I have some inside news and I fear that I may no longer be able to host pieinthesky after 2 weeks or so. (More inside news reveals that 2 weeks seems like the max time left, instead of the minimum, 3-5 days being more likely) The person who currently owns the connection wants to drop it and I cannot afford $2,250/mo (US) for this connection and eat and pay rent.
I fear this whole charade may soon come to an end, and it's a fear that paralyzes my heart like potassium chloride.
On the other hand, I would like to thank all of the 30 players that showed up in that attached picture, and doubly thank Dire Wolf for being so sharp as to snap a screenie of it in action. What a great memory it will be.
diacetylmorhine
poxy
pieinthesky
pieinthesky
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- 30players.png
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I know. You are correct -- running a bzflag server doesnt require massive bandwidth, but it requires a very low latency connection with an amount of bandwidth not normally available from cable or DSL providers. Even 7mbit SDSL couldn't compare to an ethernet line dropped from an ISP.
The costs includes a service level agreement (SLA) so you can flog the ISP if it ever goes down and it's not your fault. My bandwidth output ranged from 30KBps to 400KBps. That is actually about 3mbps, but...In regards to that unknown cable provider with that 3mbit bandwidth, they probably refer to download and not upload. Having a superficial knowledge of DOCSIS 1.0/1.1's limitations, symmetric cable speeds are generally unattainable and undesirable for anybody else on that same node. I get 10mbit down/1mbit up at home with my cable provider(for $49/mo)...which even if I was able to run a server on, would STILL have insufficient latency and (upload)bandwidth parameters to allow good game-play.
You can see my bandwidth graph at http://160.79.126.56/mrtg/ . At the time of this writing some of the data looks like a flatline. I doubt anybody would really appreciate the details or the bandwidth required to view why, so I'll keep that to myself.
The costs includes a service level agreement (SLA) so you can flog the ISP if it ever goes down and it's not your fault. My bandwidth output ranged from 30KBps to 400KBps. That is actually about 3mbps, but...In regards to that unknown cable provider with that 3mbit bandwidth, they probably refer to download and not upload. Having a superficial knowledge of DOCSIS 1.0/1.1's limitations, symmetric cable speeds are generally unattainable and undesirable for anybody else on that same node. I get 10mbit down/1mbit up at home with my cable provider(for $49/mo)...which even if I was able to run a server on, would STILL have insufficient latency and (upload)bandwidth parameters to allow good game-play.
You can see my bandwidth graph at http://160.79.126.56/mrtg/ . At the time of this writing some of the data looks like a flatline. I doubt anybody would really appreciate the details or the bandwidth required to view why, so I'll keep that to myself.
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RPG
- Lieutenant, Junior Grade
- Posts: 2015
- Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:37 am
- Location: Chicago, Illinois
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oh... my cable provider is Comcast. I seem to have no latency with my 3mbps downstream (correct again) and near 700 kbps upstream. you're right, SLA's are helpful if they're in your favor. After asking Comcast, though, they said that their TOS doesn't allow servers. Shoot, I've been running mine off and on for a few days now. Your $49/mo for 10mbit down /1mbit up sounds pretty good. What provider is that?
A bzfs process with 20 players takes a little under 2000 kbps upstream. Funny things happen to ethernet when you reach capacity of your connection (sawtooth effect), so you generally want to have more bandwidth available than you are using.seem to have no latency with my 3mbps downstream (correct again) and near 700 kbps upstream.
DOCSIS 1.x allows up to 30 Mbps upstream from cable modems per upstream group (often confused with "node"). There are ways to stretch this (multiple upstream frequencies, TMA+, etc). The problem is, there may be 400 users in an upstream group (30,000 kbps / 400 users = 75 kbps/user) You see the problem. Hosting bzfs on a cable modem is fine if it is a small server (3-7 users), otherwise, it stinks. And the huge maps that pieinthesky use would only make it worse. The big pipe they've been using is definately the way to go.Having a superficial knowledge of DOCSIS 1.0/1.1's limitations, symmetric cable speeds are generally unattainable and undesirable for anybody else on that same node.
Cool thing is you can run bzfs on a a pentium II w/out any real problems. Its the bandwidth requirements that kill you.
There is a new cable product that provides up to 30 mbps symmetrical to each customer. It is NOT DOCSIS compliant, and is not offered by many cable companies yet. It will be marketed to small businesses mostly, and will prolly cost $500-$1000/month.
server outage
I have final information that the current connection for pieinthesky and the other maps I hosted (who used them anyway?) _will_ be offline tomorrow. There is no definite timeline when services will be restored, but I'm working as hard as I can on it!
Just a notice so people have a place to see what happened when they see it is dissapeared.
Just a notice so people have a place to see what happened when they see it is dissapeared.