Building an inexpensive server

[Shadowen925]

I’m looking for what parts I should buy for a server I can run in my home to host things like counterstrike Dedicated Servers and Ventrilo and things like that. I want something simple that I don’t have to pay much for. I’m also hoping to make a little money by renting it out. What do you people that are more experienced then I think?

 

[jeepn]

I dont know what your specs are on your PC, but my sig has mine. I host a clean BF2 64 man server with Ventrilo with virtually no lagging. If your CPU is good enough with enough HD then building one dedicated should be no problem.

 

[mkaibear]

First off, your "inexpensive server" and "make a little money by renting it out" aims are incompatible. If you use inexpensive parts you will end up with an ultimately unreliable server, and charging people to use this will just generate badwill and you will be abused by anyone who's relying on your services.

Wow, you'd almost think I've worked for a company that tried to build inexpensive servers! :roll:

What you need to run a server; Stability. Stability. Stability.

Followed by RAM and hard drive space

CPU is less important than either of the above. You won't need a decent graphics card - onboard is fine. I'd strongly suggest either using nLite to cut down a copy of Windows to remove stuff you don't need to reduce overhead, or use Linux.

 

[hubbardt]

The biggest problem you will encounter is bandwidth.

Your server may well be good enough to host 64 players BF2 but do you have 4-6Mb upstream ? Most broadband connections (in the UK) only have 256Kb upstream which can host about 8 players before everything lags horribly.

 

[Shadowen925]

I'm Runing on Verizon DSL, I'm guessing thats not too good.
Also, I'm running Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz
1.128 GB or RAM
280GB HDD

Does it matter the OS? I'm Running Windows XP Pro SP1

Thanks for the info.

 

[maddogjj]

Yeah I would like to host one also but not sure how to set up the router to allow people to connect. Anyone know where I can get some info on settings to allow people to connect?? also I have 12mb download and 1mb upload so I should be able to host a decent number of players

 

[mkaibear]

It depends on the router. Usually you'll need to set a static IP for your server (whether or not that's inside the DHCP range is usually up to you), then set port forwarding to forwards to that IP.

What ports, I dunno... Worth a google to find out...