Hey Facepunch.
Lately, I've wanted to try and make my own home-controlled source dedicated server for the [url=http://www.bgmod.com/] Battlegrounds 2[/url] source mod.
I have my primary gaming computer, but I've also got an older Windows XP machine, which I don't use anymore. I were wondering if I could use that to host a decent 32-player server or so.
Though, I'm not sure what you even need to hardware-wise, to run such a server. I'm not too sure how such servers even work - does the PC need to be powerful?
The specs are:
- CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 2.08 GHz
- 80 GB of free space
- 512 MB RAM (I can possibly add another 1 GB if it's needed)
- I've got a an upload speed of 2.00 Mbps
I was imagening I could somehow control my server-PC, from my primary one through a program of some sort.
I don't want to invest in online-hosts, I just wanted to see if I could perhaps fiddle with a home-controlled server. Or maybe even Minecraft with a few of my buds'.
***EDIT***
The old peice of shit couldn't even hook up to the internet, and it was missing drivers, couldn't be bothered.
Instead, I used a little money to buy another PC much stronger, for only 143.352 USD.
The specs are:
- CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Processor
- 160GB free space
- 2 RAM
This should be able to steadily run a 32-man source dedicated server for the [url=http://www.bgmod.com/]Battlegrounds 2[/url] mod, right?
The CPU is fine, Internet fine and 80GB is perfect. The only worry here would be the RAM, My server uses a average of 1GB when I have around 10-15 players. You might want to upgrade to 2GB if your looking at 32 slots, Or decrease your slots. Also for the controlling, Check out TeamViewer. Teamviewer allows you to control the computer from any where in the world with just a username and password.
That CPU is way too underpowered for a 32 man source powered game imo. As the above poster has mentioned, 512MB of RAM isn't suffice.
[QUOTE=B!N4RY;35388221]That CPU is way too underpowered for a 32 man source powered game imo. As the above poster has mentioned, 512MB of RAM isn't suffice.[/QUOTE]
How stronger would you suggest the CPU should be?
A CPU from the mainstream dual core era or newer, such as Athlon X2 or Core 2 Duo
I'll see if I can get it up and running - thanks for assistance!
500Mhz For every 10 players. That's what Garry suggests for Source Games.
[QUOTE=12voltsdc;35396020]500Mhz For every 10 players. That's what Garry suggests for Source Games.[/QUOTE]
Yah 500MHz on a Pentium 4 core is very different from 500MHz on a Sandy Bridge core. You can't just take a megahertz measurement and see what your CPU is capable of. The OP really needs a more modern CPU and more RAM(unless he adds the 1GB) to do something like a 32 player source server.
Hey guys, the old PC turned out to be quite the trash, so I bought this PC for 143 USD - good deal?
- CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Processor
- 160GB free space
- 2 RAM
Now, this should be able to handle a 32-player source dedicated server, right?
Possibly.
The main factor here will probably be your internet speed.
[QUOTE=Chubbs;35413653]Possibly.
The main factor here will probably be your internet speed.[/QUOTE]
Wouldn't 2.00 Mbps be good enough?
err 2Mb/s is kinda low, 2MB would be awesome
try it with 10 players and see how it goes
That's 250KB/s average. which should suffice for quite a lot of players. From the looks of your ping you're on fiber as well which is great for hosting a server.
I'd really say the only way you'll know for sure is if you try it. If this is your home connection you're planning to host on, then you may get some lag issues when browsing certain websites and downloading/uploading.
I used to run a 20 slot gmod server with 500kb/s download. You will be more than fine. But then I got fibre <3
It's upload that matters more than download
If you mean kilobytes then put KB
putting kb means kilobits
[QUOTE=cdlink14;35414069]That's 250KB/s average. which should suffice for quite a lot of players. From the looks of your ping you're on fiber as well which is great for hosting a server.
I'd really say the only way you'll know for sure is if you try it. If this is your home connection you're planning to host on, then you may get some lag issues when browsing certain websites and downloading/uploading.[/QUOTE]
Sorry Amy, but 250KB/s average just won't be. That's 250KB/s average if he isn't using his connection for anything other than the GMod server. I'd put money on the server suffering from huge lag spikes and latency issues, not to mention any map downloads will be shit slow and probably cause the end user to disconnect from boredom. Not to mention the slowdown any currently connected clients will get if anyone DOES download from the server.
