[dildoughy]

I have six 12- and 24- man TF2 servers running through Nfo right now, and although I'm not unhappy with them at all, I'm starting to feel like there must be a cheaper (possibly home-grown) alternative now that I know my way around server maintenance, fastdl mirroring, mysql, etc.

Everything I know about those things was learned piecemeal only because of these servers. I have absolutely no IT or coding background. What are your thoughts on leaving behind big-name full-service game server hosts and what kind of help could you give me?

Or even just anecdotes, just looking for thoughts from experienced community members.

[Maxximou5]

There's a lot...

1. How much you are spending for all your services in total?
2. What's the absolute minimum amount of slots and tickrate you want?
3. Can you handle doing command line installation (Debian, CentOS, etc)?

At this point in time, you're really paying the big name services for their support, knowledge, and setup. If you are willing to learn, have a headache, and bite the bullet, you will save a lot of money in the end. It comes with a lot of freedom as well.

[Potato Uno]

I can support what Maxximous says. I run my server at my house, which means (forget that I have to pay full price for the hardware) I have to set absolutely everything myself. At the same time, it also comes with no restrictions either, and I have a ton of freedom on what I want to run on my machine (only limitations are available hardware resources and bandwidth). I can run server-side programs and scripts that would get me banned or otherwise would not be able to run if I was using a VPS or GSP.

Coding knowledge (sourcepawn and/or C/C++/Java/Python) is strongly recommended and you need to be willing to deal with problems on your own. Otherwise, you will not get anywhere. If you are not comfortable with being on your own, then stick to what you have currently. It might be expensive, but it might be worth the money compared to the frustration and headaches you would have to deal with otherwise.

You don't need to necessarily run a server at your house (not recommended if you have so many players connecting anyway... I only have a max of 12 at any time), but you can run it at a generic hosting service that is cheaper but has a lot less things set up for you already and perhaps less or sub-par customer support. Regardless of what, nothing will replace hardware requirements, so make sure your servers are not suffocating on limited hardware.

It is a risk-reward scenario. Knowledge is money. You can save more money if you know more about management (and have the time to manage your servers). If you are clueless and/or don't have time to do the work, then you are better off paying more money and have your host handle everything for you. Like Maxx put it so well, "you're paying for their support, knowledge, and setup". (And to add to that, you're also paying for their years of experience in these kind of things.)

Whatever it is, don't be hasty in any decisions to change your server setup. You might regret it if you don't think it through and/or don't do your homework properly. If in doubt, stick to what you currently have and be happy with it.

[DrFallen]

I don't think there is much more to add that the other two have already covered but I'd highlight the fact that the difference between GS Providers and starting on your own is huge it's not only downloading the server configuring plugins you will also need to manage firewall, install the OS (If using a Virtual Server or Dedicated) and maintaining the various security updates involved.

Whilst I don't agree with the pricing structure for game servers in particular it is important to understand the difference as Potato Uno mentioned if your current setup works I wouldn't look at changing it unless it's more of a case of affordability it's pretty hard to regain an audience after IP changes.

Is a particular area of hosting you want to know about?

[friagram]

Colocate, rent a dedicated, or get a bear metal vds. Hosting from home will always be inferior to data centers, as you have no control over outages, hops/speed, rate limits, and floods.

[dildoughy]

Originally Posted by Maxximou5 There's a lot... How much you are spending for all your services in total? What's the absolute minimum amount of slots and tickrate you want? Can you handle doing command line installation (Debian, CentOS, etc)? At this point in time, you're really paying the big name services for their support, knowledge, and setup. If you are willing to learn, have a headache, and bite the bullet, you will save a lot of money in the end. It comes with a lot of freedom as well.

I'm learning Ubunbtu 16.something LTS very quickly, putty seems easy to me. I'm REALLY no expert but I love love love tinkering with this stuff to the point I'm literally considering going back to school to maybe study this stuff (that's a far cry).

It comes out to just over $1/player slot/month but I have various bundled packages. In short, not cheap, but it's within my personal budget.

I have a new topic up logging the beginning of my server start-to-finish, I'll put it in the top comment. So far I feel ok about not having NFO's 24/7 customer support (I am not a shill but those guys literally answer any dumb question I have within 20 minutes at any time of the day, and only 1-2x have those answers been kind of formulaic).

Lemme read rest of topic. Thanks guys

[dildoughy]

Originally Posted by friagram Colocate, rent a dedicated, or get a bear metal vds. Hosting from home will always be inferior to data centers, as you have no control over outages, hops/speed, rate limits, and floods.

I gathered vps/vds while technically having alternate meanings are used interchangeably...but what's the deal with "bare metal"? Seen the phrase only once, I assume it just means literally an empty box on some rack somewhere? NOT ready for that yet, haha.

My friend's giving me his old tower and we're gonna mess around with setting up a smaller server out of my home.

[dildoughy]

Originally Posted by DrFallen I don't think there is much more to add that the other two have already covered but I'd highlight the fact that the difference between GS Providers and starting on your own is huge it's not only downloading the server configuring plugins you will also need to manage firewall, install the OS (If using a Virtual Server or Dedicated) and maintaining the various security updates involved. Whilst I don't agree with the pricing structure for game servers in particular it is important to understand the difference as Potato Uno mentioned if your current setup works I wouldn't look at changing it unless it's more of a case of affordability it's pretty hard to regain an audience after IP changes. Is a particular area of hosting you want to know about?

I'm not a commercial gal at all but lately I've been making a huge effort to unify everything under a memorable short website--so any IP changes are reflected there, plus permanent named IPs (DNS?)...but you're right, customer retention is difficult.

I have a ton of questions haha but right now I'm gonna "close" this topic and move it onto my new log. Thanks a LOT for the thoughtful comments.

[dildoughy]

Oh and I guess the #*&(39!(*#(!# GSLT tokens will help keep you in people's favorites.

Anyway here's the link to my start-to-finish server setup. The only response I've gotten so far is mild snark so maybe this will or won't prove of interest to others, aka watching an ultimate hopeless mess wade her way through some finicky processes....

cheers
-dad