Renting NS2 Servers

chrisinajarchrisinajar Join Date: 2010-02-03 Member: 70415Members
in NS2 General Discussion
<div class="IPBDescription">Is there any interest?</div>I'm one of those techno savvy nerds, and I happen to be obsessed with NS... If I were to develop a little interface for people to buy/manage NS2 dedicated servers, would there be much interest? It wouldn't be as cheap as the "big guys", they're cheap due to their volume... An extremely rough estimation would be something along the lines of like $30/month for a 16 a slot server, I have to do a lot of benchmarking before I can commit to any solid numbers though... This probably wouldn't be available for another month or two, there's a lot of work to be done to make it happen, but if there's a lot of interest (people actually willing to pay) then this could be really cool. I'd keep the profit margins as small as I can bare, and instead put the money back into it so that I can support more servers / lower prices... Think like, cooperatively owned server hosting...

Feedback?



(As a side note, if a Linux dedicated server came out I could pound out a secure management interface with purchasing and everything in a long weekend... Windows is an awful server platform)
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Comments

  • GanJaBFDGanJaBFD Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 73031Members
    With it's current bandwidth usage there is no way you are running 16 players at 30$/month.
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  • 5igma5igma Join Date: 2007-10-19 Member: 62676Members
    I would totally be willing to join you with this, the only problem right now is that i dont have any window boxes, I only have linux boxes i can host servers on, so until then i wont be of much help. Hopefully they release linux files soon, and also remove the need of having steam running to be able to run the game server.
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  • chrisinajarchrisinajar Join Date: 2010-02-03 Member: 70415Members
    It's pretty easy to get a 100mbit u/d with unlimited (or insane limits) usage a month. That's about 5000 times faster than most home internet connection's up cap (which is the issue you see when you start a listen server, not the down)... As stated, there is a lot of benching to be done to get a solid number, just looking for interest...

    I should be able to wireshark it and figure out the actual bandwidth usage statistics, honestly I'm much more worried about CPU usage though. Netcode is pretty easy to get some serious optimizations in there (I have to do it all the time at work! Qt's networking API's make me want to die, and SCTP for the effing win)
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  • chrisinajarchrisinajar Join Date: 2010-02-03 Member: 70415Members
    edited July 2010
    <!--quoteo(post=1786722:date=Jul 27 2010, 03:43 PM:name=5igma)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (5igma @ Jul 27 2010, 03:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786722"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I would totally be willing to join you with this, the only problem right now is that i dont have any window boxes, I only have linux boxes i can host servers on, so until then i wont be of much help. Hopefully they release linux files soon, and also remove the need of having steam running to be able to run the game server.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Yeah, I got a hundred linux servers too :P... Don't worry about that though, I'll take care of the actual servers. I just need support and people who are willing to go in on the costs... Consider me the technical lead on this adventure.

    There are a lot of annoyances with setting this up, namely the upfront costs... I spent most of last night and a great deal of today researching into this, figuring out numbers and stuff...

    I'll try to get some hard numbers by the end of this week of how much the servers would likely cost...
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  • Blue21Blue21 Join Date: 2009-06-29 Member: 67970Members
    edited July 2010
    * Intel Xeon X3350 processor (four 2.66ghz cores)
    * 8 GB DDR-1066 memory
    * 250 GB, 7200 RPM SATA hard drive
    * 2000 GB of premium bandwidth
    * Able to host around 100-200 connected players at once
    * Unlimited IP addresses

    $180/m from NFO You could probably run four 16 man servers on that would be my guess. ~ 45/m and it would only get cheaper as the team optimizes server code.
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  • msleepermsleeper Join Date: 2009-10-13 Member: 69034Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1786730:date=Jul 27 2010, 04:46 PM:name=chrisinajar)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (chrisinajar @ Jul 27 2010, 04:46 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786730"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It's pretty easy to get a 100mbit u/d with unlimited (or insane limits) usage a month.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    You would be surprised how fast game servers can eat up bandwidth if they are even remotely popular. For example, I setup 25 Alien Swarm servers on the day of the release, and between now and then (a week or so) the servers have used over 300GB of transfer and ~7.8mbit 95th%. I'm expecting to do like 10,000 GB of transfer for the month and about 7.5mbit 95th% (which is what my plan is based on, thank god).

    Go ask your ISP how much 10,000GB of transfer would be a month. There's no such thing as unlimited usage. They will cap you or ###### you in one way or another.
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  • badbybirthbadbybirth Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71312Members
    I'm also one of those tech savy nerds and me and a few mates are allready setting up a small business to host some servers.
    we got a i7 920 12Gb Ram and ~3 TB store
    Server is located in germany for 69 euro 's a month.

    Currently i'm writing a java daemon to monitor the servers to keep em up, launch em, shut em down, updates, ...
    Im also writing a controll pannel to do alot of things with alot of servers.
    Were planning to host NS2 amongst many other things (mainly HL/source engine) but anything linux will do eventualy.

    if u want u can come and play with us..
    i suggest u mail me if interested.
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