The Situation About Roob's Server

Roobubba · June 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">To ease the confusion</div> At present, the server will be going down mid July. This is because I can't find an affordable broadband connection to keep running the server from my own home (when we move from this phat uni connection), and I also can't find a surrogate home for the server within the university.

As a result, this leaves me with 4 options:

1) Find people willing to contribute money for me to get a bigger ADSL/SDSL connection (ie 512Kbps upload or faster) so that I can run the server.

2) Find people willing to contribute to renting a server.

3) Find a package that I could afford that would mean I can continue running the server with no extra funding (if anyone works for an ISP and wants to negotiate with me, I'm quite flexible about this one!!)

4) Server goes down, never to return <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>.

Clearly any of 1-3 would be OK, and 4 would not.
1 and 3 have their advantages, in that I can control exactly what's on the box, and don't have to pay any more for renting the hardware (I have all the hardware I need for now).
2 has the advantage of multiple people having access and responsibilty though that's no advantage over 1 or 3...)
4 clearly has no advantages (apart from freeing up a computer for me for when visitors come round and can't bring their own...)

If you wish to comment on this, you can use this thread, or PM/email/icq/msn me (below) and we can discuss the situation.

I really don't want to lose this server, and especially with CoFR going down, I'd love to keep this alive for the UK NS community.

Roo

FireStorm · June 2003

omg too bad <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>

good luck to find a good solution, I hope you'll manage to keep the server alive...

eaglec · June 2003

Bugger!

So you'll be in the same sticky stuff that I am <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>

Servers/bandwidth are too damn expensive in the UK.

Asylum-Skitzo · June 2003

MY suggestion is try contacting iCafes, they may be interested in hosting your server.

Jabba_The_Hunt · June 2003

Ah shame dude u got a good server, when u get out of uni and are earning loads set it up again <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

voogru · June 2003

How much are you willing to spend on a server? My current host charges $150 a month, for a whole box.

Im on a single P4 2.4Ghz with 512MB ram. So far I been pretty happy with them.

eaglec · June 2003

Roob's got the same problem I have - we live in the UK. I may have found a cheap[ish] deal for me and Roob and a few others to set up but if anyone has any hints on how to save cash - or make some of it back I'd be willing to hear.

So far the best offer I've found seems to be 1mbit dedicated connection, unmetered with a 2.4ghz P4 for £100 (approx). Probably plus VAT.

It seems pretty good but I've yet to check all the details and I suspect it will be UK only accessible rather than true internet :/

DarkFrost · June 2003

please tell me thats 1mbit upstream or a 10mb typo thingy <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

eaglec · June 2003

yes 1mb upstream, 1mb downstream. I think that equates to a maximum transfer of about 320mb / month. Oh, and that one was UK only - apparently true internet would be 10x more <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>

DarkFrost · June 2003

Ive said it before and ill say it again, lets start a faster for cheaper internet campaign!!!

If enough people do it, with labour being "the peoples party" they have to listen... right?

TBH the only way to get it to work would be to boycot the internet, unless they give use faster for cheaper, now i dont think i could do that :S

eaglec · June 2003

Seeing as most users consider the current ntl offerings to be fast I dont think you'd get much luck. Besides the gov's IT policies so far have done little to convince me that chips and bytes mean anything more than Casino's and snack food for the labour party :/

Boycotting the internet would be about as effective as the 'boycott the pumps' campaign that got spammed round the internet a little while back. Feel free to try it though - well see you when you give up <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

Roobubba · June 2003

though on this connection I could probably flood half of the Government's bandwidth. That'd get their attention!

An alternative would be to subsidise my own internet connection, enabling me to get a faster upstream... Clearly then the server would be part subsidised by those regulars who contribute. I'll look into this.

Roo

eaglec · June 2003

OK, Roo - hope it's alright but I've added a request for donation to my website to assist in the running costs/setup costs of a replacement server. Assuming you're alright with this you could put a message in the consgreet and the drop down message <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

btw - I haven't tested it yet but if some one could just click the button and donate a few hundred quid to make sure it works that would be great <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

<a href='http://www.muppetking.com' target='_blank'>http://www.muppetking.com</a>

Roobubba · June 2003

that's great will update server consgreet and rept message

eaglec · June 2003

Do you think MonsE would mention the plea on readyroom? You haven't given us much time Roo!

oops! I bumped the post! Sorry.

Aminal · June 2003

doublepost

Aminal · June 2003

I've asked around some mates that work for ISP's and I can't find anyone I know who'll take a popular games server on thier work network because the traffic would get noticed too quick.

