L4D Server Information

Left 4 Dead servers on the PC is what this article is all about. Managing a server in this game can be daunting. Most information on this topic is strewn out across the web, so I'm going to put it all in one place.

Clearly the first step is buying a server to manage. After that you need to set up a left 4 dead server config.

Left 4 Dead Server Config

hostname "Name of your server" Name your server.
rcon_password "yourrconpassword" Password to use admin commands.
exec banned_user.cfg List of banned steam ids.
exec banned_ip.cfg List of banned IP addresses.
sv_voiceenable 1 Allow people to use voice chat.
sv_alltalk 0 All talk makes it so both teams can hear each others voice chat.
sv_voicequality 5 How good voice chat sounds.
sv_voicecodec vaudio_speex Speex is the best quality codec for voice in L4D.
sv_maxrate 30000 How much bandwidth each player is allowed, higher is better.
sv_minrate 0 Lowest bandwidth the server allows a player.
sv_maxupdaterate 120 Amount of updates per second the server sends to players.
sv_minupdaterate 20 Minimum amount of updates per second.
sv_unlag 1 Help hit detection.
sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0 Makes it so people can join a game in progress.
sv_unreserve Turn off private slots on the server.
sv_search_key "yourkeyhere" Extremely important for connecting to your server through a lobby.
z_difficulty Impossible Set how hard the game will be.

Connecting to your Left 4 Dead server through lobby

Steam didn't make this task easy but it is possible. First you have to go back to the command sv_search_key. Choose some thing unique the key itself doesn't really matter, it should look like this "sv_search_key snowjob" without quotations. Put that in your server config.

Then you need to start steam. Go to the my games tab. Right click the Left 4 Dead icon. Select the general tab. Then click Set Launch Options and enter your search key like so...

+sv_search_key "snowjob" -novid

Now start your game and make a lobby. When you click on search for server it will find that key and connect to your server. You can now use your dedicated Left 4 Dead server in versus through the lobby! If you don't want to connect to your server for some reason, take that command out of your launch options.

Using Admin on Your Left 4 Dead Server

To admin your server you are going to need the rcon password we set earlier (rcon_password yourrconpassword). You have to be connected to the Left 4 Dead server for these commands to work.

First enable your console by going into options then keyboard/mouse and enable "Allow Developer Console". Now you can hit the tilde key(~) to bring down your console. To log into rcon type in...
rcon_password yourpasswordhere Now your logged in and can use rcon. All you have to do is type rcon then follow it with any of the following commands.

RCON Commands

kick Kick a player by name.
Kickid Kick player by steam id.
Banid Ban player by steam id.
Banip Ban player by IP address.
Map Change server map by following with map name.

The commands should look like this... "rcon kick callisto" Should you ever see Callisto this would be the correct course of action.

L4D Remote Server Control

Remote server control is the ability to use admin while not connected to the server. This is especially helpful when your server is full and you want to get in. L4D commander is the easiest way to do this. Simply visit Left 4 Dead Commander. You need the IP and rcon password to use this.

Buy a Left 4 Dead Server