Setup -

your welcome - robby



Requirements
A Bedrock Compatible Minecraft Server
As mentioned, this can be any server software you wish, however, it has been primarily tested with the official server software that Mojang releases
This needs to be set to use port 19132 (the default port) and should be open to the internet
Whitelists are recommended to stop trolls, however, it's up to you
A server which you can reach DNS from
This can be locally on your network, but, if you want friends to be able to use it, you likely want to have port 53 avaliable
To make this easier, I use a droplet I had from DigitalOcean lying around, and installed the DNS server there, so I didn't need to open my home server's DNS up
A domain name is recommended - if you don't have one, a dynamic address from NoIP or similar provider is fine - this is just to ensure that if your IP does change, your server doesn't stop working
This guide assumes your server is already working. To test this, you can use Minecraft for Windows 10, or Minecraft on mobile devices (for those of you on Linux, check out the project MCPELauncher).

DNS Setup on the server
This guide assumes you're running Linux, however, I've tried to make it easier to follow along on Windows

Download CoreDNS
In case the config spec changes in future, this guide uses version 1.5.0
Extract it with tar -xzf coredns_1.5.0_linux_amd64.tgz (Windows users: use 7zip to extract this archive)
Create a file named Corefile (no extension) in the same folder as the Coredns executable.
Open it, and copy the following contents in
.:53 {
    rewrite name exact mco.lbsg.net example.com
    forward . 1.1.1.1:53
}
While doing this, replace example.com with the domain / IP for your server.

If you want to use a DNS server other than Cloudflare's for any other requests, change 1.1.1.1

This file will tell CoreDNS to treat all requests to mco.lbsg.net (the Lifeboat Network) as requests instead for example.com, which is the core component of the trick

(Skip this step if you use Windows) Mark CoreDNS as executable using chmod +x ./CoreDNS

Run CoreDNS

On Windows, you can run CoreDNS.exe from command prompt
On Linux, you will need to use root permissions to run it, as Linux prevents non-root processes from communicating on port 53 - do this with sudo ./CoreDNS
DNS setup on the console
This assumes for now you are using a Nintendo Switch. The process will be similar for other consoles, apart from the Switch specific menus

Ensure Minecraft is fully closed (not just suspended)
Head to Settings > Internet > Internet Settings
Tap your preferred Internet connection, then tap "Change Settings"
Scroll down to "DNS Settings" and change this from "Automatic" to "Manual"
In Primary and Secondary DNS, enter the IP address of your DNS server
If you aren't sure of the IP of your server, there are multiple websites on the internet to find this
If you are on a cloud server (e.g a DigitalOcean Droplet/Linode Instance) check your providers web panel for this (you should already know it though)
For stability you should repeat the DNS server instructions on two different servers, on unique networks, so if one becomes unavaliable, you don't lose network connectivity on your console
Tap "Save", then "Connect to This Network"
Go to the home screen, and open Minecraft
Go to "Play" then navigate across to "Servers" - the Lifeboat network should now show your MOTD
Connect to the "Lifeboat Network" - you should now connect to your server instead