Hi all, Wasn''t too sure where to post this...It doeas have to do with the business side of gaming though.... I would like to pose a question concerning setting up a network for online gaming. To be more specific, a dedicated server for other players to host games and their own dedicated servers, similar to Tribes, or Mechwarrior 4. What I would like to know is what I would need in terms of hardware, software, what type of connection, average traffic maximum, the bandwith I should be looking at as a minimum, and what I might expect as a cost (particularly the monthly cost of a connection service dependent on the bandwith). I''m hoping that, at least for now, we won''t need one of those "warp core" system that need to be in their own room at a constant temperature of 30 degrees. If anyone has answers or is knowledgable in this area, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance

Spec''s ?

Hmmm you''d probably want atleast a P3 or Athlon, 256 RAM (unless its ddr then 128 should be fine) and atleast a 1.5mbps connection.

Other then that you don''t really need anything except some remote administration software so that people get set up/modify there game servers.

Depending on what Game Servers you are actually running depends on your requirements so the above is a rough estimation. For example if your running a MUD then no problems. If your running a FPS with 16 people usually on then you''ll probably want a fast connection, faster cpu, faster ram etc etc

Thanks for the info

I was figuring on a PIII 700, 512MB RAM and so on, since it will be a FPS or sorts.

Thanks again :D

I am actually in the progress of setting up a service like this. I have done a bit of research into this, and the most popular game played online is half-life and its mods. To run a half-life server you need a server with half-life installed, and a spec of about 700mhz, 256mb and only 1Gb hd. A server with a spec of this will be able to run 3 games (each game holding 16ppl). The bandwidth for this server would have to be large, as each game would requre 1mb connection.

Basically if u want to use one machine running one game, 1mb shoukd be plenty, but if you want to run 3 games on one server you will need about 3mb connection. This is for EACH machine, so if you have 4 servers in a network, running 3 games each, 12mb connection will be required.

Rather than buying the connection and server yourself (Server £2000 and 100mb connection £100,000 a year), you would be better hiring a server, you can get hired servers from about £300, but make sure they are DEDICATED servers. This means that the machine is used by you only, and not shared by lots of ppl, as this will consume a lot of processing time.

Hope u understand what i am rabbeting about.

G Coates
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