S-M Game Servers?

drasnordrasnor Starship OperatorHawthorne, CA Icrontian
edited March 2004 in Gaming
Is it feasible for ShortMedia to run game servers for some of the more popular internet games like CS and BF1942? It seems like a lot of people around here play, and I'm tired of being banned from servers for no apparent reason. It'd be nice to have a place to call home.

-drasnor :fold:

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    It would be feasible if someone wants to foot the bill. :D
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Here and I thought Sarcnet was made of money ;D .

    -drasnor :fold:
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    drasnor wrote:
    Here and I thought Sarcnet was made of money ;D .

    -drasnor :fold:


    No Sarcnet is built on a pile of money... nicely shreaded for a soft downy base. Then, the walls are filled with a fiberglass & cash mixture that is blown in. Minting plates are used for roofing tiles. After the break-in period, the roof doesn't shine too bad.

    Well... I guess you could say Sarcnet is MADE of money but not solvent at the moment. :D
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    I'm sure many folks here have extra PCs about... why couldn't one of us members set up a dedicated game server? I'd do it, but my secondary PC isn't run 24/7 due to electricity prices...
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    I'd do it but the available upstream bandwidth at my house is fairly lacking.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited March 2004
    Yeah same with most other people. Our cable couldnt host too many people at once w/o lagging.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Sadly, game servers cost big bucks (ask Hawk.. he was paying for a remote server religiously). Short-Media doesn't turn a profit to pay for the hosting cost of the site, let alone a game server. Nice but not possible at the moment :(
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Just FYI: Game servers cost around $70 - $100 a month depending on the load.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited March 2004
    What kind of connect is that for prime? Can we throw together a rackmount unit to be placed in that datacenter along with your other equipment prime? I'll gladly donate one of the biostar boards plus cpu here at the house for the endeavor. I've longed for a bf42 server that I can admin or be an admin on. Can you dig up other prices based on us providing the equipment versus having the datacenter provide all the equipment. All we really need is a rackspace and mega bandwidth. I think I would like at least dual t1 for a decent bf42 server.

    KingFish
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited March 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    Just FYI: Game servers cost around $70 - $100 a month depending on the load.

    Monthly/Yearly subscription service......
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2004
    Omega65 wrote:
    Monthly/Yearly subscription service......
    :thumbsup: I'd be interested. Anyone else?
  • ClutchClutch North Carolina New
    edited March 2004
    I run a CS server which costs me $100 a month for a 20 player public server. This month is the last month for it though because of UT2k4 taking up my time. But game servers usually are pretty expensive.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    I may be wrong, but most (maybe all) servers cost by how many person playing. Something like $4-8 per person depending if it's a private server or public. As for Battlefield, I think those servers are one of the servers that cost the most. A decent game would need 20-32 (even maybe 64). Needs lots of bandwidth and power. (2ghz+, few gig or ram, etc).
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    It's not the normal bandwidth that gets expensive. It's the burst bandwidth.

    When you buy bulk bandwidth at a datacenter, you buy in "sustained transfer" - so, say I buy 1.5mb/s, which might cost around $150. That means that I can get 1.5mb of bandwidth for 24/7 if I want it, (which ends up being somewhere around 500gb of TRANSFER a month) - this is a fine model for web hosting, and other things where transfer over a month is important. However, with game hosting, you can sit there idle all day while the users are at school and work, but at midnight it can pick up and 20 people can be playing. This is when 1.5mb is not enough. If you cap it to control costs, then you get lag and it sucks. If you leave it uncapped, everybody flies along, but you get socked with a huge bill (95th percentile over a month... so if during a 20 player session your bandwidth peaks at 6mb/s, your 95th might be around 3mb/s - and you'll get socked hard with a $500 bill for that month)

    This is why a lot of game hosting "companies" are fly-by-night. They buy a month's worth of bandwidth, thinking that "oh, 500gb a month is PLENTY".. And then when they get slammed with a $750 hosting bill for the first month, they freak out (and subsequently close shop)..

    So, real game hosts know what the game is, and they charge accordingly. This is why game hosting costs more. It's burstable bandwidth that matters.

