my portal has bars over it for some reason and i cant walk through it but my friends can

What dimension does the Doorway lead to? Make sure you visit that dimension the "normal" way before using a doorway as a shortcut - only then will the portal open up for you. I can't make it teleport you directly to the dimension without that, or the progression might get screwed up. I'll try to figure out a config option in the future to allow that, tho