newbie: several server setup questions

[RhinoDude]

Hi there,

I'm new to EQ Emu and am thinking of starting up a private invitation-only role-playing server. I have two general areas of concern where I don't quite understand how to proceed just yet.

First, the idea is I want to dole out logons and passwords to friends, family, etc. I do not want to have them register or provide a public registration (at least not up front). I don't want to go by IP as some of them have dynamic IP's which change, so it really has to be handled by ID's and not by IP. On the other hand, I still want them to be able to create their own characters. Is there a way to do this with MiniLogon?

Second, what is the recommended hardware (cpu's, memory, etc.) for running a full server under light load? There will only be 6 to 8 players on at a time, and most will be in one or two zones. On the other hand, I don't want to have to deal with starting and stopping zones automatically. I want everything to just work and to present a very close to Live experience with slightly tweaked (maybe 25% faster) level ups. I want to run everything on one box if possible.

Alternatively, I have a AMD quad-core 2.5ghz w/ 16gb ram running Vista 64. If I decide to make this available publicially, I assume I will saturate my RoadRunner Turbo connection before I put too much load on the server? I get 13mbps down and 1mbps up. Clearly the upstream will be limiting factor. How many clients can I realistically support with 1mbps?

IIRC, EQ uses mostly UDP, right? I don't even know if TWC monitors UDP traffic, so would they even know if I was running a server and started using 500kbps+ up consistently?

Finally, based on my reading it sounds like PEQ database is where I want to start, right?

Thanks for any info...

- Rhino