I'm toying with the idea of co-locating a Mac mini in this Las Vegas data center: http://www.macminicolo.com to serve TT games.

I'd like to find out what pings y'all get with them. They gave me this IP address to use for testing: 66.116.97.157

To test the ping on a Mac look in applications/utilities/ for the Network Utility. Click the Ping button and plug the numbers above in. Send them 10 pings and post the average along with what state or area of the country you're in.

Will someone who's PC savy post directions?

Last edited: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 at 4:06:59 PM

@Flea I don't know what a server usage volume/month would be? Rx might know, or our regular server hosts.
The ISP's obviously meter usage. You would think they would add that info to billing, but mine doesn't. Any have a volume estimate?

Last edited: Thursday, August 18, 2005 at 7:20:08 PM

@PREY
I'm using 10 KB/sec(81 kbps) for a full game. So (10 KB/S)(3600 sec/hr)(24 hr/day)(30 day/month)=25 GB/month if a full game was on for the whole month.

Here ya go - pings from my machine in South Africa via lousy wireless "broadband"! It's about the same as my usual readings. - ff

Resolving host '66.116.97.157'
Pinging [66.116.97.157] x 10 with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=602 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=586 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=598 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=598 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=578 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=651 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=720 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : Timed out
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : bytes=32 : time=623 ms
Reply from 66.116.97.157 : Timed out
Min=578 : Max=720 : Ave=619 ms : Packetloss = 20%

@BC, what traceroute app did you use?

Ping has started...

PING 66.116.97.157 (66.116.97.157): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=0 ttl=50 time=75.226 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=71.969 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=68.815 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=3 ttl=50 time=68.947 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=4 ttl=50 time=70.876 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=5 ttl=50 time=71.082 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=6 ttl=50 time=68.823 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=7 ttl=50 time=67.635 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=8 ttl=50 time=68.518 ms
64 bytes from 66.116.97.157: icmp_seq=9 ttl=50 time=68.927 ms

--- 66.116.97.157 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 67.635/70.081/75.226 ms

@Jacob ^
Where you be at in the house?

@DJ Wings
I used the Network Utility app that comes with Mac OS X. I also got the trial version of IPNetMonitorX to use their TCP dump.

[EDIT]

Yikes, I underestimated the traffic from a full game by a factor of three! I'm using 30 KB/s(245 Kbps) for a full game and 75 GB for the Max throughput/month now. My current cable tests at 220 Kbps so I can't run a full game from home.

I have also come to believe that the processor must be running a single game only. So, co-locating a Mac mini would serve up one game with reliable bandwidth.

Last edited: Sunday, August 21, 2005 at 8:32:14 AM

85

42?

@BC - Hows this going?

@all

For a server what is more important memory or cpu?

I found this place in Texas that has better rates and a better location for the TT community, not to mention a better ping for me. :) I'm stuffing the mini into a 1U case today.

Dash says he never uses more than 30% processor or more than 100 MB of RAM when running 1 game. I served up a game on a 132 MHz 604 (pre-G3) 1995 Mac with 4 bot and 4 human players. It used 75% of the processor (game+OSX) without lag.

So I'd say neither processor nor memory matter much. As long as you have a consistent 300 Kbps upload bandwidth available at a decent ping, you should be golden. The only issue I'm not clear on is what, if anything, interferes with TT on the serving computer(disk I/o, multiple TT games served, etc.).

Last edited: Saturday, September 03, 2005 at 10:56:17 AM

@BC ,
You may have to consider, how long the company will be around? My ping is 67 ms to the new colo-location. Same ping as going to Alpharetta Georgia. Seems kind of odd.

I'm right next to the wireless thing...

@Prey
Hmm, are their killer prices a sign of desperation? Can you recommend any places in Atlanta? Atlanta seems like it would be the best location.

@Jacob
Hehe, I was tryin to be fly in the form of my question. Where in the USA is what I meant. BTW, you might get a better ping with an ethernet cable hookup to the router. I get 20-30 ms more ping on wireless than with the cable hookup.

Last edited: Saturday, September 03, 2005 at 11:17:28 AM

@bc
Whenever you decide to colocate set up a paypal account. I'll pay $10 a month for hosting some TBML or other league games.

Fly?

Ps what is the ip to check my ping to that center?

I'm way south Southern tip of texas almost

I live in the streets of Laredo (its just Laredo but I"m talking old for you like you for me) :P

@Jacob
LOL, thanks.

64.232.99.2 will get you up to their firewall. Their addresses don't show up in whois though, so I guess that discourages me from send anything to them

Last edited: Saturday, September 03, 2005 at 4:13:35 PM

@BC I think it is a great price. They are halving the cost of everyone else. I'd be cautious on suggestions of long term contracts. Just my history. My own history of ISP's: Phoenix, NS.NET, PacBell, AT&T. Over the last 8 years they are ISP's no longer. I have SureWest currently and they were originally WinFirst 2 years ago. Before they went bankcrupt & rescued by SureWest. Phoenix went bankrupt. NS.net sold out. Pac Bell became SBC & AT&T became Comcast I think?

@BC I think your bandwidth calcs are off. The co-lo that PTT uses, estimates 6 hours per user @10k per second... That comes to about 216 Megs a day per user. For a 10 person team game 2.16 gigs/day*31 days ~ 60 Gigs per month.

http://www.hypernia.net/game_servers/standard.html

Last edited: Friday, September 09, 2005 at 5:59:40 PM

That's for FPS games I think. I'm using actual measurements for TT. I was focused on the outgoing channel though, and forgot about the incoming traffic which is about the same as outgoing. So I was off by a factor of 2 at my last estimate (which was 3x bigger than my first). So now I'm figuring for a 10 player game, 150 GB/month @ 24hrs/day, 38 GB @ 6hrs/day. Dash says he never uses more than 40 GB/month.

I found this place in Atlanta after more research:
http://unixshell.com
and bought their cheapest ($8/month) plan. It's just a server that's been split up between users. It makes sense for serving TT games. We just need a wee bit of processing power and transfer allotment and for the game to be served from a spot close to the internet backbone.

NUTS! Got a TS game going on it. It's currently named "Atlanta". We're trying to figure out how to get more than one game going to test the account's limits.

Last edited: Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 11:37:11 AM