Game Hosting

g4m3rof1337

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
Can most of these games be hosted on a computer, without a Steam account?
I want to host COD4, CSS, TF2, L4D, and some other games, I have them on a Steam account, but that's also my main account.. I do have another Steam account, though it just has CSS on it, so could I use the Source Dedicated Server for most/all of the Steam games?

And what should the specs be roughly for hosting under 30 people at max.




Thanks.
 
You'll néed a pretty good CPU and a fair ammount of ram for 30 slots.

As for the games, I think steam let's you run dedicated servers withou owning the game. I'm not n a place where I can try it right now but sign up for a new steam account and see what it let's you have in the tool (or utilities, can't remember what it's called) tab.
 
I would lease a server. I have one from GameServers.com

Mine's a public 24 player TF2 server. And I lease for $.49/slot/month. :P

http://www.gameservers.com/

If I were gonna run a dedicated server, I would not use a version out of Steam. Use the console version and run it on Damn Small Linux or some other light Linux distro. It might be a PITA to get it up and running but it's worth it. Use CloneZilla or Ghost to make a backup in the case of an unfortunate event.
 
I would second that suggestion to run servers in Linux however make sure a Linux version of the server a availinle before you switch (there usualy is).

Are you settng up an external server or a server for your LANs?
 
Well, I'd be using a desktop with 4GB of ram and an E8400. If I can't get that together, would my laptop be an alternative?
 
g4m3rof1337 said:
Well, I'd be using a desktop with 4GB of ram and an E8400. If I can't get that together, would my laptop be an alternative?
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Yeah, for sure, even your laptop is overkill. I set up a game server(CS) at school with some old socket 478 Pentium 4 machine. It held 16 people just fine.

Get on eBay and find some used Dell laptop with no dedicated card but a decent processor and use that. That will keep you from lugging a monitor around with your server in case you run into problems.
 
/\E said:
Yeah, for sure, even your laptop is overkill. I set up a game server(CS) at school with some old socket 478 Pentium 4 machine. It held 16 people just fine.

Get on eBay and find some used Dell laptop with no dedicated card but a decent processor and use that. That will keep you from lugging a monitor around with your server in case you run into problems.
Click to expand...

OK, good to know, thanks.

Could I remote access the server instead?
 
http://www.srcds.com - that's how to set up a proper dedicated source server. If you want to run a few servers your CPU should be fine, I remember ny clan running a 64 slot Zombie server for CS:S on one, it just about ran it.

EDIT: You could use remote desktop if you have Winsows but I'd recommend learning Linux and using Ubuntu server or similar to cut down on the memory requirements for a GUI and just SSH into it. (Using the terminal instead of a GUI)
 
PabloTeK said:
http://www.srcds.com - that's how to set up a proper dedicated source server. If you want to run a few servers your CPU should be fine, I remember ny clan running a 64 slot Zombie server for CS:S on one, it just about ran it.

EDIT: You could use remote desktop if you have Windows but I'd recommend learning Linux and using Ubuntu server or similar to cut down on the memory requirements for a GUI and just SSH into it. (Using the terminal instead of a GUI)
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Oh yeah, most definitely use SrcDS and Linux.

And as said above, just run the distro without the X server(GUI). Of course, the SrcDS will most likely have you create a script to start the game server. So, you could just crank the server machine up and run the script via CLI.
 
So, I can run a Live CD, without interfering with the Windows HDD, and run all my games on it? I'm not that familiar with Linux, any suggestions?





Thanks.
 
Server OS's need to be installed as they're most effecient when they are. (Ubuntu Server with just the CLI uses a tiny amount of RAM). Most games will have a dedicated server client for Linux because Linux doesn't natively understand Windows binaries. Just wipe the server's HDD clean and install Linux and the games to it. You may want to do some readinging up on the basic Linux commands though.
 
g4m3rof1337 said:
So, I can run a Live CD, without interfering with the Windows HDD, and run all my games on it? I'm not that familiar with Linux, any suggestions?





Thanks.
Click to expand...

You don't want to be running a server from a LiveCD, it's laggy enough as it is when a distro is ran from one. The CD would bottleneck the whole server.
 
If I wanted to host a home based L4D server, on a dedicated computer, but I only have one Steam account with L4D on it, can I host a server and play on another computer?
 
Thanks, also, unrelated question, do you know how to record gameplay lag free? I've been trying Fraps, and some/most of the clips are lag free, but hard to play..


Any ideas?



Thanks.
 
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