Why does the connection time out when connecting to a server?

My friend had hosted a Minecraft server before and brought it back up today with my help. He and anyone in his LAN can connect. However we have had a few people try to connect, including me, and when we try to connect it gives the message:

Failed to connect to the server

Connection timed out: connect

What does this exactly mean? How do we fix this?

Could be multiple reasons. But basically your game asked to be connected and never received a response.

Usually you want to check :

• Firewall settings
• Router/modem settings (port redirection)
• IP config of the minecraft server (he should listen from the IP of your PC or 0.0.0.0, not 127.0.0.1)
• Check you specify the right port in the connection box
• That you use the correct IP address or server name (and that he does resolve correctly)
• That your server has a working internet connection as well