Running a Server and Playing on The Same Computer

[loopyman]

[Spartanfrog]

That looks quite consistent

[loopyman]

This thread is now about latencies...

Speedtest was never really good about testing datacenter upload/download speeds. They are more focused on broadband users. Also utilize a looking glass to see more accurate network pings.

Under 100ms to Europe, that was my target

The nLayer Looking Glass gets 60ms to the Montreal facility

[realchamp]

This to clear things up, this thread was intended to be an advice, which I personally like and understand why.

I don't see any particually reason to start flamming each other. I talk from personal experience and basic knowlegde when I say this:
You can host a decent server from your house, but don't expect to it to be better than those who are professionally hosted at a datacenter.
I have a 50/2 Mbit/s connection with a poor ping, because my internet connection wasn't intended to host massive servers and provide so much data transfer. I had about 20slots with 66tickrate and roughly an average ping of ~ 60ms. People from the same country as myself and even same city didn't have much of an advantage, because of my internet type, which is delivered through television cables ain't simply build for it. The advantage on my hand was that my backend computer aka my server easily managed to hold it all fine. It wasn't a desktop PC running with thousand applications and internet services consuming unnecessary load, which you either way shouldn't expect to get at a datacenter. These servers are fully optimized for maximum performance, usually unless the game server provider is bad. The advantage of a datacenter is the faster internet connection and better pings to your clients. My server had a bad ping and my internet was very unstable. In a datacenter you should expect to have an uptime on about 99.99%. Most game server providers promise low pings, but actually it really depends on where you are located and who your internet service provider is. My own internet connection didn't live up to my expectations because it didn't actually have these "2mbit/s" upload as I was promised. If I complained they would simply say it's my own fault and sometimes the 2mbit/s upload aren't there(drops hardly time to time). These are non benefits of home hosting. Some private persons in these days are lucky to have a modern internet connection and therefore are capable of hosting servers with nearly as good ping in a datacenter, however you really shouldn't expect to have a guarantee on 100% uptime on your internet. Most internet providers give their costumers dynamic ip addresses, which means your IP may change from time to time, to prevent you from hosting servers. And really the internet speed is the lowest priority when it comes to a datacenter or a private person, because the ping is all important if your internet speed is good enough.
Many people run their game servers on the same computer as they play on because they may not have the economy to buy a server or just don't want to spend these moneys on unnessecary stuff, because in their opinion they think their server is the best.

[Beaverbeliever]

(06-14-2010, 07:50 AM)realchamp Wrote:  This to clear things up, this thread was intended to be an advice, which I personally like and understand why.

I don't see any particually reason to start flamming each other. I talk from personal experience and basic knowlegde when I say this:
You can host a decent server from your house, but don't expect to it to be better than those who are professionally hosted at a datacenter.
I have a 50/2 Mbit/s connection with a poor ping, because my internet connection wasn't intended to host massive servers and provide so much data transfer. I had about 20slots with 66tickrate and roughly an average ping of ~ 60ms. People from the same country as myself and even same city didn't have much of an advantage, because of my internet type, which is delivered through television cables ain't simply build for it. The advantage on my hand was that my backend computer aka my server easily managed to hold it all fine. It wasn't a desktop PC running with thousand applications and internet services consuming unnecessary load, which you either way shouldn't expect to get at a datacenter. These servers are fully optimized for maximum performance, usually unless the game server provider is bad. The advantage of a datacenter is the faster internet connection and better pings to your clients. My server had a bad ping and my internet was very unstable. In a datacenter you should expect to have an uptime on about 99.99%. Most game server providers promise low pings, but actually it really depends on where you are located and who your internet service provider is. My own internet connection didn't live up to my expectations because it didn't actually have these "2mbit/s" upload as I was promised. If I complained they would simply say it's my own fault and sometimes the 2mbit/s upload aren't there(drops hardly time to time). These are non benefits of home hosting. Some private persons in these days are lucky to have a modern internet connection and therefore are capable of hosting servers with nearly as good ping in a datacenter, however you really shouldn't expect to have a guarantee on 100% uptime on your internet. Most internet providers give their costumers dynamic ip addresses, which means your IP may change from time to time, to prevent you from hosting servers. And really the internet speed is the lowest priority when it comes to a datacenter or a private person, because the ping is all important if your internet speed is good enough.
Many people run their game servers on the same computer as they play on because they may not have the economy to buy a server or just don't want to spend these moneys on unnessecary stuff, because in their opinion they think their server is the best.

I think this is a great point/example. Remember that Datacenters generally have huge pipes of bandwidth coming in from several different locations, and rent from Tier 1 bandwidth providers. Your ISP at home generally only uses Tier 2 or 3 bandwidth, which is subpar and usually from another company the ISP owns (or vice versa). So technically speaking, do not expect awesome constant bandwidth.

Secondly, ISP's generally use mediums like copper rather than fiber, which limits the amount of throughput anyhow. They also go through many distribution routers before they get to your house (hey Comcast customers, run a tracert to Google and see how many hops it takes to get out of Comcast). This is why you can expect higher pings than datacenters who generally don't have more than 2-3 routers from the bandwidth to your server. This cuts the latency considerably for everyone.

(06-08-2010, 05:26 PM)loopyman Wrote:  

This is a great example. Datacenters sit on the major pipes that connect multiple ISP's. If your on Comcast and there are people that live near you who are also on Comcast, you can see great pings because chances are you connect to the same equipment a few hops out. However, lets say your neighbor with another ISP (not Comcast) connected, you can expect them to see much greater pings, because it has to go a lot further to get to a router that has a connection to the Comcast network.

