Questions about hosting dedicated servers

[alleycat 28]

I am planning to run my own ARMA2 server. I have a few questions about this:

1. What are the monthly running costs for a 5, 10 or 30 man server?

2. Any recommendations for good hosting?

3. Is Teamspeak needed, and if so, why does no one like the ingame VOIP?

4. What are the additional costs using TS?

5. Is TS hard to setup?

[Anzu 12]

Hey alleycat, I'll try to answer some of your questions:

1. What are the monthly running costs for a 5, 10 or 30 man server?

This varies drastically, depending on what kind of hosting you get, where you get it, and the specs of the server. I know someone who paid around $20 a month for a cheap VPS (dual core, 1GB ram) that was able to run a small server with no more than 10 ppl. For a cheap, good server that can support 20-30 people, you're probly going to spend $40 or higher per month (this would be starting price, and completely unmanaged VPS). For a true dedicated system, it would run even higher (>$100 per month).

Of course, you can also go to those game server providers to just rent a pre-configured server, but you get much less control over the system that way and it often ends up being more expensive for a big server.

2. Any recommendations for good hosting?

You should really do your own research as far as hosts go. Find one that's in a good geographical location for your needs. I personally use http://hostigation.com/ and I wholeheartedly recommend them. They have great customer service (very important), good systems, great prices, and good physical locations (for my personal needs). Here's the specs for my system that I pay $30 a month for:

4 cores

2GB RAM

2TB monthly bandwidth

50GB disk space

Keep in mind this an unmanaged VPS. However, even with this I am able to run a decent-sized server. I can have over 20 ppl playing at a time on my server with minimal lag, on a good day. The performance can be a bit sporadic though, as is always the case with a VPS (since the system is shared by other guest OSs).

Do lots of searching, though and you'll find a good server. Check out these forums for good deals: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=104

3. Is Teamspeak needed, and if so, why does no one like the ingame VOIP?

4. What are the additional costs using TS?

5. Is TS hard to setup?

As far as a VOIP server goes, I don't have much experience in setting these up so I can't offer much advice. But, I do know that VOIP servers require a considerable amount of Upload bandwidth. I would suggest running your VOIP server on a different server than your game server as well.

Hope this helps :-)

[alleycat 28]

So if I was looking for a 10 player solution, with the least amount of extra configuration work, would a rented preconfigured one suffice?

I plan to run mostly PVP scenarios or smaller coops with less than 50 AI running around. And how much maintenance work is usually needed on that? I mean its just uploading my missions with an FTP and its ready to go?

Edited August 23, 2011 by alleycat

[MissileMoose 10]

So if I was looking for a 10 player solution, with the least amount of extra configuration work, would a rented preconfigured one suffice?

I plan to run mostly PVP scenarios or smaller coops with less than 50 AI running around. And how much maintenance work is usually needed on that? I mean its just uploading my missions with an FTP and its ready to go?

Just to update, the price below is for a rented server (not dedicated). He usually limits the number of game server installs per machine to two though. Price to performance would actually work out better with the server specs I think.

Fifty AI won't be much of a problem, it will probably run with fifty players just fine. As for uploading missions, he uses TCAdmin so you can manage the whole of your server and upload through your browser or FTP client easily. No maintenance work is needed at all.

1. What are the monthly running costs for a 5, 10 or 30 man server?

A twenty slot server is $357.50 semi-annually (inc 8 Core Affinity + High Priority = $10). That's $59 or £39 montly.

2. Any recommendations for good hosting?

JestServers.com without a doubt. Support is by far the fastest and most reliable I've seen to date. Server performance is great too, I've never experienced any problems other than addon errors that I caused myself. The price may be a little higher than some other hosting companies but you really get what you pay for. It's fully moderated and you get competitive hardware specifications. Check out the website.

3. Is Teamspeak needed, and if so, why does no one like the ingame VOIP?

In my opinion yes, high quality voice chat for next to nothing. Being in game just to talk would get annoying.

4. What are the additional costs using TS?

A twenty slot server is $33.60 semi-annually with JestServers.com.

5. Is TS hard to setup?

Not at all. Once you understand how the permission system works, it's easy.

Hope this helps.

Edited August 23, 2011 by MissileMoose