Help me pick a dedicated server hosting plan for Tribe of Judah

CCGR said:
wouldn't getting a server through abbacomm be cheaper?
Click to expand...
It would, but Abba Communications is based on the west coast and the majority of Tribe of Judah members are spread across the US and Canada with a few active members in Europe. It's unfortunate, but it's highly likely that a west coast datacenter would deliver unsatisfactory pings for east coast players.

Abba Communications has provided fantastic service to the Christian Gamers Alliance. The dedicated server on which the forums, TeamSpeak server, and other services run is a rock solid machine and I would recommend Abba Comm to anyone in a heartbeat.

In short: The only reason we're not going with Abba Comm is location.
 
Tek7 said:
Okay, I just spent half an hour on the phone with Art of War Central. Given the list of servers we plan on running, the sales rep recommended the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz with 4GB RAM.

Based on a quick estimate, our target for additional monthly donations is approximately $150 USD.

A few key points of the conversation:
  • Minecraft is a RAM hog, requiring 1GB at a minimum. I'd be looking to Minecraft players to help cover the expense of additional RAM.
  • Running a Battlefield Bad Company 2 server on a dedicated box means forfeiting direct access to the box, which in turn means that running a BC2 server on the dedicated box is right out. A 24-slot BC2 server with Art of War would run an additional $23.76 a month. (We currently pay $19.99 for a 16-slot server.) In the case of canceled monthly donations, BC2 would be the first expense-saving cut.
  • The sales rep recommended Windows over Linux, which surprised me. What surprised me even more was that running Windows instead of Linux would only increase the monthly expense by $10.
  • We're clear to run a file redirect on the dedicated server so long as we're not transferring several hundred gigabytes of data in map downloads (which I don't think will be an issue). If we cancel our high-speed redirect with DefconServers and move it to the dedicated box, it may be worth taking the $10 we save and spending on it on an upgrade from a 10Mbit port to a 100Mbit port.
  • Windows boxes are managed by RDP. Linux boxes are managed by SSH and whatever tools we choose to install.
  • The sales rep wasn't very clear on whether Art of War allows customers to host adult content (i.e. pornography), so we'll need to read over the Terms of Service closely before choosing Art of War.
  • Art of War Central's parent company is called North American Game Technologies. I'll be researching the parent company further before choosing a dedicated server hosting provider.
I'd like to hear thoughts on Windows vs. Linux for the purpose of hosting game servers.
Click to expand...
Tek you know everything that's been said. Winders is going to mean less available servers on the same box due to the overhead of windows..not to mention the monthly reboots due3 to patch tuesday. Linux only needs to be rebooted for kernel updates.. just in terms of uptime alone Linux wins...

Tek7 said:
It would, but Abba Communications is based on the west coast and the majority of Tribe of Judah members are spread across the US and Canada with a few active members in Europe. It's unfortunate, but it's highly likely that a west coast datacenter would deliver unsatisfactory pings for east coast players.

Abba Communications has provided fantastic service to the Christian Gamers Alliance. The dedicated server on which the forums, TeamSpeak server, and other services run is a rock solid machine and I would recommend Abba Comm to anyone in a heartbeat.

In short: The only reason we're not going with Abba Comm is location.
Click to expand...
yes and TOJ is apparently willing to pay nearly triple the cost for 100ms of savings. I can run server out of my house in MD and folks don't have registration issues. Frankly, If you want to pay at least double for 100 ms(or less..abba has rocking connectivity) then go for it..:)

CCGR said:
wouldn't getting a server through abbacomm be cheaper?
Click to expand...

yes it would. See my previous posts above this one.

