Spore is not really a multiplayer game in the sense of you playing in another game with otherpeople. The only info on the Spore server is really everyone elses creations which u can have populate your spore universe.
not really sure why you want to try get a local only server, its just limiting the content you can use
As a side note, you can email teh png. files in your my docs folders to mates to drag and drop into their creators when in wondowed mode.
Spore rocks though. I sometimes sit for ages in a weekend, just tweaking a creation. Add me as a buddy if you want to, Gory51 is my spore name as well.