Left 4 Dead 2 Play on LAN (Offline)

Those who like to play the original Left 4 Dead with their friends locally, ergo without an Internet connection, may also want to play the sequel Left 4 Dead 2 on a local area network (LAN) as well. I've created a guide on how to host and join a local game session without relying on Steam or any other online game matchmakers.

Update (February 7, 2012)

Almost two years have passed since I created this guide and a lot of game updates have been pushed through by Valve since then. As a possible fix to recent multiplayer connection problems, create a shortcut for Left 4 Dead 2.

Open the shortcut’s properties, proceed to Shortcut tab and add the following at the end of the Target field: –insecure. Click Apply/OK to save the new setting.

Every time you run Left 4 Dead 2, you should do so by using this modified shortcut. The guide below will not work if you don’t use the shortcut.

After following the steps above, run the game. You will then need to enable the developer console. Optionally, you can also enable automatic detection of LAN games for convenience to those who will join your hosted game. Here's how:

How to enable Developer Console: