It\u2019s time for you to go pro.\u00a0 No, we don\u2019t mean playing World of Warcraft for money, though we couldn\u2019t fault anyone who did.\u00a0 We mean running your own gaming server.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got some game that you want to dedicate your own machine to, and you want it done right.<\/p>\n
This means that you can\u2019t settle for it being on your home machine: it\u2019s good to have it the server right in front of you, but you don\u2019t have the resources to make sure that, for example, the power always stays on, or the network never, ever hiccups.\u00a0 You also wouldn\u2019t mind an expert at the wheels if something seriously goes wrong.<\/p>\n
Where to begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n In a literal sense that is the first question you want to ask.\u00a0 Before you go anywhere with any prospective host, you need to ask them whether or not they will host this kind of server.\u00a0 Even if you are on your own machine, some hosts won\u2019t allow this for reasons ranging from network stability to security.\u00a0 Contact them and get a solid answer.\u00a0 Make sure you get a guarantee that they will try to give you warning if, for some reason, they can no longer host you.<\/p>\n The next thing you want to do is get your own machine.\u00a0 For this type of service even a Virtual Private Server<\/a> isn\u2019t good enough.\u00a0 You run the possibility of using resources like mad, to the point that you shouldn\u2019t be surprised if you need more than one machine.\u00a0\u00a0 For the most part forget about using any type of cloud services as well.\u00a0 Even if you\u2019re permitted to, you run the risk of racking up a fortune in service-hour fees.\u00a0 If you must use the cloud, keep it to something that you\u2019re not going to use every few seconds, like nightly backups of data.<\/p>\n Make sure that you hop your server up right from the start with all of the juice it will need.\u00a0 Get your RAM<\/a>, your dual or quad-core CPU<\/a>, and whatever else you need.\u00a0 Even if you choose to start low, make sure that you have room to expand easily.<\/p>\n Finally, depending on a lot of factors related to your game\u2019s popularity, you might want managed service.\u00a0 This all depends, though, on precisely what \u201cmanaged\u201d means from them.\u00a0 This brings us to the next point.<\/p>\n Get the right services<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are running some type of 24\/7 game, then you need a 24\/7 service to match that.\u00a0 If your machine crashes, your players are not going to want to hear that they have to wait until 9AM for someone to reboot it.\u00a0 Make sure that round-the-clock service is available for your machine.<\/p>\n More specifically, make sure that this service includes everything that you might need.\u00a0 Some hosts will say that they will respond all night, but by this they mean that they can only answer basic technical questions.\u00a0 Make sure that they have someone who can be there to hit the button on your machine.\u00a0 Unmanned data centers are a half-decent substitute.\u00a0 They will handle basic server reboots, but they won\u2019t handle what will happen if there\u2019s a bug in your kernel and you need some hands on deck to get your server back up and running.<\/p>\n To that point, make sure that if you need to upgrade your server that they can do it as quickly as possible.\u00a0 Again, 48 hours in the gaming world is something akin to an epoch.\u00a0 Most hosts typically have, for example, the RAM that you need on hand.\u00a0 What you want is someone who can install it on a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n Clipping coupons<\/strong><\/p>\n While on some level you\u2019re probably going to incur some high costs that you aren\u2019t going to be able to do anything about, there are some ways to make sure that your wallet doesn\u2019t get too badly ruptured.<\/p>\n If anything is going to kill your bank account it\u2019s going to be bandwidth.\u00a0 There are ways that you can minimize this hit.\u00a0 First, ask your host if they send you warnings if you look like you are going to go over your monthly allotment.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t do that, make sure you at least have web analytics you can fall back on, and ask for assistance in maybe setting that up to warn you.<\/p>\n You can also ask if throttling is a possibility.\u00a0 While this may not be too popular with your players, an hour or two of downtime here or there is preferable to getting shut down entirely.\u00a0 Some will do this network side, others will have the software necessary to do it server side.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for assistance in getting this set up.<\/p>\n Also ask your host if they ever sell off unneeded hardware.\u00a0 Some hosts, to recoup their own costs, will sell off hardware from servers no longer needed at a pittance.\u00a0 If you let them know that you would like offers sent your way, they will often drop you an email once a new piece of equipment becomes available.<\/p>\n Good managed care can go a long way<\/strong><\/p>\n A last thing you\u2019ll want to look into goes back to what we said above.\u00a0 \u201cManaged\u201d care of your server can mean different things to different hosts.\u00a0 Some go so far as to offer different types of debugging and server optimization.\u00a0 Some of these could be immensely useful to you.<\/p>\n For this type of care you\u2019ll probably want to go with someone who charges a certain per-hour fee.\u00a0 While there are many tech workers out there who will gladly take it upon themselves to see what they can do for you out of a combination of go-the-extra-mile customer service and the personal challenge of trying to solve your complex problem, you don\u2019t want to assume either of these.\u00a0 Charging for this help by the hour gives them all of the incentive they need to find an efficient solution to your problem.<\/p>\n Talk it out<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, this is one case in which one you\u2019re setup, it doesn\u2019t hurt every now and then to just drop a note to your host to make sure that everything is OK.\u00a0 If it is, they\u2019ll say so.\u00a0 If it isn\u2019t, this is a good way to catch little problems before they become big.\u00a0 Either way, this will help you to maintain a strong relationship with your hosting provider, and keep the game afoot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s time for you to go pro.\u00a0 No, we don\u2019t mean playing World of Warcraft for money, though we couldn\u2019t fault anyone who did.\u00a0 We mean running your own gaming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[969,3177,210],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-web-hosting-types","tag-analytics","tag-throttling","tag-web-server"],"views":120,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}