Colo questions

KamikazeBen

Sup dude(ttes)

I'm toying with using this R510 I got from work to host game servers at a Colo. I'll start with TribesNext in theory.

Has anyone ever hosted a 128-slot at a colo or through AWS? I'm trying to get ideas of how much bandwidth I can expect to commit to.

The hardware is obviously overpowered for the Tribes 2 era!

KamikazeBen

Hey!! I can't delete my own thread but I will say I answered my own questions by finally figuring out the right terms to search the forums for:

http://www.tribesnext.com/forum/index.php?topic=172.0

This game is much more efficient than I thought. This makes sense, given what I understand about game design and engine mechanics, and the fact that people weren't wrecking their connections back in '98 with it.

Here's the quoted OP so anyone who finds my topic up here can refer to it:

Posts: 41


January 09, 2009, 07:22:18 AM »
quote
If you attempt to run a 64 actual player server:

Tribes/T2 is very efficient in general with net usage. It will still run 1.1 to 1.5 KiloBYTES per second PER client, with spikes to ~3.2KB/s.

The math:
64*2=128....KiloBYTES per second, as a -low- average, on a loaded 64 player server. This level of upstream traffic will require a T-1 line or equivalent (1.544 Mbit/sec, ~160 KBytes/sec). This is real, non-compressable (as it already is compressed) load. In networking, you never want to see over 75-80 percent of your line in use, as latency begins to swing, and any spikes become huge ping spikes and choppy play for players.

How do I know this?
I ran 2 dual processor SCSI servers back in 98-2000, that server up LAN and internet versions of Quake2, Half-Life Counter-Strike betas, and Tribes, over a T-1 line. We could never have more than 16/18/24 as server max player limits, due to a complete loss of upstream availability if they all filled at once. Fortunately, we always had 10 of those server slots filled, about 3 per game, from LAN players, so I guess we had real limits of about 13/15/21. I ran some the smoothest servers to play on GLOBALLY. This is because, as a net admin, my job was to ensure absolute perfect delivery of data, and high server framerate.

Typical ADSL:
1.5 megabits down, 256 Kilobits (32Kbytes/sec) up. 10 players MAX (internet)

Typical Cable modem:
3 megabits down, 128/256/512 kilobit up. 4/10/18 max (internet)

Insight cable (Northern Ky/IN), 10/20 megabits down, 1.1/1.2 megabits up. I get 1.2. 32 players MAX (internet).

Optimum Online: Huge, but depends on area.
Verizon FIOS, varies by area, but can be multiple megabits.

Please note that running servers on your ISP's network is technically against TOS, and very likely will exceed your bandwidth limits, if yours becomes popular. Find out about limits, WITHOUT mentioning what you do. Claim to be making sure your kids boombang browsing, or my lil pony game isn't going to make you pay out more.

This is outbound traffic. Unless you are running on a 2 megabit or higher upstream line, you will lag your players to death with a >32 player server. Often literally.

Thanks guys for letting me take up space. :P