galdikas Posted March 19, 2011 Posted March 19, 2011 So I have started developing a game, I have it hosted on shared hosting now. Well since there is hardly anything there yet, of course it works fast and and everything. What I want to find out is - How long is shared hosting enough? Or even is shared hosting enough at all? Just for the sake of comparison lets say standard MCcodes packet... If I was to install it on some standard shared hosting.. How many active users will I be able to sustain on your average shared hosting? After shared hosting no longer enough.. what's next? VPS package? Dedicated servers? Buying your own servers and hiring systen admin(I personally dont know much about hardware/*nix systems, and if possible would like to be able to get away without having to learn all that stuflf?) As well maybe yous could describe some of the hosts you use/ have used? Here's mine: http://www.justhost.com Well so far so good. Paid around €60 for a year of hosting. Got free domain with it. I have unlimited bandwidth/disk space (yeah I know that hosts that promise that should be avoided, but just needed something cheap for development, and so I could share with people what I done so far, so fair enough.) They're servers are based in Chicago US, I am in Ireland, but never noticed slow load times or anything. Support is always available through 24/7 live chat. And for more serious issues you will have to submit a ticket, which gets replied in timely manner. One bad thing: Crons can only be run at minimum intervals of 15min... So no 5 min crons, which are frequently used in online games. I solved that issue by running crons from different host (I have it for other purpose), so basically if you want to run crons at smaller then 15minute intervals, you wont be able to :) Quote
Danny696 Posted March 19, 2011 Posted March 19, 2011 Well, when your games either running very slow, or your getting max user connections errors, then you should probabbly think about updating it :) But you should probabbly think about a host with unlimited crons :) Quote
DreamCoder Posted March 19, 2011 Posted March 19, 2011 So I have started developing a game, I have it hosted on shared hosting now. Well since there is hardly anything there yet, of course it works fast and and everything. What I want to find out is - How long is shared hosting enough? Or even is shared hosting enough at all? Just for the sake of comparison lets say standard MCcodes packet... If I was to install it on some standard shared hosting.. How many active users will I be able to sustain on your average shared hosting? After shared hosting no longer enough.. what's next? VPS package? Dedicated servers? Buying your own servers and hiring systen admin(I personally dont know much about hardware/*nix systems, and if possible would like to be able to get away without having to learn all that stuflf?) As well maybe yous could describe some of the hosts you use/ have used? Here's mine: http://www.justhost.com Well so far so good. Paid around €60 for a year of hosting. Got free domain with it. I have unlimited bandwidth/disk space (yeah I know that hosts that promise that should be avoided, but just needed something cheap for development, and so I could share with people what I done so far, so fair enough.) They're servers are based in Chicago US, I am in Ireland, but never noticed slow load times or anything. Support is always available through 24/7 live chat. And for more serious issues you will have to submit a ticket, which gets replied in timely manner. One bad thing: Crons can only be run at minimum intervals of 15min... So no 5 min crons, which are frequently used in online games. I solved that issue by running crons from different host (I have it for other purpose), so basically if you want to run crons at smaller then 15minute intervals, you wont be able to :) i would recommend W3theory.com Quote
a_bertrand Posted March 19, 2011 Posted March 19, 2011 As long as the shared host is fast enough and they don't kick you stay with that. You will need then a VPS or a dedicated server in both case you must have some knowledge of Linux sysadmin, otherwise either you will fail making your game work and / or you risk to be hacked if you don't apply the security patch. A VPS or dedicated server is also required if you need to run software which is not standard for example a custom server for a chat or whatever else. A VPS is normally much cheaper (around 20$ per month) compared to a dedicated server (around 100$ per month). So be sure you do have those requirement before jumping on one of those. You own server hosted somewhere (called co-location) can be a cheaper solution than a dedicated server specially if you keep it more than one year. Other option is to have a good Internet connection (either balanced downstream / upstream or with an upstream bigger than the downstream which is not the normal configuration) and handle the server from home. However count the Internet connection and the electricity bill to see if it really make sense as this is normally not a cheap solution with the advantage to have directly access to the hardware in case you want to upgrade or need to fix something. Quote
Deathmaker Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 If you need a dedicated server, I host all my pages at Hetzner. You get a powerfull webserver that can handle quite a lot. Quote
a_bertrand Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 They are indeed cheap. Yet to see how good the connection is. Quote
Diesl Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 I've used HostV.com for VPS and I'm currently using MyHosting.com for VPS HostV - good prices (I was able to get 50% when I first signed up) - decent specs on basic package - had some issues with server crashing - excellent tech support - ticket support was very quick, even at off hours MyHosting - really good prices ( built a custom VPS and got a 30% discount) - can customize your own specs, but I have decent specs - minimal issues with server crashing - decent tech support (can be a bit timely on off hours) Quote
a_bertrand Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 For VPS I do use: http://www.tektonic.net/ Cheaper than HostV ;) and yet really good. MyHosting seems a bit like Lunarpages, not sure I would trust those sites anymore. Quote
Diesl Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 For VPS I do use: http://www.tektonic.net/ Cheaper than HostV ;) and yet really good. MyHosting seems a bit like Lunarpages, not sure I would trust those sites anymore. I wish I had seen that site when I was shopping around. So far so good with myhosting. It has received favourable reviews as well, which pushed me towards it. The sometimes ticket responses is my only complaint thus far. Quote
rulerofzu Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 I run several servers at Hetzner. Support is quick and reliable. Routing is pretty quick. But im in the UK and most of my players are UK/EEC based. Hence why I host at Hetzner. Feel free to ping rulerofzu.com Alain. Quote
The Bonded Game Posted April 2, 2011 Posted April 2, 2011 Personally I am using these folks for my basic development cycles. I can no use the five or one minute crons due to it being a shared server, but once i am ready they said they would help me upgrade to a dedicated server very easily. http://www.lunarpages.com/ Quote
a_bertrand Posted April 3, 2011 Posted April 3, 2011 I used lunarpages too but honestly I would not recommend them anymore. As soon as you have any kind of traffic (not saying big sites) they say you are consuming too much for a shared host (and they sell unlimited right?). So certainly this site is all money lost. I suggest to use your own PC for the development with XAMPP / WAMPP or equivalent, and then go for some better host like for example: http://www.w3theory.com/ Quote
Djkanna Posted April 3, 2011 Posted April 3, 2011 Lunerpages do somewhat suck. I used, http://vpsfuze.com/ for hosting a Minecraft server (okay so it's not the same) they were pretty good and support was quick and friendly when I made a total cock-up. The only issue is if you didn't install with some form of management panel you better be good in terms of shell. (though you're able to install a panel via their control panel). Quote
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