need help on creating game servers!

hey guys im planning on setting up a 16 player cs 1.6 server but i dont know anything about servers. i have alot of questions to ask. thanks in advance for any help. okay first of all whats the difference between a game server and a dedicated server? which one would be better for running a cs 1.6 server. if i get one how do i set it up? and one more where could i get a great deal on servers?

 

If you have a fast connection you can run the server on your machine.
A 'dedicated' server is one that runs the server all the time. You can download the server software and run it in the background. The software(generally) can be minimized to the task bar and you can do other things at the same time its running. Assuming you have a fast enough machine.
From what I understand, if you're going to run a game server, you'll need to rent your own server. You can get these from serverbeach.com and rackmount.com and www.ilangame.com looks like that only do game hosting and it looks like they have a nice operation. They'll cost you about 36 a month.

 

I've ran a dedicated server before for Half-Life TFC, on a separate machine. All I did was take a Windows 2000 Pro PC and install the TFC server app and opened the proper ports on the firewall to allow people to connect in and it was all set. With 16 players you will need a fast upload connection, so maybe hosting it else where would be a good idea.

 

when u guys say fast connection how fast must it be? adsl, cable, t1?
so basically a dedicated server is like a game server except it doesn't have all the game software already on it?

if i were to run 1 cs 1.6 16 players server what kind of specifications should i be looking for?

 

I don't know..I would say 128 kbps upload at least, probably preferably 256 kbps. I'd go to that ilan site I posted earlier and see what kind of speeds they offer for their dedicated servers, and try to get as close to that as possible.
Running a server on cable internet or fast dsl might be close to impossible. The thing about those broadband services is they like to give you fast download, but slow upload speeds. And when you're running a game server, download speed isn't as important as fast upload speed.

 

What high- speed internet isn't broadband?

 

also you may whant to consider haveing like an AMXMOD or ADMINMOD (google for them) to give admin to certain ppl... or have like messages... and penilties for tking and stuff....I can run a server fine from my home network... 50ish pings for some ppl in vergina

STEAM dose come with the dedicated software built in. Just goto games and than click on "dedicated server" were you can go though the basics for setting up a server.

 

how much bandwidth do u use up for running your server? is yours on 24/7?

i have adsl with 512kb(kilobits not bytes )/s upload speed so im not worried about that what i am worried about is bandwidth usage!!!!

 

So that's only 64KB up (kilobytes) which is not much for a dedicated server hosting that many people...

 

Its not on anymore... i got someone else to handle the hassel of maintaing it for me.

But it ran really good on my Linux box. (500mhz 128MB ram TNT 2 64mb ram)

 

You can rent servers, I've heard of some costing as little as $20 but there not very good. Check this one out at:

http://rentals.nuclearfallout.net/ 16-person CS server $70

Normally if you get a group of people, aka a "clan" you can each pay $20 or less each and have a good server with a fast connection. Hope this helps. If you are thinking about joining / making a clan for competition, please check out:

http://www.caleague.com/