# Bridge: the offline screen, the join page and the door

> What players see when your machine is off, the join page every Bridge address gets, and login protection on Bridge Pro for a world that is not in online mode.

Source: https://fadehost.com/docs/bridge-offline-and-door/

A server on your own machine is up when the machine is. Bridge is built around that fact instead of pretending otherwise: the address answers even when your server does not, and it answers with something a player can read.

## The offline screen

When your machine is off, asleep, or simply not running the program, a Minecraft Java player who connects does not get a connection error. They land on a small screen of ours that says the server is offline and who to ask:

```text
quiet-fox is offline. Ask Frost to start Bridge on their PC.
```

The name is your address and the host is you, by the first name on your account. The player is disconnected politely rather than left waiting for a timeout, so nobody has to guess whether they typed the address wrong.

The same screen goes up whenever the program stops, which is not only a machine being switched off:

- the program was closed, or the service was stopped,
- the Minecraft server the plugin sits in was stopped,
- the Fabric, NeoForge or Forge server the [mod](/docs/bridge/) sits in was stopped,
- the world the mod was sharing was closed or left, which stops the program with it.

The screen is a Minecraft Java screen. A Bedrock client, or another game, shows its own cannot-connect message, because there is nothing of ours in front of those protocols to say more.

In the server list the address shows as offline with the same line, so a player sees it before they even click join.

## Who tried to join

Every connection to the offline screen is counted. The address's page in the panel shows them, so you know a quiet weekend was not quiet by choice:

> Your friends tried to join 14 times while your machine was off this week.

On Bridge Pro the offline screen can also ping you on Discord when somebody turns up, once per quiet period rather than once per attempt. Switch it on under the address, **Offline screen**, **Ping me on Discord**.

## The join page

Every address gets a page of its own on `join.fadehost.net`, linked from **Bridge** in the panel. It shows whether the server is online right now, who is playing, and the address with a copy button. It is a page you can send to people who do not know how to add a server, instead of pasting a hostname and hoping.

When the server is offline the page says so, in the same words as the screen above.

## Login protection, on Pro

A world on your own machine is often not in online mode: friends on a launcher without a Microsoft login need to get in. That leaves the name field open to anyone who learns the address. [Login protection](/docs/login-protection/), the same door our hosted servers use, closes it, and on Bridge it runs on the relay in front of your machine.

Players with a Microsoft login walk straight through. Players without one register a password on their first visit and use it after that, so a name belongs to whoever took it first.

To turn it on, open the address in the panel, then **Login protection**. It applies to the Java port of that address and takes effect on the next connection; nothing on your machine restarts.

Login protection on Bridge needs [Bridge Pro](/docs/bridge-limits-and-pro/), which every paid FadeHost subscription includes. It covers Minecraft Java. Bedrock players and other games are not checked at the door, so for those keep a whitelist on the server itself.

## What this does not do

- It does not keep your server up. Nothing can, while the machine is off; the screen only explains the silence.
- It does not hide the fact that your address exists. Keep the name to the people you want on the server, and use the door for the rest.
- It is not a ban list. Bans, kicks and whitelists stay where they always were, on the server: [bans and kicks](/docs/ban-and-kick/), [whitelist](/docs/whitelist/).

Want the world up when your machine is not? That is a hosted server, and the cheapest one is free: see [when the PC is not enough](/docs/bridge/#when-the-pc-is-not-enough).