[iviv]

Right, edited this post with a new issue I'm now having. Got my server set up fine, had to grab a server.cfg off the steam forums to use, and I can join the server fine through the main menu as a steam group server, but there's some problems. Firstly, it shows up as simply being a campaign game, when we're only going to be playing versus and sometimes scavenge, so I included in the server.cfg sv_gametypes "versus,scavenge". When I try to join, I get the message: Disconnected. The session is no longer available'.
Changing 'sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 1' to 0 allowed me to join the game fine, but surely there has to be a way to join the game through a lobby, and allow us to pick the maps and teams and so on before starting?

[onv]

Sorry for the huuuuge bump, but I'm having the exact same issue here. So if someone knows a solution, please post it here ^^

[XAFAfterShock]

are you hosting this on your network? I'm going to assume that you are. Leave sv_allow_lobby_connect_only at 0 then go into our l4d2 game and in options>multiplayer make sure auto discover lan games is disabled, you don't want this showing up on your steam group list.

You need to create an autoexec.cfg in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\cfg and in that autoexec.cfg you will put the following
mm_dedicated_force_servers "xx.xx.xx.xxxxx" replacing xx with server ip:port

what this does is allow you to create a lobby with any settings you choose and then when you click start the game it will automatically connect to your server. This is assuming your hosting a dedicated server on your network on a machine other than the one your playing on.

[onv]

Thank you.And yes, i'm hosting the server on the same computer that i'm playing, using L4D2 Dedicated server tool. I'm gonna try this now. But wouldn't this command block me from joining any other servers than mine ? Because I would still like to play on others servers :p

EDIT: Tried it, still can't join my server. I'm getting the error "No Best Available Servers were found. Would you like to host a local server ?". I don't get it. A few months ago everything was working correctly, I didn't had to set sv_allow_lobby_connect_only at 0, no mm_dedicated_force_servers change were needed. :/ Any help ?

[XAFAfterShock]

yes the command will force you to always connect to the address set in the autoexec.cfg but you can always open console and enter mm_dedicated_force_servers "" to temporary clear the address if you want to join other servers from the lobby. Make sure your using your wan ip and port in the autoexec and not the lan ip. I've ran a dedicated server on the same machine that I was playing on with mostly negative results because of steam not playing well with srcds. what is your server startup line?

[onv]

I am using my wan ip and port in the autoexec. By "server startup line", do you mean what's inside my server.cfg ? Because I'm using the "L4D2 Dedicated server" tool, not HLDS update tool.

Here's my server.cfg :

hostname test server

rcon_password "XXXXXXXX"

sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0

mm_dedicated_force_servers "MYWANIP:PORT"

[XAFAfterShock]

create a file called autoexec.cfg and put the mm_dedicated_force_servers "" in that and then move that to your cfg folder, thats a client command and doesn't do anything when its run on the server.