Left 4 Dead 2 Updated April 29, 2026

L4D2 RCON: Remote Server Administration

Set up and use RCON to remotely administer your L4D2 server. Set rcon_password in server.cfg, authenticate from the in-game console, and run admin commands without direct server access.

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L4D2 RCON Administration

RCON (Remote Console) lets you run server commands from the game client or a standalone tool without needing SSH access to the server.

Step 1 — Set the RCON Password

In left4dead2/cfg/server.cfg:

rcon_password "YourStrongRconPassword"

Restart the server (or exec server.cfg via the server console) to apply.

Use a strong, unique password — anyone with RCON access has full control over the server.

Step 2 — Connect via In-Game Console

Join your server as a player
Open the developer console (press ~ or `)
Authenticate:
```
rcon_password YourStrongRconPassword
```

Run commands:

rcon say "Server message to all players"
rcon changelevel c2m1_highway

All RCON commands are prefixed with rcon in the client console.

Step 3 — Remote RCON Tools

You can also connect to RCON from outside the game using standalone tools:

mcrcon / rcon-cli — command-line RCON clients
SourceQuery — web-based RCON clients
Source RCON Protocol — TCP port 27015

Example with rcon-cli:

rcon-cli --host YOUR_SERVER_IP --port 27015 --password YourPassword changelevel c1m1_hotel

Common RCON Commands

Command	Effect
`rcon say "message"`	Broadcast a chat message as SERVER
`rcon changelevel c1m1_hotel`	Change to a new map
`rcon mp_gamemode versus`	Change game mode (takes effect on next changelevel)
`rcon kick "PlayerName"`	Kick a player by name
`rcon status`	Show player list, IDs, and ping
`rcon sv_cheats 1`	Enable cheats (for testing)
`rcon exec server.cfg`	Reload the config file
`rcon z_difficulty Expert`	Change difficulty
`rcon quit`	Shut down the server

Banning Players via RCON

rcon status

Note the Steam ID from the output, then:

rcon banid 0 STEAM_1:0:12345678 kick
rcon writeid

writeid writes the ban to cfg/banned_user.cfg so it persists after restart.

To unban:

rcon removeid STEAM_1:0:12345678
rcon writeid

Security Best Practices

Use a long, random password — RCON has no rate limiting by default

Restrict TCP 27015 to trusted IPs via your firewall if possible:

sudo ufw allow from YOUR_ADMIN_IP to any port 27015 proto tcp
sudo ufw deny 27015/tcp
sudo ufw allow 27015/udp

Never share RCON credentials publicly

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