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  1. #1

    DDoS and Game servers

    Nowadays DDoS is a really common issue, especially for gaming servers. I'm writing this thread to discuss how unfair it is to start a new server.

    I've been hosting some game servers since around 2010 and in 2012/2013 it became almost impossible to host one having low budget. I was frustrated to hear that my servers keep getting attacked not by serious advanced hackers, but mostly by 12-18 year olds. How do I know that? Well, some of them have tried to blackmail me by asking for a payment for them to stop. Obviously after all the downtime the player count has significantly dropped and I just simply had to shutdown the server.

    As everyone would do, I was looking for a solution to stop it. All I could find was overpriced hosts and some "scripts" which are said not to be effective. Regardless hosting, I decided to find out why DDoS is so easily done by any common computer user. After some time I've found it and appearantly there are cheap "DDoS services" which allow you to attack any desired IP address simply from your browser. Attacks are usually 300mb-1gb strong, depending on the services.

    DDoS tool - 5$
    Protected host - 300$

    The amount of people having access to those tools are inreasing, yet I don't see DDoS protection getting more advanced and cheaper. It's not that much of a problem for big servers that make enough money for it, however starting a new community is a huge waste of money which might not pay back for over a year, depending on how successful the game server is.

    If you own a gaming server let me know how you go around these issues.

  2. #2
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    There is some cheaper DDoS protection popping up. I remember seeing one in the "Other hosting market" the other day (izerv) for around $10 - Only time will tell if they're good, but most of the other protection services are around $100 which I don't think is too much if you rent/purchase a large server which can handle many clients.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by bhavicp View Post
    There is some cheaper DDoS protection popping up. I remember seeing one in the "Other hosting market" the other day (izerv) for around $10 - Only time will tell if they're good, but most of the other protection services are around $100 which I don't think is too much if you rent/purchase a large server which can handle many clients.
    Too cheap ddos protection services mean :

    1) Reselling other company protection (Reduces the quality and in the end, they will offer you a high risk compared to directly acquiring it from the company they are reselling from).

    OR

    2) Cheap ddos mitigation technology (Won't make the service reliable, works sometimes, cause problems other times).

    OR

    3) Both of 1) and 2) together.

    And so on.

    DDoS Mitigation costs alot, requires skilled workers/engineers, which are also costly and way other factors that won't make it possible to make this stuff cheap.

    So, you must check whether your business 'can' or 'not' pay for such protection, because in case it is a 'must' and it 'doesn't worth expending these resources' the best would be closing this business and thinking in something else...

    This is a common case for game servers !

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by MAXZEUS View Post
    Too cheap ddos protection services mean :

    1) Reselling other company protection (Reduces the quality and in the end, they will offer you a high risk compared to directly acquiring it from the company they are reselling from).

    OR

    2) Cheap ddos mitigation technology (Won't make the service reliable, works sometimes, cause problems other times).

    OR

    3) Both of 1) and 2) together.

    And so on.

    DDoS Mitigation costs alot, requires skilled workers/engineers, which are also costly and way other factors that won't make it possible to make this stuff cheap.

    So, you must check whether your business 'can' or 'not' pay for such protection, because in case it is a 'must' and it 'doesn't worth expending these resources' the best would be closing this business and thinking in something else...

    This is a common case for game servers !
    Unless your getting advanced HTTP/Layer 7 attacks, almost all providers will have automated migration for TCP/UDP, so there isn't really much more of a risk going with a reseller apart from the fact that they *may* disappear overnight if they're new in the business. But in all cases I would recommend having a backup provider for protection.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by bhavicp View Post
    Unless your getting advanced HTTP/Layer 7 attacks, almost all providers will have automated migration for TCP/UDP, so there isn't really much more of a risk going with a reseller apart from the fact that they *may* disappear overnight if they're new in the business. But in all cases I would recommend having a backup provider for protection.
    With resellers, the pro is that they can often offer a value add and are generally much cheaper. The con is that much of the mitigation work is not done by them at all, and they're relaying your problems to the provider who is actually operating the mitigation systems.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    I have this same issue, I got hit by 1gbps DDoS attack.

    DDoS filtering costs too much money. Its very hard to deal with.

    I would look for a provider that does have atleast some network level ddos protection and willing to do ACL's for you.

  7. #7
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    DDoS has become a big issue for game server owners due to booters that are cheap and widely available to skids. I would recommend moving to a ddos protected bare metal server, rather than ordering a ddos protected reverse proxy. That would keep latency low and save your players' nerves.

  8. #8
    Yup right dear. I am also facing ddos attack on my site.

  9. #9
    If you have a higher bandwidth than the attacker you can saturate the attack. And with network analysis tools you can block ip's and detect attacks/prevent them. You can get 1GBPS Ports for around 100-200$. Also have you looked into pFsense?

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by mchub View Post
    If you have a higher bandwidth than the attacker you can saturate the attack. And with network analysis tools you can block ip's and detect attacks/prevent them. You can get 1GBPS Ports for around 100-200$. Also have you looked into pFsense?
    Common attack these days are 2 to 4Gbits, and occasionally upwards to 8Gbits++. 1Gbits ports are good to have, but not quite enough to tank it all. It is a sad part of hosting :/
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by NE-Andy View Post
    Common attack these days are 2 to 4Gbits, and occasionally upwards to 8Gbits++. 1Gbits ports are good to have, but not quite enough to tank it all. It is a sad part of hosting :/
    +1 Agreed
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  12. #12
    why do kids always ddosing game servers

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