Part of my OP was including hardware. One time I got a request in Steam from a noob that found me off this forum who wanted me to setup a CSS server to run on his gaming computer. I Teamviewer'd him and saw he was on a single-core P4 at 2.3~ with only a gig of RAM. After notifying him that even if we could get his server working, that it would lag considerably because of the lack of resources. He then proceeded to cuss me out, which followed in an immediate delete . That is who I am mostly addressing by "lack of resources."

Over time, people have dropped in here and resumed telling me that I am wrong in this whole thread, and I honestly don't think you are really paying attention at all to the points of this thread. As I said earlier, it's not that you CAN'T do it, it's that you SHOULDN'T do it if you are expecting excellent results.

That's all I have to input for now.

[Darksoul]

(06-14-2010, 09:58 AM)Beaverbeliever Wrote:  Over time, people have dropped in here and resumed telling me that I am wrong in this whole thread, and I honestly don't think you are really paying attention at all to the points of this thread. As I said earlier, it's not that you CAN'T do it, it's that you SHOULDN'T do it if you are expecting excellent results.

I've had excellent results and I host from home.

[Beaverbeliever]

(06-15-2010, 12:13 PM)Darksoul Wrote:  

(06-14-2010, 09:58 AM)Beaverbeliever Wrote:  Over time, people have dropped in here and resumed telling me that I am wrong in this whole thread, and I honestly don't think you are really paying attention at all to the points of this thread. As I said earlier, it's not that you CAN'T do it, it's that you SHOULDN'T do it if you are expecting excellent results.

I've had excellent results and I host from home.

You seemed to have ignored this entire post, and this entire thread. I have no respect for you anymore on these forums.

[Darksoul]

(06-15-2010, 12:41 PM)Beaverbeliever Wrote:  

(06-15-2010, 12:13 PM)Darksoul Wrote:  

(06-14-2010, 09:58 AM)Beaverbeliever Wrote:  Over time, people have dropped in here and resumed telling me that I am wrong in this whole thread, and I honestly don't think you are really paying attention at all to the points of this thread. As I said earlier, it's not that you CAN'T do it, it's that you SHOULDN'T do it if you are expecting excellent results.

I've had excellent results and I host from home.

You seemed to have ignored this entire post, and this entire thread. I have no respect for you anymore on these forums.

I did not ignore your post.

[loopyman]

Congratulations Dark, I'm happy that you have a great home connections and are able to host from home...

Now can we stop derailing this thread?
This is the Hosting and playing on the same computer thread.
The Hosting and playing on a home network thread is that way ---------->

[Darksoul]

(06-15-2010, 05:37 PM)loopyman Wrote:  Congratulations Dark, I'm happy that you have a great home connections and are able to host from home...

Now can we stop derailing this thread?
This is the Hosting and playing on the same computer thread.
The Hosting and playing on a home network thread is that way ---------->

I was just responding to beaver and telling him he was wrong, that is all.

[realchamp]

(06-15-2010, 08:52 PM)Darksoul Wrote:  

(06-15-2010, 05:37 PM)loopyman Wrote:  Congratulations Dark, I'm happy that you have a great home connections and are able to host from home...

Now can we stop derailing this thread?
This is the Hosting and playing on the same computer thread.
The Hosting and playing on a home network thread is that way ---------->

I was just responding to beaver and telling him he was wrong, that is all.

Darksoul you don't really seem to get the point of this thread.

[Beaverbeliever]

(06-15-2010, 08:52 PM)Darksoul Wrote:  

(06-15-2010, 05:37 PM)loopyman Wrote:  Congratulations Dark, I'm happy that you have a great home connections and are able to host from home...

Now can we stop derailing this thread?
This is the Hosting and playing on the same computer thread.
The Hosting and playing on a home network thread is that way ---------->

I was just responding to beaver and telling him he was wrong, that is all.

I think all the experts agree you are wrong.

Can I request Darksoul's permanent silence in this thread? He obviously has no factual constructive inputs besides "you are wrong" or "I'm better than you".

[realchamp]

Mooooh!

[Darksoul]

(06-16-2010, 04:09 AM)Beaverbeliever Wrote:  

(06-15-2010, 08:52 PM)Darksoul Wrote:  

(06-15-2010, 05:37 PM)loopyman Wrote:  Congratulations Dark, I'm happy that you have a great home connections and are able to host from home...

Now can we stop derailing this thread?
This is the Hosting and playing on the same computer thread.
The Hosting and playing on a home network thread is that way ---------->

I was just responding to beaver and telling him he was wrong, that is all.

I think all the experts agree you are wrong.

Can I request Darksoul's permanent silence in this thread? He obviously has no factual constructive inputs besides "you are wrong" or "I'm better than you".

It's sad you think I am saying that I am better then you. I'm not saying that.

Even better is when you can't get your way you ask a mod/admin to mute me. Hurray.

But, let me point this out.

This entire time you have been basically saying you shouldn't host from home for x reasons, yet I can host from home and not have any issues...

It sort of destroys your entire argument.

However, if you truly want me to stop posting in this thread I will stop.. as long as you can give me a good reason, other then because I disagree with you.

Have a good day.

[realchamp]

Darksoul you can host at home but it is not recommended for most users. You're lucky to have enough and sufficient bandwidth. Still it would be better in a datacenter, regarding the ping and speed. But it's cheaper at home and not worthless, still usable and cool. Just not for commercial use