TF2 Server 'hiccups'

[sophomoric]

We recently were buying gameserver hosting from Branzone, Art of War Central and StealthServers, with Art of War Central running our boosted TF2 server. But we ran into problems with it because the server would 'hiccup'--meaning it would hang for a few seconds like it was lagging (with no lag) and then resume gameplay.

We got fed up with this and decided to get our own dedicated box.

But after getting our dedicated box, the problem still exists: the server, under no load (with only 1 or 2 people connected) will 'hiccup' every so often causing game play to stop for a few seconds before returning to normal state.

The server is a CentOS Dual Core Xeon at 2.8ghz, 2GB memory, 80gb HDD, 1.5TB BW from our host, The New York NOC. It was installed using the optimization guide stickied in this forum. As well, it is the ONLY thing running on our dedi at this time.

PLEASE HELP.

[ClanWoof]

Is this your own dedicated that you put in a colocation yourself? Or renting it. Last company I went with renting a "Dedicated Server" turned out to be a VPS, I had the same Hiccups found out that it was because the whole VPS

[schraitle]

is it common for tf2 servers located on a vps to hiccup? I just put a tf2 server on a vps and it has intermittent lag, which isn't a huge problem, but it would be preferable if it didn't happen. is the only way to have a 100% smooth tf2 server to put it on its own dedicated box?

[ClanWoof]

Any servers ran on a VPS = bad!
You never know whats getting put onto that server. As I rented a "dedicated server"
from this company everything ran nice for about 4 months after that we started getting really odd lag spikes. I was running one of the best gungame deathmatch servers at the time it was full 24/7 went from that to really bad lag spikes and our server ended up dead. I tried reinstalling taking deathmatch off then it hit the other servers I was running, asked the company what was going on after 2 months of that. I asked "Is my server running on a VPS?" Turns out yes it was. So thats when I bought my first dedicated server myself. If you do rent a dedicated server make sure it's from a good company and ask if it's running on a VPS if so don't go for it.