Public server

A public server allows a user to play NetHack or a variant in a shared space on the Internet where one can encounter other people's bones and see scores in the server's score list. Most NetHack servers usually also add some interface patches and bug fixes; this list will not specify those. You may also choose to watch someone's game that is in progress.

You can access a public server by using a telnet or ssh client, such as PuTTY on Windows or ssh (OpenSSH) on Linux, other UNIX systems, MacOS, or (under Windows) WSL. Use of ssh is highly recommended, since telnet is not encrypted and transfers username and passwords in plain text. Note that some public servers may not accept both telnet and SSH.

List of public servers

Server	Location	Games	How to connect
nethack.alt.org (NAO)	Virginia, United States (Amazon us-east-1)	Vanilla NetHack 3.6.7 - saved games on older versions of 3.6.x will be played and finished before transitioning to 3.6.7	ssh nethack@alt.org https://alt.org/nethack/hterm/ (web client) telnet nethack.alt.org IRC: #nethack on libera.chat
hardfought.org (HDF)	Virginia, United States London, United Kingdom Sydney, Australia	NetHack 3.4.3, HDF version NetHack 3.7.0, HDF version, includes public server based enhancements NetHack 1.3d GruntHack, with bug fixes and UI enhancements UnNetHack FIQhack NetHack Fourk dNetHack NetHack 4 DynaHack SporkHack, with bug fixes and UI enhancements xNetHack, 3.7.x based variant SpliceHack, 3.7.x based variant Slash'EM, version 0.0.8E0F2 notdNetHack EvilHack, 3.6.x based variant SlashTHEM GnollHack	ssh nethack@hardfought.org (United States) ssh nethack@eu.hardfought.org (Europe) ssh nethack@au.hardfought.org (Australia) https://www.hardfought.org/nethack/hterm/ (Web client, all servers) IRC: #hardfought on libera.chat Discord: #nethack-hardfought at https://discord.gg/dWMkgHn (irc-to-discord bridge is active)
em.slashem.me	Falkenstein/Vogtl., Germany	NetHack 3.6.6 Slash'EM Extended SLASH'EM 0.0.7, 0.0.8, and 0.0.7-SLethe GruntHack, with bug fixes and UI enhancements SporkHack DNetHack SLEX notdNetHack	ssh slashem@slashem.me play.slashem.me (web client) IRC: #em.slashem.me on Libera.chat
guis.es	United Kingdom	UnNetHack	telnet guis.es (UK) ssh guis.es (UK) http://guis.es/ (web stats & client)
Cafe / Veekun NetHack	Dallas, Texas, United States	NetHack with a custom patchset	ssh nethack@nethack.veekun.com (password "nethack" or this identity file) IRC: #cafe on irc.veekun.com
nethack4.org	Bissen, Luxembourg	NetHack 4	telnet nethack4.org
games.libreplanet.org	Boston, Massachusetts, United States	NetHack	telnet games.libreplanet.org telnet-ssl games.libreplanet.org IRC: #libreplanet-gaming on freenode (defunct); #libreplanet on Libera (active, but gaming subchannel has yet to be established)
Nethack-CN	Chengdu, China	NetHack 3.6.0 (English) Nethack 3.6.0 (Chinese-translated version)	ssh nethack@nethack-cn.com -p2222 (password "nethack")
NetHack Live	Gyeonggi-do, South Korea Iowa, USA	NetHack 3.6.6 - Web-based tile play support similar to DCSS including mobile	Webtiles play (South Korea) Webtiles play (United States) Discord: https://discord.com/invite/mNcPSDendT
floatingeye.net	Toronto, Canada	NetHack v3.7.0 with custom patchset. Includes consent and dog #petting.	ssh nethack@floatingeye.net

Setting up your own server

There are several ways to manage your public NetHack server, but the most common is to use dgamelaunch, which manages user accounts and runs the NetHack processes in a chroot jail when a user telnets into the server.

For FreeBSD, there is a work-in-progress document describing how to set up a NetHack server with dgamelaunch, and also provides patches to make auto-login work with FreeBSD telnetd.

Archives

Some servers may provide access to archives of data.

See also

• Private server