Understanding DDoS Protection for Game Servers
What is a DDoS Attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack floods your server with malicious traffic from thousands of compromised devices, overwhelming your network connection and making your server unreachable to legitimate players. Game servers are prime targets because disrupting a competitor's server can drive players to another community. Attacks range from simple UDP floods to sophisticated Layer 7 application-layer attacks that mimic real player traffic.
How Our DDoS Protection Works
Every plan includes always-on DDoS mitigation with 17 Tbit total network capacity. Incoming traffic passes through 40+ global scrubbing centers where our filtering systems analyze each packet. Legitimate game traffic is forwarded to your server; malicious traffic is dropped at the network edge. This happens in under 1 millisecond with zero added latency for real players.
Layer 4 vs Layer 7 Protection
Layer 4 (transport) attacks target your server's network connection — UDP floods overwhelm the port, while SYN floods exhaust connection tracking tables. Our network-level filtering handles these automatically. Layer 7 (application) attacks are more sophisticated, sending seemingly valid game protocol requests designed to crash the server application. Our game-aware filters understand Minecraft, FiveM, Rust, CS2, and DayZ packet structures to identify and block these attacks.
Why Game-Aware Filtering Matters
Generic DDoS filters often block legitimate game traffic because they don't understand game protocols. A FiveM heartbeat packet looks different from a Minecraft login packet. Our filters are tuned for each game's specific traffic patterns — we know what normal player connections look like versus attack traffic. This means fewer false positives and your real players never get blocked.
What to Do During an Attack
If you notice sudden lag, disconnections, or your server becoming unreachable, check the control panel. Our system automatically detects and mitigates attacks, but you can verify the status in the DDoS Protection tab. Do not restart your server during an attack — this can make the situation worse. The mitigation kicks in within seconds. If the attack persists for more than 2 minutes, contact our support team via Discord with your server ID.
Preventative Measures
Keep your game server software updated. Attackers often exploit known vulnerabilities in outdated server versions. Use strong passwords for admin accounts and enable two-factor authentication for your control panel. Don't share your server IP publicly — use a custom domain instead. If you run a competitive server with rivals, consider keeping your exact IP private and routing through our DDoS-protected proxy layer.
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