intro
this is a guide for setting up a need for speed underground (nfsu) server and connecting to it, so you can play with your friends.
it uses the tools from this repo, developed by HarpyWar and 3priedez.
you can safely disable the antivirus. it will yield false positives on the nfsu-server tool, which is open source and you can build it yourself.
prerequisites
- the game:
- i think all versions (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4) should be compatible with each other, but i tested only on 1.4.
- you can download it here. this executable is already cracked and has the hd resolution fix.
- nfsu server v1.0.5:
- with this you can host your own server.
- it’s optional, you can use a public server instead.
- note that you need 2 different pcs: one that hosts the server and other that plays the game. you CAN’T host&play on the same pc.
- this is the release link. download instructions are found in this section
- nfsu client:
- it’s used to connect to servers.
- download it from here.
hosting a server
note that hosting a server may not be necessary. at the time of writing this, there are already some public servers that you and your friend(s) can connect to. if you experience lag on these public servers, then you can host your own server.
AGAIN: note that you need 2 different pcs: one that hosts the server and other that plays the game. you CAN’T host&play on the same pc.
opening ports
to host a server, first of all make sure that your router supports port forwarding, as it is necessary for others to connect to your server. it redirects the incoming traffic from the router to your server.
connect to your router (1 and 2).
you now need to forward the following ports to the hosting pc’s ip:
- 3658 UDP
- 10800 UDP/TCP
- 10900 TCP
- 10901 TCP
- 10980 TCP
downloading the server files
if you’re using windows
go to nfsu server v1.0.5 release and download nfsuserver.1.0.5.win32.zip (or click this to download automatically).
extract all 4 files into a separate folder.
if you’re using linux
go to readme and build the server from source by following the instructions.
updating the config
open nfsu.conf with a text editor. you may want to consider options like servername, welcomemessage, registerglobal, verbose. you don’t need to change serverip or serverexternalip.
starting the server
on windows
nfsuserver.exe is for normal start, not a service. open it with admin rights to make sure everything works.
To install a server as a Windows Service (and keep it open forever) run:
nfsuserver_svc.exe -i
To uninstall run:
nfsuserver_svc.exe -u
on linux
run ./nfsuserver. if you want the server to open on startup, create a service on systemd.
connecting to a server
after you downloaded the nfsu client, open it with admin rights (it needs permission to write the hosts file).
if you created your own server, find out what’s your public ip address and add the ip to the nfsu client.
select a server you wish to connect, and press ‘Use server’. after all the other buttons have grayed out, you can open the game, press ‘play online’, make a random account and play with your friends.
if you get some error about firewall when you try to start a game, there might be a problem with someone’s ISP. creating a hamachi server on the host server and adding that server to the server list in nfsu client should fix this problem (fixed it for me).