HostingAndJoining

Hosting with Paid Service

e.g. Hosting on a VPS.

Ports will probably not need to be opened in your hosting package.
To join the game, either use the IP address assigned to your hosting package, or click on the server in the server list before launching (if serverbrowser is true in server.xml).

Hosting from Home

GTA:Connected currently doesn't support IPv6, so first of all make sure that your ISP assigns you an IPv4 address. (Search Google for: What is my IP v4 address?)
Note that if your network is only assigned an IPv6 address, you may still be able to host a server using a reverse proxy.

Player computer is Server computer

To join the game from server computer, use 127.0.0.1 or localhost.
The server will likely not be shown in the server list.
Router ports do not need to be open.
Antivirus exclusions probably do not need to be added.

1+ Players on same network as Server

To join the game on same network, use the IP address assigned to the server's computer. See the #Find IP address assigned to Computer section below.
The server will likely not be shown in the server list.
Router ports probably do not need to be open.
Antivirus exclusions may need to be added.

1+ Players on different network than Server

To join the game on different network, either use the IP address assigned to the server's network. See the #Find IP address assigned to Network section below, or click on the server in the server list before launching (if serverbrowser is true in server.xml).
Router ports do need to be open.
Antivirus exclusions may need to be added.

Joining a Server not in the Server List

Open the GTA:Connected launcher.
Unselect any selected server (if applicable).
Click Launch.
Wait for game to fully load.
Type /connect IPHERE
Replace IPHERE with an actual IP address when typing it.

Find IP address

Find IP address assigned to Computer

This IP is sometimes referred to as an internal IP.

On the computer which you want to know the internal IP address for:

Open command prompt. (Windows key, type cmd, enter key).
Type: ipconfig /all (Then press enter).
Look for: IPv4 Address
It may look similar to: 192.168.1.3 or 10.0.0.3

Find IP address assigned to Network

This IP is sometimes referred to as an external IP.

On the computer which you want to know the external IP address for:

Open Google in your web browser.
Search for: What is my IP address?
Google should tell you the network's IP address.

Ports & Exclusions

Open Router Ports

See here: PortForward