For my second I used a 64 bit windows 8 OS. It should work on any windows server OS or desktop OS as well. I highly recommend using a server OS as the tools for controlling hardware reallocation for your NS2 server are very useful.

Download – SteamCMD for Windows

Extract the contents to the folder that you want to run SteamCMD from.

A folder called C://steamcmd is recommended.

Your SteamCMD folder should only contain SteamCMD and not the Natural Selection 2 server files.

Create a new Steam account just for your dedicated server. You do not have to purchase the Natural Selection 2 Client on this account. You can use this account for multiple servers. DO NOT use use your personal steam account as passwords are kept in plain text on the server. Open a Command Prompt, cd to the folder where steamcmd.exe is located. Run >steamcmd.exe On the first run, it will download the latest version of itself



After the update you need to login with your steam account in order to download the NS2 server files.

login username password

If you have steamguard you will need the code that will be sent to your email next.

force_install_dir PATH

Set the path of where the install files should download to.

app_update 4940 validate

Will now start downloading the files. Depending on connection this could take awhile.

How to Run the NS2 Server

Browse to the path that the file are located.

Create a shortcut to the server.exe file (right click, Shortcut)

Open the shortcut and change the code to what type of server you want

ex: Server.exe -name MYSERVER -map ns2 tram -limit 16

Now just allow ports 27015 and 27016 on your firewall. If your server does not have a public IP make sure to port forward the correct ports from your router!