Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : Game Servers : CS:Source Server Hosting

[RyanHughes]

Hello everyone,

I will try to be as specific as possible. I am trying to host Counter-Strike: Source servers on a dedicated box. So far I have a dedicated E6600 box hosted by SteadFast networks in Chicago which is great (has 2GB of memory and runs Windows Server Web Edition 2003). I am looking for a new host in another location on the east coast, preferably New York, Virginia, or Atlanta (we really need New York). I am looking for the same specifications. The bandwidth needs to be decent to ensure low latencies. As far as price goes, we'd like to pay no more, preferably less than what we pay already for Steadfast (234.95/month I believe). If you had another hardware setup you'd recommend, I'd be more than happy to hear it. Thanks very much for your time and help.

Regards,
Ryan

[AvailNetworks]

it is going to be very difficult to hit those prices in NY but the other locations you should be able to pull off easily. Where are most of your clients going to be at with this particular machine?

[RyanHughes]

All over the United States, but mainly in the Central-Eastern region. We do indeed need to search for a New York City host. I have searched the offers section to no particular avail ( lol).

[AvailNetworks]

haha now you know how I came up with the name

see if www.defconservers.com has any servers available in NY area. Rich usually has something up his sleeve, plus the man knows so much about game servers you may want to marry him within a short time.

New york is a great spot and I use to have one back in the day with 1and1.com and believe it or not the network was great and gamers LOVED it, even the california players didn't cry about it (weird!). Tech support was horrific and the machines are not very upgradeable or powerful but if you are looking for a personal unit it may be a decent answer.

I ended up killing off that server and heading over to steadfast.net and haven't looked back now for 2 years.

[RyanHughes]

Thanks, I will look into them again.

[RyanHughes]

I am still looking, so other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[JordanJ]

Check out www.colocrossing.com, Jon and the guys over there are expects in tuning their network to run game servers!

[RyanHughes]

We are now a customer of ColoCrossing now. Jon seems very skilled at what he does, and I look forward to using his service.

Jordan, do you have any affiliation with FragNServers?

[x86brandon]

You might try the Dallas area too! With The Planet and Rackspace in Texas, I'd say Texas is becoming one of the better connected states.

[JonBiloh]

Go with Colo4Dallas in Dallas. Softlayer is also a good choice.

[AvailNetworks]

texas is a great spot for a game server unless you have european players. For north american clients everyone no matter what coast they are on always a get a good solid average ping so it works out great for tournaments and no one gets left behind.

Chicago is pretty much the same deal, some westcoasters get a little bit higher ping than they want but you do get the added benefit of satisfying europeans.

[RyanHughes]

Thank you very much for the help, everyone. AvailNetworks, I was told Texas had good bandwidth from Europe, no? Is this true?

[AvailNetworks]

Texas is O.K. for europe but not great. Most players get into the 130+ ping area and that is usually just above the annoying point.

Chicago however is around 100-110 from what I have found at steadfast and many euro players are very comfortable at that point.

[qwidjib0]

New York can be done at a decent price - it would be a mistake to expect an NYC server cheaper than Chicago though.. at least, of remotely comparable quality. Space, energy, and other cost of living expenses in New York City are much higher than in Chicago.