I had been able to connect to it perfectly fine through the console, using "connect local.host:28020" but i had restarted my computer, along with smaller changes to the server, like the map seed. Now I try doing, "connect local.host:28020" and "client.connect 123.456.7.8:28020" and i get the following output in the console: "Couldn't connect to server 123.456.7.8:28020 (unknown), Connect Failed!" Why is this happening? Does this have to do with the server or a game issue?

its localhost not local.host

Oops beat me to it lol

I've tried that, too. Doesnt work.

I've never seen that message when trying to connect to a server, but if you're hosting from the same machine you are playing on and localhost doesn't work, either your server isn't runnning or you typed the wrong port number.

And port is usually 28015 unless youve changed it.

123.456.7.8 isn't a valid IP address. Google "IP classes".

It's funny though, 12345678. Use 127.0.0.1, or 192.168.x.x, or follow IP Class rules.

12345678... He is just covering his IP...

Oh, lol! I don't think there's enough info given then.

basic steps: restart computer again, update rust server, update client, launch server until it says bradley spawned, try to connect via the localhost or 127.0.0.1. Has the rustdedicated loaded fully?

Also, you don't need to hide internal IPs :-D

Don't click with your mouse inside the Rust Dedicated console window. If you are selecting text inside the cmd window your server freezes until you deselect the text, and if frozen for long enough everyone will drop with "Packet flooding: player tick".