ALL CLAN MEMBERS READ - VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!

O.K. people. I am thinking about doing something very radical with our resources. First, this is what we have for our game server:

* Pentium 4 processor

* 512Megs RAM

* 80GB Hard Drive

* 1000GB Transfer

* 10Mbps connection

* 5 IP Addresses

* $59/Mo.

We were considering getting a ram upgrade to take us to a full gig at a cost of $15/mo additional. Well, after looking around I found a new server host that had a better deal:

* Dual-Core Pentium E2200 (4.4GHz total on 2 cores) 800 MHz FSB 1MB L2 cache

* 1GB DDR2 RAM

* 80GB SATA 3 Gb/s Hard Drive

* 1000GB Transfer

* 10Mbps connection

* 5 IP Addresses

* $69/Mo.

So, for just 10 dollars a month we would get more ram and a better processor. I talked with Dylan and we were seriously considering this.

Now, I looked around a bit more at the same new provider, and see this:

* Core 2 Duo E6420 (4.26GHz total on 2 cores) 1066 MHz FSB 4MB L2 cache

* 2GB DDR2 RAM

* 160GB SATA 3 Gb/s Hard Drive

* 1500GB Transfer

* 10Mbps connection

* 5 IP Addresses

* $79/Mo.

So, for another 10 dollars a month, we would be getting even more ram, even more HDD space (We are close to full now), an even better processor, and even more bandwidth. Nothing changes. Well, one thing does. Our I.P.'s will change. That is the only downside I see to this.

How does everybody feel about this? Here is my take on this. First, the upgrade is significant. It is like trading in a Yugo for a Ferrari. We could pretty much run as much of any games as we want. UT99, UT2K4, UT3, COD4 maybe, anything. We could stack the mother fucker.

Several of us played UT99 on a server hosted by the new company last night testing it out, and we were all wowed. The game runs a lot smoother than it does on our box. There is no lag.

Also, the server is located in Ohio. Pings went up a bit for a few people and way down for others. The only real problem was with Deadeye but I think it is a Deadeye problem because others in his area were not experiencing the same ping spike. Others in California saw a bit of an increase but nothing to cry about, still below 100ms (that is the magic number to be below if possible for technical reasons, but beyond the scope of this post to explain). Others saw a big drop in ping. Darkmatter is pinging about 160 on our server, about 120 on the new box. 120 is very playable (you can compete well). Maybe Moon will play with us more then?

The bad side to this is that we will have to change I.P.'s, something that we never want to do. However, I think if we plan this well, the impact to our traffic will be slight. We will take an entire month to transition the games and can let everybody know. I can also put something on the old servers that when people connect to them it will tell them what is going on and give them a button to click to connect to the new server. Also, we just need to play on the new server. Remember, players beget players. People always look for populated servers to play on. So, if for a week or so you have to snipe bots, do so. People will see it and join and then traffic will be heavy again. I think if we all make a bit of effort here everything will be fine.

One other thing. There will be a 1 month transitional period here where we will have both servers. This is so we can set up and deal with the new server and not leave people hanging while we do so. For technical purposes it will also be a lot better to do it this way. The problem then is that the fee will be 59 for the old server and 79 for the new server for the same month. So when / if we do this, we will do a 1 time fund raiser to get the 79 dollars. After that I pledge to pay the additional 20/mo for the new server. As some of you know, Dylan is now paying for the server. This has been a huge help to all of us and kept the clan and server going forward. We really can't stick him with the additional bill for that month. We will only need an additional 60 dollars (about a dollar a member) so it should be no big deal.

That's the gist of it people. No voting here, let's just discuss it. Tell everybody how you feel about all of this. I personally think this is a great idea. It will allow us to run UT99 a lot better and also let us start adding other stuff that we may want. The price for the server is really hard to beat. A year ago the same server would have cost 400/mo.

Speak up people!

Tommy

P.S. ExperiencedHosting (GSP) uses this server provider for their boxes too. If the business uses them, then that speaks for their reliability at least a bit.