Hosting Providers

[Luminarius]

If Verizon operates in your area you should definitely look into getting FiOS (their new fiber optic network). It's pretty blazing fast and the price is not all that different from DSL. We have 15mb down / 2mb up which should be more than enough for a popular emu server in my opinion. Ours is around 50 bucks a month. Home PC with FiOS would be ideal.

[jenco420]

thanks for the help matt and lum =). new at all this ~.~

[trevius]

Originally Posted by Luminarius

If Verizon operates in your area you should definitely look into getting FiOS (their new fiber optic network). It's pretty blazing fast and the price is not all that different from DSL. We have 15mb down / 2mb up which should be more than enough for a popular emu server in my opinion. Ours is around 50 bucks a month. Home PC with FiOS would be ideal.

2MB up should be enough to get 150 to maybe even 200 players. For that many, you will want a pretty beefy server and probably want a secondary zone server to share the load. But if you are staying below 100ish players, you should be able to handle it just on a fairly nice PC. I would recommend at least 2GBs of RAM.

[fault]

dedicated boxes and VPS are extremely inexpensive. I use 1and1 for all my needs, I have hosting, a vps and a dedicated from them.

Their vps(Virtue private servers) all come with amd dual core opteron 1.75ghz, ram varies from 128MB dedicated with 256 bursts to 512MB dedicated 1024MB bursts, space and monthly transfer are extremely good for the price and 1and1 all hosting/servers are on a true 100MBiT pipe. which you don tpay extra for, you dont pay extra for 64bit support or plesk either. You also recieve a free domain for the vps. Currently they have a special (ending in 7 days) if you sign up for a vps 3 you pay 1$ setup and 3 months free.


The dedicated servers are great, from 99 to 399 a month from single core to quad core, no less then 1gig(99$one) and up to 8gigs(399$one) of ram.


link

total experience with this host: since 2005 with Bussiness hosting, Developer hosting, VPS3, and a root server 1.

great thing about 1and1 they have lax terms you can do anything you wish on your box as long as it isnt something like terrorism.


and Im sorry with my knowledge of running servers, you cannot run a lag free server with a 2MBiT uplink you need atleast a 10MBiT, but it is preferred you have a 100MBiT

[trevius]

I don't know how much experience you have with running an EQEmu server, but you can certainly run a lag free server with 2MBits. The size of the upload only limits the number of players you can have on your server before connection issues start.

My server runs lag free even with 85 players on and that is only with 1MBit upload. My previous internet upload was listed as 512k, but I got more like 750k and I could handle about 60 characters before there started being connection issues. So, I would imagine that 2Mbits would handle 150 just fine and maybe more. At that point, server hardware is more important to keep stability. Ideally, a separate zone server should probably be used for every 75 players you have, depending on the power of the servers.

I never see any lag on my server since I started using my zone resetters to clear out player ghosts every few hours from popular zones. And I hear that Linux doesn't even have the ghosting problem at all. The only things I notice when my player numbers get really high are that zone crashes happen more often and sometimes player have trouble getting logged into the server.

Maybe if you are talking about EQLive server player numbers, then yes, of course you would want 100Mbits. But I see no reason why any EQEmu servers would even need 10Mbits currently. None are even close to the numbers to require that. Of course, overkill never hurts lol. I definitely wouldn't complain if I had 10MBits upload to match my 10Mbits download.

1.5 up is enough for 150+ people easy.

Its the processor + Ram thats needed at that point.

[TheLieka]

Originally Posted by Luminarius

If Verizon operates in your area you should definitely look into getting FiOS (their new fiber optic network). It's pretty blazing fast and the price is not all that different from DSL. We have 15mb down / 2mb up which should be more than enough for a popular emu server in my opinion. Ours is around 50 bucks a month. Home PC with FiOS would be ideal.

That's what our server is running now - I can verify that it's amazing. The wacky part is - it's cheaper than el cheapo consumer cable. Verizon is really trying to gobble up as much market share as they can - and from what I've seen and heard, they're doing a pretty damn good job.

I have a T1 into my house currently, and that's what we started hosting with, but when we hit around 120ish people, we started getting random disconnects, and wacky bugs, etc. I thought I was having an issue with my firewall (Cisco ASA 5505), then looked at the bandwidth usage, and sure enough - we were capping it out. I thought it was impossible so I kept testing it for about a month, trying to see if there was anything else that could be doing it, but unfortunately I was able to verify that it was all from the zone servers. :(

Shortly after that, I had some major shit go down at work, and didn't know if I'd be able to keep on the project, so one of our staff took over the hosting - and the fucker got FIOS.

One unintended side-effect of FIOS though: It makes you realize how tiny your epeenir was before you got it (or in my case, how tiny my epeenir is compared to Gronkus's). :(


Dax

[jenco420]

thanks guys i decided to get a FIOS connection =). Will report back with the results.

[fault]

But if you read the terms of use for any isp, verizon,comcast,qwest,at&t etc you will find the fine print of *you may not use their service to run or operate any type of server application.*


For what you pay for them, and what you will pay when you are caught, you can get yourself a decent vps or dedicated on a 100MBiT pipe

[trevius]

Originally Posted by fault

But if you read the terms of use for any isp, verizon,comcast,qwest,at&t etc you will find the fine print of *you may not use their service to run or operate any type of server application.*


For what you pay for them, and what you will pay when you are caught, you can get yourself a decent vps or dedicated on a 100MBiT pipe

Please paste a link to that policy for all of those providers if you are going to make that claim. I do believe that they might claim that they don't recommend it, but I highly doubt that they would make the claim you suggest. I have never heard of such a policy before. And, I highly doubt that running an EQEmu server would give them any legal recourse against one of their customers.

[trevius]

Was that really 5 minutes to edit my post? Seemed more like 2!

The only reason they wouldn't recommend running a server from their services is because most servers require a static IP and almost every ISP uses DHCP, so there is always the chance your IP can change after any DHCP release/renew. If they provide you access, bandwidth and an IP route-able on the internet, I see no reason for you not to do whatever you want with it as long as it is legal. Do you have any idea how many people run some time of server application from their home PC through their ISP? Most technical people have ran one type or another at some point in time. Even P2P could be considered running a server from home if you want to be picky about it. Where do you draw the line? Post a link to a court case that was actually won from an ISP while you are at it.

I am not trying to start a debate or pick a fight. I just won't want what you said to scare people away from running their server from home.

Verizion = allows it
Comcast = allows it
Time warner (road runner) = allows it
ATT = allows it

They are the providers I know for a 100% fact allow it.

[fault]

Comcast 100% doesnot allow it. I have had them since they took over AT&T in my area 7 years ago. Read their Terms of Use.

use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network ("Premises LAN"), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail, Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers;

Expressly prohibited stated right in comcasts use policy.

Time warner:

If I receive HSD Service, I agree not to use the HSD Service for operation as an Internet service provider, for the hosting of websites (other than as expressly permitted as part of the HSD Service) or for any enterprise purpose whether or not the enterprise is directed toward making a profit. I agree that, among other things, my use of any form of transmitter or wide area network that enables persons or entities outside the location identified in the Work Order to use my Services, whether or not a fee is sought, will constitute an enterprise purpose. Furthermore, if I use a wireless network within my residence, I will limit wireless access to the HSD Service (by establishing and using a secure password or similar means) to the members of my household.

Verizon:

Restrictions on Use. The Service is a consumer grade service and is not designed for or intended to be used for any commercial purpose. You may not resell the Service, use it for high volume purposes, or engage in similar activities that constitute such use (commercial or non-commercial). If you subscribe to a Broadband Service, you may connect multiple computers/devices within a single home to your modem and/or router to access the Service, but only through a single Verizon-issued IP address. You also may not exceed the bandwidth usage limitations that Verizon may establish from time to time for the Service, or use the Service to host any type of server. Violation of this section may result in bandwidth restrictions on your Service or suspension or termination of your Service.

AT&T's site is so gayed up I can not located their Internet terms of use, Just their website Terms of use.


the 3 terms I quoted from can easily be gotten to from the ISps website or searching "Acceptable Use" Followed by the ISP name. They clearly state you are not to hos a webservice or a server on the line they grant you access to.

Edit: and to be clear, there is NO Residential Internet service provider that allows their customers the use of servers, web hosting or the like. It is in everyone of their terms of use, which noone seems to ever read.