How to Use IP Bans on a Minecraft Server

Direct answer

Use Java console ban-ip <address> [reason] only when an IP-based ban is warranted. IP bans can affect unrelated people sharing an address; account bans are usually more precise.

Recommended procedure

1. Confirm the incident and affected player using moderation logs, not an unverified chat accusation.
2. Check whether the player is using a shared network or whether the actual enforcement lives in a proxy/moderation plugin.
3. For vanilla Java moderation, run ban-ip 203.0.113.10 repeated abuse with the actual address; use pardon-ip 203.0.113.10 to undo an error.
4. Store audit details privately and use the documented ban system on networked servers.

Why this matters

IP addresses can be reassigned, NAT can place multiple users on one public IP, and IPv6 users may have changing address allocations. An IP ban is not a reliable substitute for account-based moderation.

How to verify the result

Check that the intended access is blocked and that other legitimate users are not accidentally affected. Audit the stored reason and expiry in the actual moderation system.

Version and compatibility notes

Do not publish full IP addresses in public ban logs; console commands shown here are for Java Edition and not necessarily for a proxy plugin.

Official references

These sources were checked for the current MSH revision. Version-sensitive details should always be confirmed against the project documentation for the release you run.

• Paper server.properties reference
• Paper configuration

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