Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : Game Servers : Dedicated Server for Gaming

[Spartanfrog]

Hi,

I am looking for a dedicated server for the purpose of running game servers. Of course I could look at GSP's and etc, but they are too expensive for the most part besides sales. A bunch of companies which I would like to look at, use Cogent as a main backbone. I have heard bad things when it comes to using Cogent for gaming. While I do not mind if it is a server worthy of professional gaming, I still need it playable. Anyone know if Cogent is usable? And can anyone recommend a good dedicated host. Much thanks.

[XFactorServers]

Location ? Specs ? Budget ?

[ghettoc401]

Originally Posted by Spartanfrog

Hi,

I am looking for a dedicated server for the purpose of running game servers. Of course I could look at GSP's and etc, but they are too expensive for the most part besides sales. A bunch of companies which I would like to look at, use Cogent as a main backbone. I have heard bad things when it comes to using Cogent for gaming. While I do not mind if it is a server worthy of professional gaming, I still need it playable. Anyone know if Cogent is usable? And can anyone recommend a good dedicated host. Much thanks.

What location? Also I agree with you that renting from a GSP is expensive, but its because they are resellers most of the time. You can purchase the equivalent hardware in the same location for less most of the time.

[mathewanson]

Location is the most important factor. Where are most of your users located?

[Spartanfrog]

I would take anywhere in the US but preferably Central.

[neXeon]

Check out the Offers forum, there's quite a few dedis there on capable connections.

[Hesser]

What's your budget and what kind of server specs and bandwidth are you looking for?

[XFactorServers]

What's your budget and what kind of specs you need ? As without that people are just going to suggest looking in the offer section.

[JohnJ]

Originally Posted by Spartanfrog

Hi,

I am looking for a dedicated server for the purpose of running game servers. Of course I could look at GSP's and etc, but they are too expensive for the most part besides sales. A bunch of companies which I would like to look at, use Cogent as a main backbone. I have heard bad things when it comes to using Cogent for gaming. While I do not mind if it is a server worthy of professional gaming, I still need it playable. Anyone know if Cogent is usable? And can anyone recommend a good dedicated host. Much thanks.

Dedicated servers from game server providers such as GameServers or MyIS is usually expensive (well, MyIS tends to be more flexible with your options, whereas GameServers offers only one configuration, AFAIK). You'll want to find a server at a location that will work well for your target player-base. Do you have a budget for the server?

[net]

Moved > Game Servers.

[Mike Johnson]

We've used Colo Crossing for our dedicated gaming server for about a year now without any complaints.

I've also used FDC denver for our stats and VoIP server for several months, they've been great.

[leeware]

As a provider and a consumer of carrier products:

(1) Cogent has saved me boat loads of money over the years. I still have some connections to other providers such as AT&T, VZ, SAVVIS and Qwest But those connections are for a different class of customers who don't mind paying mid-$$$ to $,$$$ for their products and services. But for other products and services I use them exclusively.

(2) There are a lot of people floating around the Internet that have a very poor and misinformed view of Cogent as a Carrier and what makes it worse, is that people go around spewing such nonsense without any concrete information to backup the assertions.

(3) Let me be clear, Cogents business model and downward pressure on bandwidth prices did not make them any friends in the industry. In fact, you will find no shortage of competitors willing to bad mouth them at the tip of a hat. There are a few people who can recite this issue or that issue from yesteryear regarding Cogent's services (I am talking about providers not consumers) but the bulk of those opinions fail to incorporate the shifting landscape of the Internet. If my memory serves me correctly when I first took full Internet routes for BGP there were only about 16K routes. Today there are well over 300K routes. In other words, every month there are more ways to get just about anywhere on the Internet than the day, month or year before. What that means for the end user is better point-to-point connectivity.

(4) The remaining opinions regarding Cogent's performance for this application vs that applications is not based on any hard numbers but rather, on peoples subjective and wrong-headed experiences. Case-in-point:

When Cogent made bandwidth prices cheaper, they effectively lowered the barrier to entry to all kinds of yahoos some of which were big on ambition but short on network management skills. This naturally led to a lot of oversold and poorly managed networks. Rightly or wrongly, these things became synonymous with Cogent as the provider. Furthermore, there is a sizable portion of consumers that can't seem to get their heads around the fact that Cogent can be used for more than (bulk bandwidth applications, i.e. backup, uncapped Bit torrent clients and other @*&%&!! traffic.) You could run those same applications on [insert your premium provider here] it just going to cost you more to do it.

Therefore, to ask if Cogent is usable is ridiculous as asking if a network switch be used as a networking device but I understand your point and the bottom line is you need to define what is usable for you and the people you plan to play with. Therefore, the most important factors will be:

(1) Round Trip Time between you / your players and the Game server (You need to determine what is acceptable) You can research this without making any purchases.

(2) How much you are willing to spend for acceptable performance.

Hope this helps.

[Mike Johnson]

what is this i dont even

[WRZHost[dot]com]

Softlayer's network is pretty fast and would run a game server perfectly.

[BrianFarrell]

Originally Posted by Annuit Cœptis

what is this i dont even

I believe leeware was answering the OPs question about Cogent, and trying to clear up any doubts he had about it.

@OP: There are plenty of GSPs with prices that are very reasonable and very competitive with a non-GSP dedicated provider. Also consider that when / if you need support, that GSP is going to be able to troubleshoot your issue a lot more efficiently because game servers are a second nature to them.