If you've just rented an s&box server from us (or are about to), this is the 5-minute walkthrough that gets you from "spun up" to "players actually connecting". I'm assuming you've already done the ordering part – if not, grab one here. For the self-hosted-via-SteamCMD path, see How to host an s&box dedicated server instead.
Log into the panel
Head over to the LOW.MS Control Panel and log in with the credentials from your order email. Once you're in, your s&box server appears in the service list with a green status light once it's finished setting up. First provision usually takes a minute or two – SteamCMD is pulling the Facepunch server binary down onto the node.
Click into the server. You'll land on the overview page with Connection Info, SFTP Info, and Query Info panels at the top, and a sidebar on the left with everything you can configure.
Pick which game your server hosts
This is the one step that trips most operators up on their first s&box server. s&box doesn't ship with a single fixed gamemode – you pick which game package from sbox.game your server should load at startup.
Open Commandline Manager from the sidebar. s&box uses three core launch flags:
+game <packageIdent>– the game package, e.g.facepunch.walker. Optional second arg is a map package, e.g.garry.scenemap.+hostname <name>– what players see in the lobby list.+net_game_server_token <token>– keeps a consistent server Steam ID across restarts. Optional but worth setting for anything longer-lived than a quick test.
A working launch line looks like:
+game facepunch.walker garry.scenemap +hostname My First Server
Save and start the server. If the command line's wrong, the server won't launch and you'll see the reason in Log Viewer.
Start it up
Hit the START button on the overview page, then watch Log Viewer in the sidebar. You should see SteamCMD validation scroll past, then the game package download from sbox.game's cloud, then a "ready" signal within 30 seconds on typical hardware.
If you don't see activity in the log, the +game identifier was probably wrong. Package names are org.name, lowercase, no spaces. +game DeathMatch won't work; +game someauthor.deathmatch might (depending on whether that package actually exists on sbox.game).
Connect from your client
s&box uses Steam lobbies for discovery rather than a paste-an-IP server browser. Once your server's signalling to Steam, it shows up in the multiplayer menu of whichever gamemode you loaded. If you set +net_game_server_token, you can also give other players a direct Steam join link tied to that server ID – handy for friends-only setups.
If nothing's showing up, the most common cause isn't the server – it's that you're looking at the wrong gamemode's lobby list. Each game on sbox.game has its own multiplayer UI.
Sidebar items worth knowing
A few panel entries that come up a lot. Configuration Files is where users/config.json lives – open it to add or remove admins without SFTP. Commandline Manager is where you change +game, +hostname, or the server token. Hit Steam Update after any Facepunch server patch to re-run the SteamCMD update, and take a snapshot via Cloud Backup before messing with anything you're not sure about (you can roll it back from Cloud Restore if it goes sideways). If you want live console access while the server's running, Web Console gives you an in-browser terminal.
What next
- s&box server configuration goes deeper on the CLI switches,
users/config.json, and the staging branch. - s&box server troubleshooting covers the usual suspects when something's not starting or behaving oddly.
- If you're comparing hosted vs self-hosted, the full how-to-host blog walks the SteamCMD side.
That's really the whole flow. If you've set a command line, hit start, and seen your gamemode come up in the log, you're done. Invite people in.