Is there any way to host a server for my friends without Port Forwarding?

I want to make an SRB2K server so my friends and I can play by ourselves with mods we choose, but people were mentioning port forwarding and I'm wondering; Is that the only way to make a server? Is there something not unlike Minecraft, where server hosting can be done by websites? I can't port forward because my parents say it's unsafe, in case you need to know. I just want to play the game with my friends without having a bunch of players join, or having to join a bunch of players. Thanks in advance!
 
Just to note, port forwarding is not unsafe per-se.
External devices can't just "hack" you by knowing what ports you have opened in your machine, as client-side you would need some malicious program/service listening to that port before someone can even send you anything malicious.
If someone tries to send you anything through a port, if you don't have anything to receive that information (i.e. you haven't infected your computer beforehand OR every program listening to it is not expecting this kind of information), your computer/router/program/whatever would just ignore or block this incoming "thing".
Having ports open doesn't necessarily make your computer any more vulnerable, as long as your machine isn't virus ridden already.


That said, for the time being, if you want your server to work properly and with as less latency as possible, yes: You need to forward port 5029 UDP.

There are other ways to go around it, like using an UPnP tool like PortMapper (which actually is just port forwarding made easy) but which requires that your router supports UPnP, or tools like Hamachi that tunnel through to their service then back to other computers, but which adds significant latency during communication.
Neither are recommended, but you can try.
You could alternatively ask someone to host for you?

I heard that NAT punching was being considered by the way, no idea how's it going.

(If anything I said was wrong, please correct me)
 
Just to note, port forwarding is not unsafe per-se.
External devices can't just "hack" you by knowing what ports you have opened in your machine, as client-side you would need some malicious program/service listening to that port before someone can even send you anything malicious.
If someone tries to send you anything through a port, if you don't have anything to receive that information (i.e. you haven't infected your computer beforehand OR every program listening to it is not expecting this kind of information), your computer/router/program/whatever would just ignore or block this incoming "thing".
Having ports open doesn't necessarily make your computer any more vulnerable, as long as your machine isn't virus ridden already.


That said, for the time being, if you want your server to work properly and with as less latency as possible, yes: You need to forward port 5029 UDP.

There are other ways to go around it, like using an UPnP tool like PortMapper (which actually is just port forwarding made easy) but which requires that your router supports UPnP, or tools like Hamachi that tunnel through to their service then back to other computers, but which adds significant latency during communication.
Neither are recommended, but you can try.
You could alternatively ask someone to host for you?

I heard that NAT punching was being considered by the way, no idea how's it going.

(If anything I said was wrong, please correct me)

Thank you so much for the response! After sending your message to my dad, he said I can do it as long as I don't get weird malware on my computer.
 

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