I am curious if its possible to put TWGS on a hosting ( like a web host ) ... I could run it on my computer ... but there has been glitches with my ISP as of late, and would just rather pay 10-15 a month for a decent server to run the game off of.

Any suggestions?

You will need to ask your ISP if they'll let you run a persistent process and bind
to port 2002/2003 (since ports under 1024 are reserved). That could be a problem
since many of them run linux and twgs is a windows server. There are, however, a
few game server companies that might let you do this. Might cost $20 a month or
so, but you could probably find one... I looked into that the other day. Most of
them host large graphical servers like Unreal, etc. TWGS would be tiny by
comparison.

I doubt my ISP would be interested, but your other option may be something to consider.
Thanks for the response, I will look around - if I find anything, I'll be sure to post to let everyone know.

From what I found ... the servers would have to be "Dedicated" and run about $150.00 a month.
If I could find one for $20 a month, it would be nice, but most are Linux based, not windows. And from the responses I got, they don't like having to use Telnet for anything ...

If anyone has a space I could "rent" from them ... I would be greatful.

Look a little deeper. I found several game server hosting companies that use a VPS to partition a server into little sub servers. Lots of places run Unreal, America's army, etc, like this. I thought about asking them what they'd charge for TWGS. Try it, see how it goes.

I did finally have one respond to me and say that they would run one :

As quoted by them "Actually believe it or not we are familar with that game. We used to play
it on BBS's and have run the server that you wish to run as well."

Its $2 per connection + $20 setup. They seem very friendly too.

Hey, Singularity, I found a lot of game sites that ran Unreal and whatnot, and they denied me - said I needed a dedicated server. How funny. But this one I found may look worthwhile.

Yea... the biggest challenge will be finding someone that runs windows for
their server and is willing to go a little further. Probably more of a
numbers game than anything else. So you found one then? When they say $2
per connection do they mean active number of nodes, or what?

Perhaps you could post the company here? I'm going to guess they might
get some decent business from offering this.

Sure.
I wasn't sure if I was able to or not. From what I was told by them, they are big fans of TW, have even played it and ran their own TWGS, so they know quite well about the game setup, and are windows-bsed gaming side of the company ( I guess the other side does the Unix-based ones )

I believe the $2 per connection is active connections. So, if I wanted 20 nodes, it would be $40 a month. ( with a $20 setup fee )

On their site, they don't have TWGS listed as a game ... but assured me that they will work with it.
E-mail: renderby@ironrocket.com if you are interested, he should be able to explain it in better detail ( http://www.ironrocket.com )

I decided to throw in the e-mail I got from them. [:D]

quote:Actually believe it or not we are familar with that game. We used to play it on BBS's and have run the server that you wish to run as well.

We have written our own BBS with a built in game inside. Its called Ursha Null 7 (http://www.ursha7.com) and still operate it today.

Anyhow we can run that server for you on a per slot bases. A 20 player server would be $40.00/mo (or $2 per slot) + $20 setup fee.

You will need to provide us with the software to install on our servers for you. Please go ahead and fill out the signup form on our website (http://www.ironrocket.com) and click on the order form link on the left. Select any game and I will know what you want. This will be hosted in Atlanta, GA BTW. That is the location we do custom software installs at.

Why do you have to pay for each additional node? Running it from you own computer at 100 nodes it no problem for your ISP, then why is it a big deal for a mega server? How do you deal know if there cheating you, on Fri, Sat, & Sun you might have 30-players all weekend and then on Mon-Thur only 10-players during the weekdays. Would be diff to keep track of, you would have to start charging players for duping, hahahaa. I was wanting to do something like that myself rather then burning a computer 24/7, the savings from PG&E would be worth it alone, not to mention the computer maintence and increased speed from the hosts mega-servers. The server has to offer Telnet access though right? Also there is no limit to how many individual games you can run right, and extern and game time will be according to that of the hosting server right?

Would the hosting servers firewalls cause conflicts and would hacking become an issue, i dont think the firewalls would being how there designed for commercial use and I am thinking that hacking would become harder then ever but what about multiple users from the same IP, just some questions i wanted to through out there for consideration.

On a final note, I notice when I first install TWGS I have to reboot my computer before it will bind a connection, how would that work since you can reboot a hosting server on demand?

I think what they were referring to is like a Shoutcast service, you pay for the nodes up-front.
Weather they are used or not. And from what recently heard its a minimum $40 ( 20 connections )
So, if I have only 2 people playing all month, I pay $40. If I have all 20, I pay $40.