For those who run their own server...

[IAIHMB]

What ISP are you using, and about how much are they charging you a month? I really want to build a gaming server, but I don't want to spend more than 50$ ish a month. I believe Road Runner, and AOL would be checked off from the list. Thanks alot for any input.

[stiltman]

Sorry I have no idea what it costs most people. At my old job, I have a few servers running. Pretty much through anything up. Here at home I have 1 server running and I have cable with 128 up / 3mb down. Been running it for 2 years and they haven't said a word about it (knock on wood)

Can you get DSL? If so, check the SOHO prices.

[sterno]

I think most people I've seen run game servers were just using ordinary cable/DSL or they were on college campuses. If you don't attract attention with excessive bandwidth use most providers won't notice or care.

[rallynavvie]

Game servers don't eat up much bandwidth. I occasionally host on my home DSL. It depends on the game and how many clients are connected, but a 500/500 connection would do OK for many dedicated servers. File serving is where ISPs crack down on you as you're using up a lot of the available bandwidth for greater lengths of time.

[IAIHMB]

Thanks alot for the help so far guys. I'm on a Road Runner/AOL cable connection, but don't I need a static IP? I believe my connection will handle it, my most recent bandwidth test's results:

Your RcvWindow limits you to: 2621.4 kbps (327.675 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 1048.56 kbps (131.07 KBytes/s) @ 500ms

Also, do you guys think $1,000 would be enough to cover a nice gaming server? Have you ever found any places that sell pre built gaming servers? Pretty much any advice would help alot, thanks for all of your help.

[808smokey]

I've seen decent servers start for around $500, it's a single P4 system:

Black 1U Rackmount chassis without exposed bay, no CD ROM and no floppy bays
Supermicro P4SGE w/ Intel extreme graphic and dual Gigabit LANs
Intel Celeron 2.0GHZ 400MHZ FSB 128K cache
DDR266 256MB memory, non-ECC
Assembly and Testing
Maxtor 120GB IDE 7200RPM 8M cache

Dual xeons start around $1000:

SM 6013A-TB BB. M/B w/ ATI 8MB video, Dual Giga LANs, Software Raid 0 or 1
Intel Xeon 2.4GHZ 533MHZ FSB 512K cache
DDR266 1GB Memory - 512MB x 2 ECC REG memory
Maxtor 120GB SATA 7200RPM 8M cache

You could use an P3 desktop as a server if you really wanted to.

[stiltman]

Thanks alot for the help so far guys. I'm on a Road Runner/AOL cable connection, but don't I need a static IP?

Just use one of the free dynamic DNS servers out there. It will update as your IP changes. then just give out the DNS to your friends instead of the IP

[rallynavvie]

I use dyndns.org for my Dynamic DNS host. I use 3DWatch to keep it updated when I'm away.