We have been hosted at the same location for nearly a decade now ( host ) but our server has grown old and it is either time to upgrade, move, or go an entire new direction before it dies. We have been grandfathered in at Esecuredata, with an incredibly low price ( 49$ a month ) for a dedicated server. This makes the transition rather difficult, as an upgrade kicks us up to 79$ a month, which would be an increase of nearly 360$ a year. There is no option to continue at the lower price with the same type of server, as those are obsolete these days( p3) at this facility. As a free game, and one that has never allowed our players to donate to the cause, the cost is starting to wear on us. My guess is we have probably paid nearly 15k in our lifetime, and the thought of this continually increasing worries me:)
What options are out there? What and where are you guys hosted? How is the pricing and links?
I've recently begun debating if it would be worth purchasing a server and collocating it somewhere or to simply upgrade at our current facility and bite the bullet. The last option would be to host it at my home, on a second line dedicated to the game. With our generator, the game's uptime should not be affected but I do wonder how the link would be.
Either way, any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I hadn't mentioned any requirements because pretty much everything out there is better than we are currently running on, except the Atom servers I have been seeing on a few website promos.
I am trying not to laugh atm, but we are on a p3, 1 gb RAM, and 500 HD. Even the laptop I am typing on is better than the server we have been using for the last decade:)
If you're currently running on a P3, then a micro EC2 instance may be enough. It's free for one year, and after that you can get a reserved one for $82 every 3 years + about $60 per year if you run it 24/7.
I hadn't mentioned any requirements because pretty much everything out there is better than we are currently running on, except the Atom servers I have been seeing on a few website promos.
I am trying not to laugh atm, but we are on a p3, 1 gb RAM, and 500 HD. Even the laptop I am typing on is better than the server we have been using for the last decade:)
I don't believe my VPS with 512mb of RAM is better :) My CPU share is proportional to that RAM slice. If 1gb is plenty for you then consider prgmr.com. It's $20/mo (and discounts for 6/12mo billing) for 1gb RAM. They host my 512 and I've had almost zero issues since moving there. Tech support is "fairly limited", but it is used as a selling point. They assume "you know what you are doing" and thus provide very little assistance on things past host hardware faults or upstream provider issues.
I've used linode for a long time. They're a fantastic service at 20 dollars a month. However, If I really didn't want much support I'd probably use an EC2 instance. Much cheaper.
18 Oct, 2011, David Haley wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
Do EC2 instances do well with running long-living servers rather than a request/response model?
Do EC2 instances do well with running long-living servers rather than a request/response model?
Yeah, I've known people who run muds on them. I wouldn't expect any issues related to their architecture, but micro instances are a bit like running ont he cheap VPS hosts. It could have some performance issues vs the small instance. The problem with EC2 to me is that micro is relatively cheap, but small is relatively expensive. I needed something in between, so I've used linode for a while now. Which is a great service, btw.
19 Oct, 2011, David Haley wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
Yeah, that's the main problem I've seen with these services when it comes to hosting a MUD. The request/response model doesn't work and most of the long-lived process models cost a lot, or aren't enough. For something like this I also tend to prefer a Linode setup.
Personally, I use Linode now for my VPS needs. Uptime with them is fantastic on top of their control panel being easy to navigate and user friendly. Also, they have a nifty library filled with oodles and oodles of information. Customer support is top notch as well.
For a development server with a contract I have at the moment, I'm using Liquid Web(http://www.liquidweb.com). I've only been using them for about two weeks so I can't really say much about it other than it just works so far and I've had zero problems and it appears to be pretty solid. However, they're a little bit more expensive.
06 Nov, 2011, Markov_AU wrote in the 13th comment:
Votes: 0
Might be a few more looking right now, as RPG-Works.net is going under 2/1/12
What options are out there? What and where are you guys hosted? How is the pricing and links?
I've recently begun debating if it would be worth purchasing a server and collocating it somewhere or to simply upgrade at our current facility and bite the bullet. The last option would be to host it at my home, on a second line dedicated to the game. With our generator, the game's uptime should not be affected but I do wonder how the link would be.
Either way, any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.