    __

    So, with that said, if we got together around $135 a month, I'll rack whatever you want. But I buy 1.5mb/s .. If it goes over that, we should probably get a real game hosting company.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited March 2004
    We kicked this idea around quite a bit with my old clan but it never came to light because we simply didn't have enough members. We had planned to pay dues each month via paypal. I think this is a good idea if everyone who wants it sticks to the dues. I'd more than willing to pay my share and would even volunteer to treasure it. Naturally, prime is the hookup because he has the datacenter connections and would undoubtably get the best pricing. I'm thinking that to get a decent 24-32 player bf42 server a dual t1 would be needed. I am of the opinion that having it capped at dual t1 to avoid unknown blockbuster bills would be best. Is this possible prime? I'm assuming that we would still need to provide the hardware for the rack or am I wrong? We would also need to get agreeance beforehand on what the rules of the server would be (i.e. is camping allowed, what would the settings be, etc) before we get started. I'm all for it if we get enough people and the price is right.

    KingFish
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    We can get as much (or as little) bandwidth as we want. I would indeed suggest capping it, to avoid nasty surprises.

    We would still need to provide the hardware, yes. It would have to be a 1U rackmount (since regular tower cases are charged extra - a standard midtower is 3U).

    If you want to administrate the project, I can rack it in my rack. I have 5U available. I don't have the time to administrate it unfortunately.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited March 2004
    I'll contribute most all of the hardware but I don't have a rackmount case. You have a spare lying around prime or can get one on the cheap? I'd be more than happy to administrate the box. Do you get your bandwidth in 1.5MB chunks or can you specify the exact amount of bandwidth you want a box capped at? Please excuse my ignorance of the datacenter thing.

    KingFish
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    I can specify exactly how much I want for a particular box.

    Sorry, no, I don't have any rackmount cases :(
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited March 2004
    So getting an account w/ EV1 Servers for like $100/mo that allows like 700GB/mo traffic wouldn't suffice? I don't know what the burst rate is, but I'm guessing 10Mbps. That wouldn't work?

    (Only online game I play is chess (go Yahoo! ;D )
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Yeah, the problem again is once you exceed your transfer cap. They don't tell you what the sustained transfer rate or cost is.

    700gb is fantastic for webhosting, but for gaming it's a different bag. You don't need 'transfer' -- you need 'bandwidth'.

    I dunno, ev1 servers is formerly rackshack, and the guy who runs that company seems like sort of a prick.

    I guess we could do a trial, I'll talk to my provider and see what it would actually cost. I'm pulling these dollar amounts out of my buttocks. :eek3:
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited March 2004
    are you getting a whole box for that or just the bandwidth? a server needs quite a bit of cpu power and wouldn't fare well on a shared box

    KingFish
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    No, it couldn't be on a shared box. It would have to be a dedicated server.

    I have a 10U rack at the datacenter. I have 5U accounted for.
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited March 2004
    Give whole new meaning to "dirty" money and wanting to "launder" money.
    primesuspect wrote:
    I'm pulling these dollar amounts out of my buttocks. :eek3:
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited March 2004
    a2jfreak wrote:
    Give whole new meaning to "dirty" money and wanting to "launder" money.

    lol
  • dak125dak125
    edited March 2004
    *enter geek talk*
    I've been running my clan for a little over a year, we've had a remote server for roughly 8 months from several different providers. Luckily we had one guy pay for a majority of it for awhile. But, as it stands now, every member who wants to admin the server pays $5 a month. We got a good deal from another clan who has a box at Ilan. So, I'd say we have roughly 12 guys per month, $5 per, and a website, there's usually cash for the next month. This is for MOHAA btw.
    *end geek talk*

    It's totally feasible for SM to have a server. I guess the biggest problem would have someone footing the bill. Also to have a guaranteed amount of people willing to put towards the server. I think it'd be a good idea, my school connection won't even allow me to check my Hotmail let alone play online games otherwise I might be interested. Nonetheless it's deffinetly feasible.
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited March 2004
    Curious, What game or games would you guys want to host?
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Counterstrike and BF1942 preferably. Halo is another possibility.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited March 2004
    I'm thinking Battlefield Vietnam in lieu of Battlefield 1942 since it has just come out and basically replaces that type of action. We could rotate counterstrike.

    KingFish
  • WorriedWorried STOCKPORT UK
    edited March 2004
    what about Call of Duty.all action and tried the new maps today great fun?
  • ClutchClutch North Carolina New
    edited March 2004
    Has everyone forgot about UT2k4? I like the CS idea myself. My counter strike server is ending April 1st so I need a good server to play on.
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