ok.. here's our situation


we're looking to setup a game server to host games such as COD4, BF2 etc... we are a small group (under 50 people) who just likes to be able to play different games online (we do monthly lan parties but we wish to play more often than that)

Right now we are playing on different game servers locally hosted..(just a simple PC sponsored by one of our friends at his place).. though it has good internet connection, and players from DIFFERENT ISP's lag like hell.. this is coz our packets travel outside of the country and on back to the other ISP's network etc etc..

When we play on servers from different countries we have lesser lags..


So we're now thinking of getting a server for our hobby...
preferably in asia (better latency)

Windows or Linux - We would think windows only coz our games and its servers are windows based.. and that if we were to manage it ourselves we can work w/ windows only .. we were would imagine we connect to the box via Remote Administration softwware and install stuffs on it like the PC was here w/ us.. yeah? (is that how it works?)


for our situation what do you guys recommend?

System specs? doesnt have to be much .. for 50 people playing simultaneously.. thats not much right?

100people would be uber already.. this is just for us and a few friends from all over..

we would also like to be able to run different game servers at the same time (some people playing COD4 and some others playing BF2).. is this possible on game servers?

Should we go for a dedicated box? regular webhosting w/ windows on it? or a real game server?

as you can see we dont know much about game server hosting stuffs, we just want to be able to frag the heck out of each other .hehe


Enlightenment, and recommendations much needed ...

Tea

What you're looking for is a dedicated server. As far as pricing and what not, you'll have to check out the offers forum to see who's offering what - especially in Asia.

With a dedicated server - you can run multiple servers at once, as with a server that you rent from a company, you cannot. You're going to need something halfway decent since yes, 50-100 people are a lot of connection to that box, and COD and BF2 are resource hogging games.

What I would recommend is at least a core2quad 9300 with 8GB of ram - but not sure what your budget is, or how much dedicated servers are in Asia.

EQHosting thanks much for the info and recommendations..

So t's a dedicated server that i need huh? i thought so... but them are quite expensive.. we as a small group founding the server are looking to shell out around 100 USD or less per month.. if that's a feasible figure..but if we dont plan to run game servers simultaneously..

@ ALL, anybody care to add?

$100 USD per month would suffice for a decent dedicated server to run game servers. You could run multiple ones without any issues.

Check FDCServers.net.

FDC? Thats gonna add over 100ms to connections already with Asia users...

EQHosting thanks much for the info and recommendations..

So t's a dedicated server that i need huh? i thought so... but them are quite expensive.. we as a small group founding the server are looking to shell out around 100 USD or less per month.. if that's a feasible figure..but if we dont plan to run game servers simultaneously..

@ ALL, anybody care to add?
Your looking at an average of 400-500 USD/m.

Hardware is not a problem in Asia, bandwidth is. And bandwidth is a primary factor for all gameservers.

We colocate servers in WebWerk's data-center in Mumbai, India. I can strongly recommend them :)

You should check out some of the authorized resellers of TCAdmin. Most of them have been around a long time and could provide you with everything needed.

http://tcadmin.com/dedicated.php

You should check out some of the authorized resellers of TCAdmin. Most of them have been around a long time and could provide you with everything needed.

http://tcadmin.com/dedicated.php

That list is very outdated and there isn't a host on that list that offers Asian servers.

The list maybe out dated but I'm sure a request on their forum will churn some results.

Hi Tea_J Where are you located - if your looking in Asia then whicherver country you are located - you will have a few choices. Eg. IF you are in Singapore India - Singapore would be best next would be India , HK etc. If you are located in Sri Lanka then your option is only US because Sri Lanka doesnt peer or connect via neighbouring countries. IF you are located in Dubai then UAE , Saudi and India are your best options because the optic fiber cable is the same carrying from Etisalat.

US for game servers when your located in Asia is anyway slow.
So the answer is dependent on - where are you and your friends located ?

You're forgetting the far South East/Pacific area of Asia.

We get terrible connectivity to India from here :)

Absolutely agree - thats the point - the choice for game server will really depend on where Tea_J and the team of players are located

@all

Thanks very much for the informative inputs guys..

So it's LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION then ey?

Well we're all from the Philippines.. i dunno where the ISP's here in the philippines get their lines from (i think taiwan)... but surely it's not internal coz when we host our own server even w/ a fast internet line from one of our local ISPs, it's really fast for everyone on the SAME ISP, but extremely lag for people on other ISP's.. so the data travels from the server's ISP out the country first before getting to network of the other ISP.. hence we needed a server outside the country .. i mean we've connected to game servers even in US and we all could play better than hosting locally..

So... anyway, do you guys know a good, customizable game or dedicated server for our situation?

Have you tried Austrila ? As that is fairly close to you but it's also expensive or try a USA location such as New York as it's far east.

Also what is your budget ? As you would probably want to look into a Dual Core box.

@all

Thanks very much for the informative inputs guys..

So it's LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION then ey?

Well we're all from the Philippines.. i dunno where the ISP's here in the philippines get their lines from (i think taiwan)... but surely it's not internal coz when we host our own server even w/ a fast internet line from one of our local ISPs, it's really fast for everyone on the SAME ISP, but extremely lag for people on other ISP's.. so the data travels from the server's ISP out the country first before getting to network of the other ISP.. hence we needed a server outside the country .. i mean we've connected to game servers even in US and we all could play better than hosting locally..

So... anyway, do you guys know a good, customizable game or dedicated server for our situation?

Really depends on the routes taken by each ISP some may be buying from Taiwan others from some other route. You should post some IP address or sites of the ISPs then someone can check whether their routes are optimized from 'A' particular country and you might be able to find out the closest and best for all .