RequestNetworkSettings

The very first game packet a client sends, uncompressed and unencrypted. It announces the protocol version the client speaks so the server can reply with compression settings — or reject it with a PlayStatus version-mismatch code.

request-network-settings.bin

0xFE                // game packet batch (uncompressed)
  0x05              // varuint32 packet length
  0xC1 0x01         // header: packet id 193 (0xC1)
  00 00 08 91       // protocol 2193 (big-endian)

Structure

Field	Type	Description
Client Network Version	int32 (BE)	Protocol number of the client — 2193 for 1.26.50/1.26.51.

Notes

Sent before compression is negotiated, so it is written raw: 0xFE, varuint32 length, header, payload.
The protocol version is one of the few big-endian fields in the protocol (2193 for 1.26.50-51).
If the server speaks a different protocol it answers with PlayStatus(1) client outdated / PlayStatus(2) server outdated instead of NetworkSettings.