Web Hosting Service For Your Game Server by rodrigo rehn
Hosting game servers is emerging to be one of the most lucrative branches of specialized hosting services. Many hosting services are more than willing to provide room for game servers in order to make a hefty profit out of it.
But while selecting a web-hosting service for game server one must be extra choosy. This is because game server hosting is much more demanding than other web hosting services.
First of all the game sites are one of the most frequently visited by net users. At any given time millions of users are latching on a single popular game site. Resultantly there is bound to be an unusually huge rush of traffick.
Thus, the capacities of a service to handle traffick load should be gauged before selecting it for hosting a game server. Otherwise one could find himself among total chaos and will have to confront with heavy loss.
The must-haves for a game service provider is a control panel either cPanel or Plesk .A control panel solutions which is specially designed to automate and standardize game server hosting process is another requisite for a game hosting service. A game service provider without these basic tools is no less than paralyzed.
Although these control panels perform a specific function they can as well use other soft wares, whether Linux or Windows. These can also install game specific soft wares and an also send patches of soft wares to end users.
One must be aware of the pricing systems of game service providers. It is a vital factor that may affect the decision-making while choosing a service provider for game servers.
A game service provider must contain nodes which are simply put, separate spaces for allocating different games. Each node should be assigned to host a specific game and supports a number of slots. The slots are the number of simultaneous connections of users who are connected to a particular node at a given time.
The pricing system is based on the number of slots. Thus while negotiating with a service provider it would be a good idea to be totally aware of the rates of different games. The cost per month for a certain game would be its rate multiplied by the average number of slots or the number of players connected to a certain node or server. Therefore one must keep track of the latest games which are topping the popularity charts and avoid the ones which are on the verge of being obsolete.
Compared to a shared web host machine, which can take in thousands of customers in a machine, a game host provider can accommodate only 10 to 15 nodes. This accounts for a high amount of current consumption. It would be a safe ploy to ascertain whether a web host service provider is up to it before making a decision.
Moreover if one is looking to package a game server with certain added features he should target the hosting services which provide add ones like in game chatting apart from basic hosting facilities.
Rodrigo Rehn is a Linux Systems Administrator, Web Programmer, PHP Developer and CEO of Hospedagemlocal hospedagem de sites brazilian web hosting services.
Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Web-Hosting-Service-For-Your-Game-Server/366133
What To Look For In A Web Host
Are you looking to build yourself a website? Trying to give yourself a presence on the internet? Then you would definitely be needing a web host to host your site on.
First thing to think about though when looking for a web host is the sort of website you are thinking of creating. Is it going to be a just a personal site about yourself and your CV, Is it going to be a family site with lots of family pictures? Thinking of setting up a busy forum about your favourite hobby, or a game server to play your favourite games online with friends or are you even contemplating having multiple sites? All this questions would have to be answered before you embark on your search for a suitable host.
One thing you would notice straight away is most hosts have plans providing you with gigabytes of space and bandwidth. This could lead you to believe your site would take that much space which could then lead you into comparing hosts by comparing the amount of space made available to you going for the company that offers the largest space. (I have seen a company offering 100Gigabyte of space once).
The truth is most websites don't even use anywhere close to that amount of space. Majority of sites don't even use up to 1Gb of space. The average website on the internet today uses less than 50MB of space (yes you read that correctly 50MB). Even an album based website for example a family website with family pictures would still use less than 500MB of space. But don't take my word for it, If you can, build your website offline first of all using a site building software such as dreamweaver or nVU, exactly how you want it to be online with all the images and you would discover how very little space it uses up. It is therefore possible to have several websites on just 500MB of online space.
So I here you ask, why do hosting companies offer as much as 5-100Gb of space in their plans? Well the truth is because they all want to appear competitive.
They know your site wouldn't use that much space and they know you most likely don't know that, so they try and prey on the natural human trait known as GREED. Out of greed, people would always want to get the most of something they can even though they wouldn't use all of it. I have even seen some companies offering Unlimited disk space which is just laughable.
So do these companies have so much space to offer everyone? As you guessed it, the answer is no. What happens is they oversell! Because they know you most likely wouldn't use anywhere near your allocated space, they oversell to make as much money from you as they can before you finally transfer to someone else.