I'm more than willing to contribute a fixed amount to get the thing up and running elsewhere and contribute towards monthly running costs for as long as the machine is as well admined and populated as it has been. I'd be happy to pay about £20-£25 a month towards hosting the thing (possibly more if I can get a on when I want <img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>)

gimme an idea of how much you need for the setup of a new box somewhere on a dedicated connection (i think SDSL will just be slooow)

Roobubba · June 2003

ok guys I need a utility for win2k that will allow me to log all data traffic from one program over a set period of time... any help?

Roo

FireStorm · June 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Roobubba @ Jun 19 2003, 12:16 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> ok guys I need a utility for win2k that will allow me to log all data traffic from one program over a set period of time... any help?

Roo  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
You need a sniffer... I know ethereal but it logs the traffic from every program... But it has filters.

availiable at sourceforge.

verbose · June 2003

You just want the amount of data pushed, right? How about a firewall program with a "count" style rule to match your NS server's traffic (match the source port number)? I know how I'd do this under FreeBSD...windows guys, suggestions?

MonsieurEvil · June 2003

Well if you only care about total data, why not just use perfmon? Comes with 2000 (and NT, XP, etc.). But if he cares about a particular port, you'd need to sniff.

Vadakill · June 2003

You might want to try NICMeter which is free, it's found here: <a href='http://www.nicmeter.com/' target='_blank'>http://www.nicmeter.com/</a>
Also a similar product called DUMeter is very good, it's almost the same exact thing as nicmeter but is costs money. It's found here <a href='http://www.dumeter.com/' target='_blank'>http://www.dumeter.com/</a>

Both of these programs have daily, weekly, monthly logging of bandwidth usage on Windows Machines.

Roobubba · June 2003

Yeah I have to sniff, because I have 2 other machines behind the server, so it's ports 27016 and 27005 all the way...

Thanks for all your help guys, still a long way to go but looks like we might be able to keep the server up (with some more monthly donations!)

Roob

SwampRat · June 2003

do you think there would be any truck in asking colleges proper to host it? i'm sure that one would let u stick it in a room somewhere for a much smaller fee than you could rent a server for.

or what about talking to the OUcomputergamingsociety? <a href='http://users.ox.ac.uk/~gaming/' target='_blank'>OUCGS</a> about them hosting it, they already have at least one server sat somewhere (called lucy i think), if u gave them the box u use currently, they could probably plug it in and make sure that its ok.

just a thought or two <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

Roobubba · June 2003

lol I didn't even know about OUCGS, I've e-mailed them and see what they can do.

I'm clutching at straws now <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>

I will ask my college, but I don't want to ask until it's a bit closer the time (if they decide I'm not allowed to run the server once I announce it to them, they could easily stop me from doing so, then we lose the server NOW :/)

Thanks Swampy

Roo

ashw · June 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (eaglec @ Jun 16 2003, 05:16 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Roob's got the same problem I have - we live in the UK. I may have found a cheap[ish] deal for me and Roob and a few others to set up but if anyone has any hints on how to save cash - or make some of it back I'd be willing to hear.

So far the best offer I've found seems to be 1mbit dedicated connection, unmetered with a 2.4ghz P4 for £100 (approx). Probably plus VAT.

It seems pretty good but I've yet to check all the details and I suspect it will be UK only accessible rather than true internet :/  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
url?

Roobubba · June 2003

There is no chance that I can keep the server operating within the university.

This means an outside option. I am trying my hardest to find a deal that will work, but things are looking tight for money. We still need donors!

Thanks again to all those who have already supported us, believe me we are doing everything we can here.

Roo

mongo2 · June 2003

My host is charging me $94/mo for 18 players. Everyone in the US gets < 100 pings even full except dialup, they get 200. It includes a great web host package, email and stats too. Same host that {DEAD}Scott uses, BFGservers.com. Noting but good things to say about them.

eaglec · June 2003

That's lovely and while I thank you for bumping the topic we all know you can get cheap servers in the US, in the UK though it's a different story.

If we get some more donations we have a solution though for a 1st class server, cmon people "Save Roobs"

Roobubba · June 2003

To show you what we're capable of using an athlon 1.4 , I've tweaked the server and have it running optimally (I believe). Further testing will progress tomorrow night, but it should be pretty quick and reliable.

If we can do this with 16 slots on that spec machine, imagine what we can do with a really decent system (which is what your money will be going to).

Check sig for server details - go and try it out!

Roo

LoveDaddy · June 2003

good luck with it all, ill need to scrape my coffers to see if i can donate from my minimum wage <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>

The Situation About Roob's Server

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