our recommended Minecraft server reviews Asia, please visit our homepage.