And if a client comes along with an extremely heavy website and does use even 75% of the space allocated to him, he would most likely get kicked off by the host provider with the reason that he's using too many server resources.
Another trick of the trade is the amount of sites you can have on your accounts also known as 'add-on domains' on your account. One could assume that if you cannot fill 5Gb with a single website, then maybe perhaps you could fill it with several websites. Well these 'overselling' companies have thought about this too and what they do is limit the amount of websites you can have per account. So on say a 5Gb account, you may only be allowed to have 2 websites or add-on domains.
Bandwidth is another thing to look out for. But like disk space, you usually don't use close to what is being offered, and this is also grossly oversold. Bandwidth is basically the amount of data that is transferred from and to your hosting account everymonth. Technically you can work out the amount of bandwidth you are going to need by using this formula:
[Average size of your webpages + any graphics used] x [The number of visitors you expect each day x Number of pages each visitor would view] x [30 days] = Total Bandwidth for the month.
For example for a 30 page website averaging 8kb per page, and 50kb worth of images on each page. If you get 50 visitors a day viewing an average of 4 pages each, the total bandwidth for the month would be [8 KB + 50 KB] * [50 visitors * 4 pages] * [30 days in a month] = 348,000 KB. Therefore this site would use a bandwidth of approximately 348Mb per month which is well within limitations of any hosting company.
Therefore what should you look for when choosing a hosting company?
The most important thing to look at is the server specs the company uses, and just as important the support they provide to their clients. By seeing how much effort a company has put into to develop their support department would tell you the sort of experience you would have with them. Is their support just an email address? If so then you probably wouln't want to be with them. Does their support have a knowledge base? Ready made questions and answers, video tutorials to show you visually how to solve the most common problems? An email ticketing system so if you do email them, responses can be tracked? Live chat so a quick question can be answered instantly? A good host that is not just worried about their profits would invest the time and energy into making all these available for their current and potential clients.
So when next you are out shopping for a webhost, don't just look at the amount of space and bandwidth you get, also look at the support available to you if a problem arises as it almost always does.
Tony Martin
View all articles by Tony Martin
|
|
Joseph Joseph ELGB0100CB Elevate 6-Piece Heat-Resistant Utensil Set $33.32 Keep your counter tops clean while cooking with the Elevate multi-color six piece utensil set from Joseph Joseph. This six piece set includes a spaghetti server, slotted spoon, ladle, slotted turner, solid spoon, and a flexible turner in a variety of colors from blue and green to yellow, orange and pink. The innovative, weighted handle system allows for you to set the utensil on your counter top w... |
|
|
Game Server $62.13 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles A game server is a remotely or locally run server used by game clients to play multiplayer video games. Most video games played over the Internet operate via a connection to a game server. A game server can also be referred to as a host (especially when one of the clients also acts as the server) or a shared (especially in the context of massively multiplayer games). Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 64 Publication Date: 2010/12/06 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.15 inches |
|
|
Atari Arcade Hits $9.99 Six old Atari Arcade classics can now be played on your PC in Atari Arcade Hits. Choose from Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout, or Tempest, each shown on the screen the way they looked when you first stood in front of them in an Arcade and emulated with minute details such as Asteroids' inability to show three initials in the tenth spot on the high scores list.Players can go into the configure box and modify the way each game is played. There are options for enhanced graphics, a "trippy mode" for Asteroids, and the ability to tweak difficulty levels, among others. There are even desktop themes to choose from which will replace the wallpaper, screensaver, icons, and sounds in your PC with ones related to your favorite Atari game.Each game is playable with a joystick, mouse, or keyboard and the developers focused on emulating the feel of the trackball in games like Centipede and Missile Command. The same is true of the knob used to play Tempest, Pong, and Super Breakout.Players with access to the web can go to the official Atari web site and enter their high scores into the company's server. Who's the best Tempest player in the United States? You can find out there.Finally, there's also an Atari archives section full of interviews with founder Nolan Bushnell and pictures from the early days of the company's success both in the Arcades and in the home with the Atari 2600. |
