I've been working for an ISP on and off the last couple of years. He's offered to give me some bandwidth for a dedicated server. All I have to do is build a box and program it and he will tie it into his setup.
Question is, what should I build? Which OS should be on it, etc. I guess the requirements would be to run W@W Zombie, L4D, and perhaps UT04, my webhosting for the cabal and DC and my business pages.
I have a spare AM2 2.4 / 2gig ram and a P4 3.0 4 gigs ram. I don't think a server needs any great video or sound card since it doesn't need it... I guess a Sata hd and dvd would probably cover the hardware?
Linux or Windows? Also since running a box on top of another few dozen already there poses all those port and IP issues I've read about, so I'll need some help troubleshooting from home.
Bandwidth is one thing, is he giving you an IP or a shared IP? You will need to workout port issues with him and his firewall... i.e. when you need a new port can you set it up (I am guessing not).
Big things that matter with a server are bandwidth, CPU and Memory. Seems to me that Linux would be better at supporting all of the different servers, although it still seems that some game companies were slower to release their Linux server updates than their windows updates.
So the big question is what sort of bandwidth is he planning to give you. I would also be suspect of running this on a consumer grade CPU.
Atomm can help alot with this I would suspect, but I would foresee alot of work.
I'd think the P4 3.0 with 4GB of ram would cut it fine. I don't remember UT04 being such a hog when we ran it on our server. Steam games are fairly good once you get past the install. I can speak for W@W though. That could be a problem. Find out what they recommend for server specs. If it's past what you have, then it may be out.
FYI, some servers benefit from the Graphics Card and some don't. I think Counterstrike would run better if you had a GPU. It's been a while, but look into it if you run steam games. UT04 won't be a problem as far as GPU is concerned.
As for OS, I recommend you use what you are most familiar with. Running game servers on Linux is hard work. Trust me, I did it that way because I wanted to learn more about using Linux. Sure, I learned more, but I spent twice as much time managing the servers than I would if I was on Windows.
If you do run Windows, lock it down as much as possible. Use the Microsoft Security Baseline Analyzer against the system.
Thanks for the advice. I thought Linux would be at least free 🙂 I'll ask him if he has a corp version of 2003 I can install on it.
Worse come to worse, just to have webspace and a solid place to park my .com's would be good enough... however he said bandwidth varies daily but after 8pm to 5am I could probably run 4-8 players without overloading him.
I might just ask for a couple hundred gigs on one of his servers and just use it for web hosting. I have to decide what's worth having via a barter system ;p I'll be over there this afternoon and hash it out with him a bit more. I don't want to cause him any work though. Never saw anyone so tied to a bank of computers as this guy is. He did offer me a dual cpu P4 board for the build though, just have to buy 2 cpu's.
DocJon wrote:Snail-mail, and not Steam? Did you find a deal?
I think it's a good deal. Left4Dead is only $27.99 @ NewEgg with free shipping. I ordered it Saturday and it showed up today. Since it's a valve/source game, it will integrate itself right into Steam when you install it, so you can automatically download the game and any updates on a go-forward basis. 🤘
-=NC=-Larva wrote:I think it's a good deal. Left4Dead is only $27.99 @ NewEgg with free shipping. I ordered it Saturday and it showed up today. Since it's a valve/source game, it will integrate itself right into Steam when you install it, so you can automatically download the game and any updates on a go-forward basis. 🤘
Cool, thanks for the heads-up. I saw it at Wal-Mart for $29.99 today, but tax would also be included in that.
I met with him yesterday. There is room in his computer bank for one more box. However I think I'm just going to get webhosting from his server plus he said he would set me up a ftp acct. Nice guy, he even offered me some hardware to build it with and I could use his win2003 lic. We are going to revisit it in Jan when my .com's and current hosting expire.
He does have a full set of 255 IP's though but the speed is maxed at 1.5 T1 specs. It just seems too much hassle to mess with at the moment. Next week or so when he gets some time I'll get him to set up that ftp though 🙂 That would probably be the most handy contribution I can make to the cartel.
lexx wrote:I met with him yesterday. There is room in his computer bank for one more box. However I think I'm just going to get webhosting from his server plus he said he would set me up a ftp acct. Nice guy, he even offered me some hardware to build it with and I could use his win2003 lic. We are going to revisit it in Jan when my .com's and current hosting expire.
He does have a full set of 255 IP's though but the speed is maxed at 1.5 T1 specs. It just seems too much hassle to mess with at the moment. Next week or so when he gets some time I'll get him to set up that ftp though 🙂 That would probably be the most handy contribution I can make to the cartel.
lexx wrote:Next week or so when he gets some time I'll get him to set up that ftp though 🙂 That would probably be the most handy contribution I can make to the cartel.
A common FTP site for the cartel would be fantastic.
-=NC=- and |GRB| already have FTP sites, and I've already run into the problem of having to upload the same files to both sites. With my pathetic upload speed, the fewer times I have to upload a file the better. I've got some new game videos of [CGC] members in the works - it would be nice to have a single place to share those.
Plus, the guy who runs our FTP site has moved onto WOW - so I'm not certain how much longer he's going to continue to manage the FTP site for -=NC=-. It's not fair for us to expect him to continue to do so indefinitely.
If only someone we knew could provide this time of service without having to jump through all of those hoops........
I wonder......
Are you offering Atomm? 🙂
Hell if so I can save calling in a favor, or worse, discounting my next project there.
Guess I wasn't paying much attn. I didn't know you and NC both had public ftp's. I could of set up something on my hosting, but like Larva said, the upload speed is just deplorable. Took me 30 mins to upload phpBB3, so forget putting a game patch or demo on that miserable @#!@
I said that because I had offered to host the site for free previously. As for an FTP, I need a little info.
Larva, how many people total do you think would use this?
Also, how big are the movie files?
I'm not on unlimited bandwidth, but my monthly total is fairly large. Diskspace isn't a problem. I could probably set up 10GB fairly easily. I could establish a monthly cap that's a large chunk of what I am allotted each month. I'm thinking at least 100-200GB a month. That will protect me from major overage, yet still allow us to have a decent pipe.
We've got about a dozen guys who use the -=NC=- FTP site. It's practically unlimited in upload/download bandwidth. But like I said the problem is Strummer is busy as hell. I'd like to get more members and former members access to it, but it takes some time for him to get around to managing the accounts. Our FTP site is down right now because he is working on it.
It would be nice to have a read-only group, so that it's not such a big deal to grant access to members and friends for downloading movies and patches. Even better would be the option to access the files via hyperlinks in our websites for cartel members, but I know that can be dangerous as far as hogging up limited bandwidth.
The movie files are anywhere from a 50MB to 1GB. I stopped using AVIs and now use the 1080P WMA format which looks much better and takes up less space. Most movies will be about 200 - 300 MB.
FTP info would be for upload use only. All files would be linked from a webpage.
Lexx, I'll get an account set up for you. We would need to transfer all the files into the new site, then have Larva update DNS on the domain. I'll set up a website first, then we will do a separate FTP account from there.
Atomm wrote:FTP info would be for upload use only. All files would be linked from a webpage.
Lexx, I'll get an account set up for you. We would need to transfer all the files into the new site, then have Larva update DNS on the domain. I'll set up a website first, then we will do a separate FTP account from there.
Ok Atomm, I was just waiting for you and not being pushy 🙂 When your ready just shoot me an IM with the info and I'll upload the site.