If you are also hosting a server it is a good idea to be the first player that connects to it. To do so you have 3 different options. You will find them in the Multiplayer -> Servers menu. The first and most simple option is to use the 'Connect to LAN game' menu entry. Without any fuss it will connect you to the server that you created. The other options are to connect using your computer's name or ip adress using the 'Connect to IP' entry, or to connect to your server via the 'Server browser' which will display all servers registered with the master server, including your own. If you're not the one hosting the server you can :

- If the server you want to connect to is on the same LAN as you are, and you know it is the only one running on the LAN then you
can simply use the 'Connect to LAN game' option. It will connect you directly, without asking any more questions. If there are more servers running on the LAN this option will connect you to the first one it finds.

- To be more precise you can use the 'Connect to IP' entry that will ask you for the name of the computer hosting the server or for it's IP address, or use the 'Server browser' to find your friend's server among all the ones registered with the master server.