What s better, Setting up my own server, or renting one?

[Arrow816]

Im kinda new to the whole tekkit server aspect, and I am currently renting a server through beatnode. Its working alright, but is kinda laggy. Im not setting this up to run a huge community site, its mainly for 10-15 of my friends to mess around on, and have a fun time on.

My question is a multiple part question.

1) What is better, building my own server and hosting it on that, or renting one through someone like beastnode or some one?

A) If building my own, what are the specs I should get, or specific servers I should buy?

If renting, who is the best(Preferable cheap, but not required) for renting and running a tekkit server?

Thanks,

Steve C

[Djinnii]

I wouldn't build a dedicated machine for it... but it's always better to run it on your own machine first, so that you understand better how it works and how the server interacts with files etc...

It also depends entirely on your Internet connection.

Check out: http://canihostaminecraftserver.com/ for a rough estimate.

I would highly recommend a VPS service like the one CreeperHost offers. I personally use CreeperHost and have done so for about 3-4months now, to the extent I now actually have three VPS's from them to host my Bukkit, Tekkit server and Feed the Beast servers. They have amazing staff and actually take the time to communicate with the customer. At the moment they are currently looking at running an IRC server specifically to streamline real-time communication.

The control panel can also install a MySQL and Mumble server on your VPS for a small one off fee, or you can freely install it yourself. They put no limitations on what you can or cannot have on your VPS.

I currently have 1 of my VPS's running Tekkit, my website and my MySQL server.

Some pro's:

Great Staff,

Great Service,

No Lagg,

Good choice of server locations,

Great Control Panel,

Good range of options to control your server, (You can connect via FTP, SFTP, SCP, SSH and HTTPS),

Useful applications to download so you can see and use your server console on your home PC like you can normally when hosting it at home.

Useful API you can use to dynamically update your website, or even create your own Control Panel.

Great Backup/Restore service from the control panel, It even allows you to perform Remote Backups to one of their secured off-site servers in case of "catastrophic failure"

They are constantly upgrading their control panel and hardware to get better performance.

They actually listen to their customers. (I have asked for 3 "new" features, all of which were added to their system within 12hours of the suggestion at no cost.)

Some con's:

Each VPS is initially limited to 30GB local storage (although you can usually negotiate for more)

[Arrow816]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. Which packaged do you recommend for me, like I said this is mainly going to be for like 15-20 of my friends at the most.

Thanks,

Steve C

[D3matt]

Well, first I would host it yourself on a spare computer (or on your desktop if you have no other choice. Don't use a laptop) to see what you can expect. See how many friends will actually be on at once, what kind of plugins you want, what kind of problems you might run into. You may just decide it's not for you. If you decide you want to continue with it, then obviously a rented solution is "better", but the question is how much money how are you looking to spend?

[Djinnii]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. Which packaged do you recommend for me, like I said this is mainly going to be for like 15-20 of my friends at the most.

Thanks,

Steve C

Again, As I pointed out first and as D3matt has re-itterated, you should try running it yourself at home (if it is remotely an option which by your original post I must assume it is) Try running it on your main desktop, or a spare machine. (I really wouldn't worry about weather it's a laptop or not, turn off powersaving, stick it in a cool, well ventilated area and it'll be fine.)

If you really want to go for the "rented" option, I currently run my 20 slot Tekkit server with no banned items at all on the Skeleton package, but I'm fairly sure you can get away with a spider. Even with 20 people online I still only use 2G of RAM.

(I actually opened mine up to the public instead of just friends, and it brings in enough money to pay for itself and a few extra upgrades/ventures)

[MrKekson]

but do consider bandwith, a big factory can take up to 300k/s ( 2500 kbps ) for one user!

its like 100-150 k on average, so 10-15 users would eat up any assymetric net nowdays imho

aso where you want to host it? i mean continent?

oh, and tekkit do need a very stron cpu, not so mutch ram,( im using 2GB with dynamp + 10 users ) atm i'm terting spigot mcpc, witch is kinda multithreaded, so can use more than 1 core, so i recomment it, wit 3.1.2

[Arrow816]

but do consider bandwith, a big factory can take up to 300k/s ( 2500 kbps ) for one user!

its like 100-150 k on average, so 10-15 users would eat up any assymetric net nowdays imho

aso where you want to host it? i mean continent?

oh, and tekkit do need a very stron cpu, not so mutch ram,( im using 2GB with dynamp + 10 users ) atm i'm terting spigot mcpc, witch is kinda multithreaded, so can use more than 1 core, so i recomment it, wit 3.1.2

.

As for which continent us east coast. The internet I have I'm not sure the bandwidth, I Did a speed test and it shows I have a 10mbs ping, 50mbps download and 10upload. As for the processor and ram the computer I would run it on is a intel I7 with 8gb of ram, so it should be more then ok to run it

Thanks,

Steve C

[D3matt]

Less talking, more setting up a minecraft server! Go! Try it!

[Jeffdonatic]

10Mps Upload you say?

Thats fine run it off your computer you can atleast handle 20 people,

[Djinnii]

10Mps Upload you say?

Thats fine run it off your computer you can atleast handle 20 people,

Wish I could even get 1mbps up , sadly my ISP thinks they're doing me a favor by allowing me to get 0.16mbps up.

[Jeffdonatic]

Wish I could even get 1mbps up , sadly my ISP thinks they're doing me a favor by allowing me to get 0.16mbps up.

