Ban Players on Your GMod Server

The Players tab on a Garry's Mod server lets you kick or ban someone in two clicks, and lift a ban later from the same place. Every action there is a console command the panel sends for you, so you can type the same commands yourself in the Console tab when you want to.

Kick or ban from the Players tab

1. Make sure the server is Running. The tab sends console commands, so it needs a live server.
2. Open the Players tab. The Online list shows each player with how long they have been on and their ping.
3. On the player's row, press the kick icon to remove them for now (its tooltip reads "Kick them off the server (they can rejoin)"), or press Ban.
4. A confirmation opens. A kick has an optional Reason they see box, up to 120 characters. Confirm with Kick player or Ban player.

A ban is made by SteamID. The confirmation says "They are refused from then on by their SteamID, across restarts, and put off now if they are on." So a new name or a fresh join doesn't get them back in.

Someone who has already left can still be banned. Scroll down to Left in the last 5 minutes and press Ban on their row.

Lift a ban

1. Open the Players tab and switch to Banned. It lists every banned SteamID, with the name when the panel has seen it.
2. Press Unban on the row.

Unban is grayed out while the server is offline, because bans are lifted through the server's console. Start the server first.

Ban from the Console instead

The Players tab sends these commands. You can send them yourself from the Send a command box on the Console tab, without a slash in front:

1. Run status. The player list has a uniqueid column that shows each SteamID in the form STEAM_0:0:63028959, plus the userid number next to the name.
2. To kick, send kickid <userid>, or kickid <userid> "reason" to give a reason.
3. To ban, send banid 0 <SteamID> kick, then writeid.
4. To lift a ban, send removeid <SteamID>, then writeid.
5. listid lists the banned users.

Replace <SteamID> with the full ID, for example STEAM_0:0:63028959. The ID can also be in the [U:1:123456] form. The panel's own Ban button accepts those two forms, and not the long 17-digit number.

writeid is the step people forget. The wiki describes it as "Writes a list of permanently-banned user IDs to banned_user.cfg". Without it, a ban made in the console may not be saved to the file.

The wiki also lists banip, which will "Add an IP address to the ban list", and writeip, which will "Save the ban list to banned_ip.cfg". Run help banip in the Console to see how to use it. The Players tab only bans by SteamID.

Where the ban list is saved

Bans are written to garrysmod/cfg/banned_user.cfg, one banid 0 STEAM_... line for each ban. The server.cfg we install runs banned_user.cfg and banned_ip.cfg at every start, and tells you not to edit that part.

Bans from ULX

ULX has its own ban commands that admins can use in game. Once ULX is on the server, each row on the Online list also gets an icon button ("Make them an admin with ULX").

Common problems

1. The buttons do nothing. The server is probably offline. Start it, then try again.
2. A banned player is back. Check the Banned list for their SteamID. If it is missing, the ban was probably made in the console without writeid. Ban them again from the Players tab, which runs writeid for you.
3. A name that looks different. Bans follow the SteamID. The name in the list is only a label.

Commands checked against the Facepunch Garry's Mod wiki and our panel, October 2026.