From a technical perspective I'd say you'd need at LEAST a 500KB/s upload average to host any more than 12 slots in a stable state. 32 slots is un-do'able. 12 slots maybe, but expect latency issues client-side.
If you wanted to host Minecraft though that'd be fine.
[QUOTE=runtime;35431648]Sorry Amy, but 250KB/s average just won't be. That's 250KB/s average if he isn't using his connection for anything other than the GMod server. I'd put money on the server suffering from huge lag spikes and latency issues, not to mention any map downloads will be shit slow and probably cause the end user to disconnect from boredom. Not to mention the slowdown any currently connected clients will get if anyone DOES download from the server.
From a technical perspective I'd say you'd need at LEAST a 500KB/s upload average to host any more than 12 slots in a stable state. 32 slots is un-do'able. 12 slots maybe, but expect latency issues client-side.
If you wanted to host Minecraft though that'd be fine.[/QUOTE]
Amelia*
But you just basically said what I did, only with more words. He could try setting up dropbox as a fastdl server I remember seeing a guide on how to do that a while back... Here we go: [url]http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=179015[/url]
It even explains (unless I'm reading it wrong) how to make it download exclusively from the downloadurl and not the host.
[QUOTE=runtime;35431648]Sorry Amy, but 250KB/s average just won't be. That's 250KB/s average if he isn't using his connection for anything other than the GMod server. I'd put money on the server suffering from huge lag spikes and latency issues, not to mention any map downloads will be shit slow and probably cause the end user to disconnect from boredom. Not to mention the slowdown any currently connected clients will get if anyone DOES download from the server.
From a technical perspective I'd say you'd need at LEAST a 500KB/s upload average to host any more than 12 slots in a stable state. 32 slots is un-do'able. 12 slots maybe, but expect latency issues client-side.
If you wanted to host Minecraft though that'd be fine.[/QUOTE]
Haha, you say his connection isn't enough for a 32 man server and go on to recommend a MC server, which uses far more bandwidth per player than even Garry's Mod will. Sending chunk updates to clients uses tons of bandwidth, unlike Source where you're just sending movement and physics data.
He could safely get away with a 24 man source server if it wasn't Gmod. The problem is that an Athlon XP 2600+ is nowhere near good enough. It could probably do a 10-12 player Source server with minor slowdowns.
With 2 Mb/s upload, you can easily host at least 24 players. Personally I run two TF2 servers (one 24 slot normal, and one 18 slot arena). Looking at bandwidth graphs from my router, they never cross the 2Mb/s mark. These servers both have a minrate of 20000 and maxrate of 50000. Cmdrate and updaterate capped at 66 (33 minimum cmdrate, 10 minimum updaterate).
I think you should be fine with 32 players. Even if you max your upload, it will only be for very brief periods of time (keep in mind that many pub players have low rates, and will not use their maximum potential bandwidth in any situation). If you have packet loss, it will be minimal, and completely tolerable for casual play. It shouldn't even be an occurrence apart from possibly at the very start of a round (because everyone is bunched up, and there is a lot of information that must be sent to each client).
What you have to be careful with though is custom maps and the likes, because you can't host a fastDL with that upload speed. Maps will have to be downloaded directly from the server instead, and the speed when downloading directly from the server is abysmal (I think 25KB/s is the cap, it might actually depend on the maxrate setting).
You also have to factor in your own usage. If you for example upload a vid to Youtube, your server will take a shit. I hosted myself on a connection of 2Mb/s upload/download, and it's perfectly possible. As long as you're careful what you're doing with your downloads and whatnot. Because of the low download speed I had to resort to using a traffic shaper to prioritize connections to the gameserver over my downloads.
He could just install NetBalancer on his work/gaming PC and set a system-wide speed limit. A limit of about 700KB/s down, and 10-20KB/s up would probably suffice well without giving much interruption to the gaming server.
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