This is an Instructable designed to show you how to set up a Minecraft Bukkit server. CraftBukkit differs from the server program you download from minecraft.net in that it is expandable. Instead of being limited to standard gameplay and commands, you are able to modify a ton of aspects on how the game behaves. For example, in regular Minecraft multiplayer, you can't lock chests. If you download Bukkit and install the "Lockette" plugin, you can lock chests that only you can open. So enugh of the blabber. Let's get it done!

Step 1: Download CraftBukkit

CraftBukkit is the backbone of the Minecraft server. It will run the server, and also load the plugins you install. You can download the latest version of CraftBukkit at http://dl.bukkit.org/ They are usually a bit delayed for releasing CraftBukkit for the latest version of Minecraft, but you can often find Beta builds to suit your needs. You will download the "craftbukkit.jar" file, and once it's downloaded, you have to put it in its own folder; it creates files and folders that it needs when you run it.

Step 2: Running CraftBukkit

You will now need to run CraftBukkit.jar to generate the files needed by the server. This is a bit complicated, but don't worry; we can get through it! Okay, first off, we need to rename the .jar file to "craftbukkit.jar". When you download it, it will hve the version name in the filename; we don't need that.

Regrdless of your OS, you will need to make sure that Java is installed. Go to http:/java.com/ to download it.

WINDOWS: First, we need to create a batch file to run the .jar file and to allocate memory for it to run. To do this, create a new text file in the folder that contains "CraftBukkit.jar". Then, open it in Notepad, WordPad, Notepad++, or your favorite text editor. Type the following into the text file:

java -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar -o true
PAUSE

The "java -Xms1024M -Xmx 1024M" is telling the computer to allocate 1024 MB (1 GB) of RAM Memory to run the server.
The "-jar craftbukkit.jar -o true" is telling the computer to run craftbukkit.jar under Java with the above amount of memory.
The "PAUSE" is to tell the computer to not do anything else after the server has been launched, so you can see how it's running.

Go to File>Save As. Then make sure you choose "All Files" under "Save as file type". Name it "run.bat", making sure that you add the .bat to the end. You can run the server by double clicking on "run.bat"

MAC OS: First off, open up TextEdit, and type this in:

#!/bin/bash
cd "$( dirname "$0" )"
java -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar -o true

It is doing basically the same thing as in the Windows file.

After that, you will save the file as "start_server.command". After it is saved, open "Terminal.app" and type "chmod a+x". Do not press enter after you type it. Drag "start_server.command" into Terminal.app, then hit enter. After that, you can run the server by double clicking on "start_server.command".

LINUX:

Open a terminal windows and go to the directory where you put "craftbukkit.jar". Use the "cd ~/[foldername]" command to do that.
Create a new file in the server folder and name it "craftbukkit.sh". Edit the file and put this into it:

#!/bin/sh
BINDIR=$(dirname "$(readlink -fn "$0")")
cd "$BINDIR"
java -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar -o true

Again, it's doing pretty much the same thing as in Windows and Mac. Run the command "chmod +x ~/craftbukkit/craftbukkit.sh" to make the file executable. To start the server, open a terminal window and type: "~/[foldername]/craftbukkit.sh"

Step 3: Install Plugins

In order to take full advantage of your new Bukkit server, you will need to download and install plugins. You can find them at http://plugins.bukkit.org/

Some useful plugins are:

Lockette - Lets you lock chests
Essentials - Adds a ton of commands.
DynMap - Lets you see a map of the world in an internet browser.
WorldGuard - Lets you claim areas of land.

To install plugins, download them from the above web address. They come as .jar files. Under your server folder, there should be a folder named "plugins". Put the .jar file into the "plugins" folder. Reload or restart the server.

Step 4: Port Forwarding

If you want your server to be accessible over the Internet, you will need to port forward. What that means, is that when you try to connect to your server from somewhere else, the router will take that connection, and direct it to the server computer. Go to your router's configuration page. you can get to it from your internet browser. I'll list some of the more common addresses for the configuration page
.
http://192.168.0.1/
http://192.168.1.1/

It depends on your router as to where the Port Forwarding configuration can be found. Once you are there, you will want to forward port 25565 to the server computer's IP address. Set the protocol to Both UDP and TCP. Aplpy the changes

To connect to your server over the internet, you will use the external ip address of where the server computer is. To find this, get on your server computer and Google "external ip". You will see it near the top of the page. If you are connecting to the server using another computer in your house, you will use the internal ip of the server computer.