So I want my friends to be able to help edit my map. so I changed the Ip from the local host over to my own. and I'm getting a big fat access denied. Is there a proper way to do this?
Do you have public IP and port forwarding on router configured?
You need configure cedserver IP to you local network IP - 192.168.X.Y or something like this and port (2598?). Then in router (if you are behind router) administration set in Port Forwarding - port 2598 to your server IP (198.168.X.Y). So every packet from internet coming to your public IP and port 2598 will be forwarded to you server. More on wiki or similar page.
If you dont have public IP, you need to use dynDNS.