Tracing route to cgalliance.org [206.63.25.66]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms firewall.ecc.local [192.168.255.1]
2 26 ms 19 ms 17 ms 76.100.140.1
3 7 ms 8 ms 8 ms te-9-1-sr01.jefferson.md.bad.comcast.net [68.85
112.225]
4 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms ge-2-23-ur01.frederick.md.bad.comcast.net [68.8
.252.50]
5 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms po-75-ur02.shphrdstwn.wv.bad.comcast.net [68.85
67.105]
6 11 ms 7 ms 10 ms po-45-ur01.shphrdstwn.wv.bad.comcast.net [68.85
67.109]
7 10 ms 8 ms 8 ms po-75-ur01.martinsburg.wv.bad.comcast.net [68.8
.67.113]
8 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms po-45-ar01.manassascc.va.bad.comcast.net [68.85
67.117]
9 14 ms 13 ms 19 ms 69.139.174.2
10 14 ms 16 ms 15 ms be-90-ar03.capitolhghts.md.bad.comcast.net [68.
5.130.202]
11 16 ms 22 ms 17 ms pos-2-6-0-0-cr01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net [
8.86.90.37]
12 31 ms 56 ms 31 ms pos-1-8-0-0-cr01.atlanta.ga.ibone.comcast.net [
8.86.87.90]
13 82 ms 53 ms 51 ms pos-1-11-0-0-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net [
8.86.85.221]
14 88 ms 87 ms 87 ms pos-0-13-0-0-cr01.losangeles.ca.ibone.comcast.n
t [68.86.85.145]
15 94 ms 95 ms 97 ms pos-0-9-0-0-cr01.sacramento.ca.ibone.comcast.ne
[68.86.86.253]
16 109 ms 109 ms 109 ms pos-0-15-0-0-cr01.portland.or.ibone.comcast.net
[68.86.85.198]
17 111 ms 151 ms 116 ms cr1-spk-g3-0.bb.spectrumnet.us [208.76.184.26]
18 116 ms 111 ms 111 ms pos-0-1-0-0-pe01.seattle.wa.ibone.comcast.net [
8.86.85.38]
19 110 ms 111 ms 112 ms cr2-sea-a-t9-1.spectrumnet.us [75.149.228.6]
20 148 ms 118 ms 117 ms cr1-spk-g3-0.bb.spectrumnet.us [208.76.184.26]
21 118 ms 119 ms 118 ms ge-3-0-spk-cr3.cet.com [216.243.28.98]
22 117 ms 117 ms 118 ms ge-0-0-spk-cr2.cet.com [198.202.26.4]
23 117 ms 118 ms 119 ms br2.cet.com [206.63.80.12]
24 118 ms 118 ms 119 ms br1-gw1.abbacomm.net [198.202.26.90]
25 118 ms 129 ms 117 ms web1.cgalliance.org [206.63.25.66]

Trace complete.

that's going cross country..maryland to seattle with comcast's screwing routing(lots of hops running around in dc before transiting the US). YOu'll see maybe 50-70ms as compared to 110 ish.

YMMV

NOw abbas machine are usually p-4 based BUT he's always buying machines. I would check with abba and see what he has available for what price. If he's not cheaper for the same or older hardware then yeah it may be worth it...however if he's significantly cheaper with equivalent hardware(or jsut a bit behind) then it may not be.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bottom line: If the average gamer has the choice between two servers and one has ping 100ms higher than the other, the gamer will choose the lower ping server. You may be able to convince a few people to choose a 150ms ping server over a 50ms server if their friends are playing there, but you can not reasonably expect to draw in new members or server regulars at the same rate if most potential players' pings are over 100.

It's unfortunate, but ping is still the primary consideration for many gamers when selecting game servers. To ignore that would be to disregard the will of the members who have donated.

Now if I was shopping dedicated servers for an exclusively west coast clan, then Abba Comm would be at the top of my list.

And if anyone is looking for a dedicated server to host a web site, forums, a TeamSpeak, and other less ping-intensive resources, I would and I do strongly recommend Abba Comm. They've provided terrific service for years and the machine which runs the CGA forums is rock solid.
Keero said:
Edit post button, it's there for a reason. @_@
Click to expand...
And when users don't take advantage of it, there's always the Merge Posts button. :)
 
it's not all ping. I've successfully run GFC cs servers out of my house multiple times. Kept it full or nearly so..even with folks coming in from germany..<G> Ping isn't everything..:)
 
To certain gamers, like myself, it is everything. The sole reason I don't play UT3 is because the ping is hovering around 160~180, and that's with a 16mbps line from school. Anything past 145 is unplayable and frustrating. I would rather have a solid connection (around 90~ ping) than a lagfest on a solid system.

/0.02 cents and a free nickel
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top