Host Your Own Site

[JGadrow]

I did a quick search but came up with no results, so I apologize if I'm duplicating anything that's already available.

I'm not sure why the topic of self hosting has not been broached on this forum before, but I recommend it for anyone who is serious about making a browser game.

All you need are three key components:

• Server
• Web Server Software
• Registered Domain Name

Server
I use the term server loosely as even a desktop PC can be used to host a website. Obviously, the bigger server you are able to afford the more resources will be available to your users. However, if you're a one-man operation just looking to start out, odds are you won't need anything more powerful than about 2Ghz with 1GB RAM and 500GB HDD space for quite some time. Once you get a steady income stream, then you may want to look into concepts such as load balancing.

Web Server Software
Though there are several different web servers out there, the one that is probably the most popular (for good reason) is the Apache Web Server. It is available as a free download and can be run from 'nix or Windows. I'm not sure if they have a macintosh version or not. Apache is a wonderful web server and is in constant development which will helps to close any new security vulnerabilities that are discovered.

Registered Domain Name
Though, technically, this is optional (you can always just use your machine's IP address in place of a domain name) it is *really* not an option for anyone who is serious. I register my domains with www.ipower.com for a measly 6.95/year for .COM domains!

So, there you go, hosting the entirety of your site, by yourself, for $6.95 per year plus electricity costs. Doesn't get any cheaper than that boys and girls

[sokii]

Pretty nice tutorial :]
9.5/10

[mobeamer]

One thing to keep in mind, is to check with your internet provider. A lot of times you upload speed and bandwidth is capped.

If you are only allowed to upload .5 GB then you might have a problem supporting more then 1000 players at once. (Depending on your site layout and size)

[foxumon]

Are servers hard to maintain?  And you'd have to install PHP and MySQL too, right?

It sounds to me like having your own server would be cost effective in the long run, but a bit pricey up front.  Personally I worry about the maintenance.  When you don't have a hosting team checking up on your server then what happens when your at work or not home and the server goes down?  I don't know from experience, but it just seems like it'd be difficult to run one all by yourself.

Do you have your own server?  and if so, is maintenance an issue?

[mobeamer]

Actually having a server and maintaining it is not that difficult.

Check out Uniform Server (www.uniformserver.com) , you unzip, click start and you have mySQL, Php and apache on a windows or linux machine.

It's the bandwidth cost that will kill you.

In my humble opinion.

[JGadrow]

Correct, it is the bandwidth that is the rub. If you experience performance issues, you can always perform 'load balancing' which means basically you scrape together a number of different servers and deploy processes on them in order to better server your users.

This would be something like having three servers that handle user login and non-logged in content which are randomly routed to by the server. Separate from them are two or three database servers that handle nothing but data connections and are set up in a replication environment to keep them all in sync.

But, when you reach a certain threshold, it will be the bandwidth that will kill your game. Though, if you're experiencing enough traffic to bog down your server, you should consider putting up advertisements to assist in funding a stronger connection. Just make sure that whatever connection you find is 'full duplex' meaning that your upload and download speeds are symmetrical.

[Chris]

You are forgetting one, very tiny minor detail. Electricity bills
I do not know how much they charge for electricity in your country, but a typical PC has 200-300W power supply unit. I wonder how much would it cost to run it 24/7 for one month...

Also you won't have some extras which are common in datacenters like:
- emergency electricity fuel generator (you don't want to have the site down for several hours just because the regional powerplant got down, right?)
- hardware firewall (once you are hit by DDOS attack once or twice you will love them much more than software solutions)
- 24/7 hardware/software maintenance team (I love to sleep long on Sundays, well on other days too)
- high security facility (they won't let in your sister/cat/etc so they won't unplug the powercord by mistake)
- redundant bandwidth of a few terabytes of outgoing capacity (which means something like peak times do not exist)

Sure, you can do all this on your own too, but a shared host costs like $2-10/month and managed VPS $20-60/month...
Well, maybe if you run some monster and you need several dedicated servers.

Personally, I couldn't imagine me having a 24/7 server 'at home', I would get a heartattack with no time

[foxumon]

I already run my computer 24/7 so I don't think electricity would be that big a deal, at least in my area.  A backup power supply is good to have for your computer anyway...but the ones I've seen are pretty pricey ^^;  I've never had sister/cat/etc pull out my power cord, but it's a good point.

I think just the piece of mind of having someone else deal with that is worth the cost

[JGadrow]

You are forgetting one, very tiny minor detail. Electricity bills

This was addressed:

So, there you go, hosting the entirety of your site, by yourself, for $6.95 per year plus electricity costs. Doesn't get any cheaper than that boys and girls

As far as your other concerns go, yes, they are accurate. However, my post began with a recommendation for anyone 'serious about making a browser game.' This means that my assumption was that you would perhaps begin small but would eventually develop into a fully established entity - complete with dedicated staff and facility.

Sure you're going to have a few issues in the beginning, but it should be expected of a new development company who is still attempting to generate a proper revenue steam.

As far as your individual points are concerned:
Fuel Generator - Yes, this is a concern. However, as long as you don't provide a guarantee of uptime and are protected against liability by your terms and conditions it is an issue that can be dealt with reasonably. I don't know about your region, but I generally have less than 4 hours of power outage per year so this isn't really a concern. And, this can be further dealt with by simply supplying a network with multiple servers in different regions so that if the power is out in one region the other region simply picks up the slack. Sure, this will put a heavier load on your servers but it will result in your site still functioning. I would, however, recommend purchasing one at the earliest convenience. I would love to have one for my own home

Hardware firewall - Shouldn't this be a concern for anyone creating a publicly accessible network? My post didn't concern itself with actual network structure so I assumed you would implement the security mechanisms that mattered most to your system.

24/7 Maintenance - This is probably your best argument. However, for an emerging developer the assumption of 24/7 maintenance is unreasonable. Protect yourself from liability in your terms and conditions and once you have enough revenue to start your own development firm, you will be hiring individuals for this task (as well as maintenance of your firm's internal network, thus fulfilling multiple job duties with efficiency). Additionally, this shouldn't be much of a concern as once your system is public you likely have most of the bugs worked out of the system. At least you should The need for maintenance during non-working hours would be minimal and likely the result of catastrophic hardware failure.

Secure Facility - I have a two-year old, three cats and a wife and I have yet to have my computer unplugged or mishandled for any reason. Your computer is probably safer in your home than in some off-site location because you, personally, can control access to it.

Bandwidth - Bandwidth is always the bandit. As far as the comment about 'peak times do not exist,' that depends upon your user base. If a company such as Blizzard (now Activision Blizzard) with a revenue stream of over $1 Billion per year still has 'peak time' issues, it is unrealistic to assume that a browser-based game developer will not have peak times as well. Granted, you likely will not have a user base of 10 Million, but your practices will almost certainly be inline with your revenue stream. Thus, you should expect a game with a user base of 3 people to be riddled with performance issues where as the same game with 3000 people may not have the same issues because of your increased ability to deal with technical issues.

Edited to close 'quote' segment appropriately

[Chris]

I've never had sister/cat/etc pull out my power cord, but it's a good point.

You do not realize how lucky you are