Minecraft Port Forwarding Not Working - Port 25565 Won't Open

Hey everyone,

I've recently taken the plunge into hosting my own Minecraft server and have hit a snag with the port forwarding process. Despite following the standard procedure to forward port 25565 (both TCP and UDP) on my router, and ensuring these ports are allowed through my firewall, I've encountered an issue where others can't join my server.

To diagnose the problem, I used an online port checker tool, which indicated that port 25565 was closed. This left me puzzled because, from my end, everything seemed to be set up correctly for Minecraft port forwarding.

The fact that the port won't open, despite my efforts, is frustrating and has left me at a bit of a loss on how to proceed.

Here's a summary of what I've done so far:

1. Port Forwarding Setup: Configured my router to forward port 25565 (TCP/UDP) to the internal IP address of the server hosting Minecraft.
2. Firewall Configuration: Added exceptions for port 25565 in the firewall settings to allow incoming and outgoing connections for Minecraft.
3. Server Running: Made sure the Minecraft server is up and running before testing the connection.

Given these steps, I'm seeking advice on what might be going wrong with the Minecraft port forwarding process and why port 25565 won't open. Could there be a specific router setting I'm overlooking, or is it possible my ISP is blocking this port?

Any insights or similar experiences shared would be greatly appreciated, as I'm eager to get my Minecraft server accessible to friends.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions you can offer!