Hi Everyone. Thank you all for the info in this thread. It didn't solve my problem though so I had to scratch around a bit to get a workaround, which I'd like to share.
First, an explanation of my problem; it wasn't so much the server not working as the client timing out before the server was ready. The client then just sits there while the server eventually finishes and then sits and waits for the client to connect.
I dug around a bit and found the scripts folder which has been very enlightening. In two of those files I found that you can get to the client's console with [ctrl]+[`] (the grave/tilde button, next to [1], under [esc]) and there you can use this command to have the client connect to the local server again: startConnection("127.0.0.1:28000")
So, the steps are:
1. Start your client and create a world
2. Watch the server's console window. You should see a bunch of white, yellow, red and green text scrolling by (eventually).
3. If the client gives you the Timed out, unable to access local server message, just click okay.
4. When the server shows the 3 green lines where it says it's connected to Steam and what your Steam ID is (or something like that) switch back to the client.
5. Press [ctrl]+[`] and type or copy & paste this: startConnection("127.0.0.1:28000")
6. Press enter. You should now be connecting to your server.
I hope this helps. It's very unlikely that it'll fix everyone's problems, but for those with similar issues as I had, this should do the job.
Also, I only got it working right before I had to get to bed last night so I haven't played much yet and I'm currently at work (hoping my boss doesn't play LiF: YO, or at least doesn't have this problem
) so I don't know whether or not this will affect saved data or not.