Building a BF2 Internet Game Server

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well guys I am trying to get a game server up and running for a newly founded BF2 clan that some mates from my old clan and I have started up.
Check out the clan here:
http://fat.pro-forums.com/

Basically I want to know what sort of hardware I should run i.e CPU, RAM, GPU etc. Do I need a hardwired net connection (straight from the router) or can it run WiFi maybe? Also which OS should I use, should I get XP or should I get a free version of Linux. The server will need to be running almost 24/7 and will need to be able to run Team Speak.

Any help would be great.

[SgtM]

Definitely go Linux. A lot less overhead than a windows box. For running a server, you'll definitely want it hardwired. Wireless will have way too much lag. Of course, you'll have to set up port forwarding in order to for it to work properly. Let me know if you need help with that. Airbozo could probably answer whatever questions you have as far as actual installation and coniguration of the server. I know he's setup a test BF2 server before.

Hardware requirements:
http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/Plesk8.0/Doc/plesk-8-battlefield2-gs-module-users-guide/20908.htm

Server download:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_15377.shtml
http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/downloads.jsp

[The boy 4rm oz]

Thanks for the help buddy, I'll check those links out tomorrow after school. I need to find a few old systems at school I could use, they are old P2 desktops though.

[Outlaw]

Before you spend any money(sounds like the PC might be free), but check your internet UPload speed first. Running TS and BF2 would be a pretty hard hit to a residential connection (some exceptions). If your internet isn't "up to speed" so to speak, I honestly don't think it is worth it. I think it SgtM who has run a CS server here, and I also have. For Source, I think it was RECOMMENDED 512K UPload each slot on the server (I'm sure this varies for BF2). Just thought I would throw that in there so you don't get disappointed IF you didn't have the speed to run it. If you do, disregard and enjoy. :D

[SgtM]

Haven't run a game server from home, but I do have a web/proxy server that's currently hosting 2 sites.. burnt45.com and sgtmsystems.com. Burnt45 is my brother in law's band.. sgtmsystems is just something for me to play around with.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well I have 256 upload so it probably isn't worth me worrying about it. We should just chip in money to rent out a server.

[si-skyline]

i second the connection speed... alot of computers are suitalbe to run the server but at the end of the line. you can have a quad core with 14gb of ram or what ever its not going to do nothing on a 2mb/s connection..

i would focus my money on a good connection

[Airbozo]

Yes, like was mentioned, you need at _least_ a 1mb up speed to host a 16 player server with no lag. Plus if you want persistent stats, you must rent a server. The prices vary for an "official" (persistent stats), vs non-official (no stats) server.

Team speak can be a minimal hit on the network depending on the setup.


BTW: here is some info on tweaking BF2 for maximum performance.
http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_1.html

[polarity]

EA recommend 64-80kb/s per slot, but if you're running mods it can be more.

My home ADSL has 380Kbps upload, and I can run a 5 slot BF2 or a 3 slot AIX server on it. Mostly that's because home broadband can't give you the speed continuously, as it's shared (contended) between a bunch of users, and tends to drop at busy times.


You can have stats on an unranked server, you just have to install the BF2Statistics package, and have a web server with MySQL and PHP. You also have to fool your game server into thinking your stats web server is bf2stats.gamespy.com, by running a DNS server on it with a single entry.

Stats is a lot of work to set up, and not really worth doing unless you understand a fair bit of PHP and SQL.


Overall, setting everything up is a lot easier on a windows system. If you've never used Linux then you're going to run into all kinds of problems, and you'll need to lean a lot to fix them. A single BF2 server doesn't need much in the way of hardware, so the overheads from running windows are insignificant.

My server's a P4 805D at 2.6Ghz, with 1GB of ram, and it only uses 25% of the CPU (that's with 64 bots in the map). It runs XP with a lot of services disabled, and has yet to crash after running continuously since the beginning of the year.

At the moment I'm setting up another server to replace that, as I want more players. I've got a Dell PowerEdge 1950 which is one hell of a machine (about 3x as powerful as Multiplay.co.uk's top dedicated server), that I've installed Gentoo Linux on, and I'm going to rent space in a datacenter (colocation), which will give me 3000GB of bandwidth a month.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Holy crap, that is a good server. I just don't have the money to set anything like that up. dad isn't going to upgrade our broadband just so I can play more games on it. I think I will just give it a miss.

[vastonecat]

At the moment I'm setting up another server to replace that, as I want more players. I've got a Dell PowerEdge 1950 which is one hell of a machine (about 3x as powerful as Multiplay.co.uk's top dedicated server), that I've installed Gentoo Linux on, and I'm going to rent space in a datacenter (colocation), which will give me 3000GB of bandwidth a month.

Did you really mean 3000GB bandwidth? that has got to be some serious coin!

[polarity]

The downside is you only get 0.5A of power, and the PE1950 is already pulling .9A without upgrading the memory + CPUs, and putting in 2x HDDs for RAID 1.

The basic package is £34/month (probably excluding VAT), and I'll have to pay extra for power.