New server questions

[jigg]

Greets, all.
I'm attempting to setup a small CSS server out of my house just to try my hand before jumping to bigger (and relatively much more expensive) hosting should I really get hooked on this. The machine's specs and connection are as follows:

P3-800 w/512MB RAM running Win2k3 Server
Cable internet 4Mbps-down/500Kbps-up

Now, my questions:
1). The cable internet poses a problem right off in that it refreshes the IPs every four days. I figure I can get around this by simply scheduling a reboot to coincide with the refresh, so this may only be a minor inconvenience. But, my cable company doesn't always provide a definite or consistent time frame. How big of a problem does this pose?
2). As for how many people I can host comfortably, I'm guessing maybe twelve. The 500Kbit pipe isn't huge, but will it be enough to host 12 players without choking to death?
3). I may be putting this behind a cheap Linksys "router" (read: behind a NAT with non-routeable IPs). Provided all the necessary ports are forwarded, will this be a problem?

Yes, I'm n00bish on a lot of this. But, then, that's the whole point of the exercise, to learn.
Thanks.

[Stealth]

You can check the 'Lease Time' on your IP, although it is possible for your cable company to force a lease renewal prematurely. Ask them about a static IP.

The router will take a bit of configuring but it isnt impossible to work behind a router.

As for the upload speed, it shouldnt cause problems 500kbps is about ideal for 12 players on CS:S although ideally the more speed the better and generally home connections have more hops than say a datacentre would

[White Wolf {Hull}]

Since you have a dynamic IP try visiting
http://www.no-ip.com sign up for IP-Free register a dns a domain (its free) download the software and run on your pc. This updates with no-ip everytime your IP changes.

your server address then can be <whatever>.servegame.com:27015 and this will perminantly forward people to your server regardless of if your IP changes.

you can use other names to like mine is hullukpublic.servecounterstrike.com:27015

You just type this address in your server.cfg file at the bottom like this: IP <address>

[c2um3]

can u enter the ip for the dns domain in the command line??? like -ip dns.blah.com

[White Wolf {Hull}]

I don't know about adding it to the command line I just add mine to the server.cfg to avoid the udp port issue and it all seems to work fine.

[axofthebeholder]

Stealth Wrote:You can check the 'Lease Time' on your IP, although it is possible for your cable company to force a lease renewal prematurely. Ask them about a static IP.

The router will take a bit of configuring but it isnt impossible to work behind a router.

As for the upload speed, it shouldnt cause problems 500kbps is about ideal for 12 players on CS:S although ideally the more speed the better and generally home connections have more hops than say a datacentre would

if i do this what will happen to the ips of the other comps on my network cuz i dont want there ips to change

[skeletor]

the other comps on your network all have internal ips.. the external ip.. thats what changes, the static "external" ip is what you would talk to ur cable company about, and that ip goes out to all the computers behind your router.

[DarkZealot89]

Ya, the external IP is what everyone but your computers in your home go by. Sites like game-monitor.com also use your IP to keep stats on your server.