As is the case with most isp's today op must have a generous one to have such a high one if it is 10mps,

Anyhow id suggest like before Djinnii D3 that you start the server out on your Computer see if it progresses and if it is needed Seek out a vps hoster such as creeperhost.net and if it progresses even further you get a Dedicated rig from a provider such as limestonenetworks.com But you should only seek a dedicated server if you average 60-80 at all times as at which point a vps with tekkit becomes useless

[D3matt]

10mpbs isn't unusual with a 50mpbs plan. Upload (in my experience) is generally around 1/5th of download. I get 25-30 down and a steady 4.2 up.

[Djinnii]

D3, it's more a case of being able to get the plan.

Out here, we're still using overhead lines that were "condemned" 20-25years ago as not being fit for standard telephone calls, nvm high speed broadband.

[Somark28]

OP you are repeatedly signing your posts, I suggest you edit that out before a mod gives you an infraction point.

[Djinnii]

if it progresses even further you get a Dedicated rig from a provider such as limestonenetworks.com

I think that CreeperHost offers a better Dedicated server for the money than limestonenetworks... but of course I'm converting between GBP and USD.

(Actually just checked it out properly, the same server on linestonenetworks would cost you $100 a month more than CreeperHosts, the only real advantage being that you have more options for customization from the website, rather than how you'd do it with creeperhost via customer support)

[Silent]

I use the ChicagoVPS enterprise plan (2Gb), I have codes for like 70% off (from $25 to $7)

[Jeffdonatic]

I think that CreeperHost offers a better Dedicated server for the money than limestonenetworks... but of course I'm converting between GBP and USD.

(Actually just checked it out properly, the same server on linestonenetworks would cost you $100 a month more than CreeperHosts, the only real advantage being that you have more options for customization from the website, rather than how you'd do it with creeperhost via customer support)

When you go for the really high end specs limestone was a lot cheaper, we got $300 for it when other places were offering double it

[Kommunističeskiĭ]

I used to host from home and eventually moved to a VPS. Here's my personal experience:

Home hosting:

+ You are the boss of every aspect of your server. Every time something bad happens, you know who to slap across the face.

- You are limited by your area. Over here, the fastest ISP provides 10Mbit upstream which is pushing it for a 15 slot server.

- Power outages and storms mean big trouble. Downtime, corrupted worlds, angry players, etc.

- If you have a cat, you have to cat-proof every power switch related to your server.

- Can't go on vacations without the guarantee of hotel internet and a laptop that can play Minecraft.

- Can't go on vacations without triple-chacking that you can SSH into your network from the outside.

- Commercial routers aren't designed to take this kind of load and "build up" slowness over time, so you have to restart them periodically. (I never got a correct explanation for why this happens but it has been the case with every router/modem combination I've ever owned, so I hope someone can shed some light)

VPS:

+ You don't have to deal with network problems.

+ Most of them give you a 100Mbit line so you don't have to worry about bandwidth usage or limitations.

+ Storms and kitties aren't a problem.

- They cost money, which means at certain points you'll have to borrow money from your mother or whore out your server's integrity for donation money.

- You have to play around with different VPS's before you settle. A lot of them oversell their machines. A general rule for VPS shopping is: you get what you pay for. Avoid anything cheaper than $20 a month.

- Some (mine at least) don't give enough advance notice on scheduled system restarts, so you have to check your email periodically for "we're doing a xen update tonight gaiz, plz gracefully shut down your servers to prevent data loss". And, hope that you don't have to set your alarm at 2AM to manually shut your server down, wait 15 minutes, and then make sure it restarted properly. Yes, that happened to me.

The reason I switched was because my ISP introduced a data cap which added $60 to $100 to my monthly bill. I would still be hosting from home because of the money problem. It's hard to get donations if you run a survival server and don't want to give anyone advantages.

You can also rent a dedicated machine, but I haven't done that yet.

[Djinnii]

- Commercial routers aren't designed to take this kind of load and "build up" slowness over time, so you have to restart them periodically. (I never got a correct explanation for why this happens but it has been the case with every router/modem combination I've ever owned, so I hope someone can shed some light)

The main reason for this is that most routers have their own RAM, which like RAM in a typical computer gets filled up. The problem is the routers firmware isn't usually equipped to handle it all properly, so when it does a garbage collection it maybe doesn't do it as efficiently as a more expensive network gateway / switch. The easy way round this is to use a old computer as the internet gateway instead of a router device provided by your ISP.

[Kommunističeskiĭ]

The main reason for this is that most routers have their own RAM, which like RAM in a typical computer gets filled up. The problem is the routers firmware isn't usually equipped to handle it all properly, so when it does a garbage collection it maybe doesn't do it as efficiently as a more expensive network gateway / switch. The easy way round this is to use a old computer as the internet gateway instead of a router device provided by your ISP.

Ahhhh. Makes sense. I installed DD-WRT on it because the standard firmware wasn't robust enough. Guess that was too much for its poor little RAM to handle over long periods of time.

[Djinnii]

It's actually a bit more complex than that, but that's as good an explanation as any if you aren't trying to do anything with it other than understand why it needs rebooting after heavy use.

[Jeffdonatic]

best get a vps, hassle free at the expense of a few $

[D3matt]

I've never had issues with my WRT54G except for the web interface getting corrupted sometimes, which eventually fixes itself. 10mbit is almost way more than enough for a 15-slot. 10mbit should be able to host at least 30. I can host 20 on 4.2mbit with limited lag (on vanilla. All bets are off for technic)