I have been trying to play Minecraft with my friend for a while now. We had trouble a month or two ago. I was suddenly unable to connect to our world(s). I was stuck on locating server no matter what. We tried EVERYTHING. We both uninstled and reinstalled, logged in and out, changed internet settings, etc.

We made it work once when he killed me with a Harming Potion, but that solution only worked that time and it's annoying to have to do that every single time we want to play.

The only way we can play is using realms, but it sucks having to spend money every month just to play.