Can't friend and join @sandlotmc on Switch

Hey everyone!

I'm trying to get my daughter (this account) and my son (has his own account) to connect to the Sandlot server on their Switches, but have been having the issues described below. I was able to join on my son's account via an Android Phone (not their device) by connecting directly to the server address, so account whitelisting is working fine.

1) This account can't friend @sandlotmc. It comes up on search, and I can add it as a friend. But then it never appears in the friend list. (Update 6/12: this part was a parental controls setting problem, see my reply below)

2) My son's account did successfully friend @sandlotmc, and it appears online, but the join button never appears, so can't join that way. (Update 6/12: this is still not working)

(Update 6/12: this is working now, see below!) I haven't had luck connecting to DNS server mentioned in the Switch connection guide (66.70.181.137) on either of their devices. Though I also see this post from 2024 that mentions a new DNS server (15.204.44.34), so perhaps the guide is out of date? Though that IP didn't work either: https://www.sandlotminecraft.com/threads/scheduled-maintenance-complete.38499/

Any suggestions for either of these issues? Switch 1 (one LCD, one OLED) running Minecraft v1.21.81

Thanks!

 

Re: the DNS connection option, server.sandlotminecraft.com resolves to 15.204.44.34, so I'm guessing that the server changed in 2024 but the connection guides haven't been updated.

That said, the DNS port (53) on 15.204.44.34 isn't open anyway, so perhaps the DNS service is down.

Could the admins share the DNS configuration used to reroute the default Featured Servers in bedrock? I might try setting up custom DNS on my router as a work around. I've previously blocked these domains on my router to successfully block Featured Servers. So perhaps it's as easy as rerouting these to sandlot server IP?

[redacted]

 

Thanks so much! And sorry for posting the now-redacted content. I realize, in retrospect, that it wasn't great info to inadvertently put out there publicly in this community.

Thx!

 

Ok, reporting back:

• Works: The sandlot DNS is working and I was able to join that way!
  I am now able to connect to the DNS server at 15.204.44.34, and after configuring my my kids' Switches to use it, we successfully joined sandlot through all of the rerouted Featured Server listings in the Server tab.
  
  The sandlot connection guides should get updated with the new(-ish) IP address so that people trying to set up bedrock devices don't try to connect to the old server (66.70.181.137).
  
  I also got my Synology home router configured to do the same DNS handling for forwarding to sandlot, as a backup in case sandlot's DNS goes down.
  
  
• Still broken: Though I can now friend @sandlotmc (pilot error), we still can't join via the Friends menu
  I realized that my parental controls prevented @sandlotmc from following my daughter's account back (but not my son, which is why he could successfully friend the account). My Xbox family settings for "Social settings > Follows from others" was blocked. Hence why @sandlotmc briefly appeared as a friend and then disappeared. Account settings are fixed now.
  
  Unfortunately, though @sandlotmc shows up in the friend list as online, it never presents a Join button. I found some other bedrock server communities/services out there (that shall go unnamed) that allow users to use this same join-a-friend approach to getting on specific or arbitrary servers, and those worked on our Switches after friending their shell accounts.
  
  So assuming sandlot's server is using the same underlying tool (that I will also leave unnamed) that those services use, perhaps there's a config change or new release that that might fix the issue. Though I didn't see any obvious, related bug reports like this on the project's github.

Thanks, @c0wg0d, for the help and for looping in the server admins!

 

Confirmed that it's working. Thank you so much for fixing this!