Actually it depends on many factors:

- How many players you wish to support online at once (max player limit)?
- What is the uptime (occasionally or 24/7)?
- What is your bandwidth, especially your slowest link (up or down)?
- How much admining you gonna do?
- Running a mod or not?
- Last but not least how much money you got?

If as you have mentioned it's between you and a couple of mates then the news isn't too bad. An Athlon XP 1500 or equivalent intel (blech!) will get you about 10 players max (barely), cost about $300 (without a monitor) and work with any broadband. This assumes you have nothing else running on the system except admin programs. You could even play it on the same 'puter you are playing FL on (Captain Tylor of Freelancer Heaven did that) but you must have a powerful enough system to run both. The server program, flserver, is very CPU hungry and it's hunger goes up geometrically as players are increased incrementally.

If you are getting into the FL server business, realize there are many other servers out there. Also realize not just an ordinary 'puter and broadband connection with half-hearted admining is not enough. To even make a ripple in the ever-dwindling stream of FL players you must either have some trick (could be anything, a mod, fast Internet connection, high max player limit, etc.) or run a good server (takes time to prove this). It helps if you have both!

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

I've got an old 1400 AMD Athlon that I can clock up to about the 2 gigmark(a cast off from a system upgrade a while ago). I was wondering about the connection speed and stuff too. What sort of speed do you have to have to have to take up to... ermm... say 15 clients? I may be able to get more out of the old chip for a while before it melts....

Edited by - Black_Widower on 10/11/2004 12:41:15 AM

I'd be interested if anyone knows the bandwidth, ram, and cpu used by each player on a 1.0 server.

@Black_Widower - If you can overclock the Athlon then getting a 15 max player limit should be feasible. As for bandwidth just make sure you have unrestricted 256 kbps both up and down. It will work with at least 128 kbps but you may see some lag with over 10 players on.

If your CPU gets hot get a copper heatsink. Even my 20% overclock (1.8 GHz, 166 MHz FSB to 2.0 GHz, 200 MHz FS and increase in Vcore from 1.675V to 1.8V only increased my temps 10C to 48C. I have a big all-copper heatsink from Thermaltake.

@Louva-Deus - Usage at the client end of FL basically only support a prettier picture. As CPU, graphics, RAM, etc. are improved this will make FL run smoother at high resolutions. I routinely run email, P2P and TeamSpeak while playing FL and experience no significant slow downs at 1600x1200 resolution.

Bandwidth is another story. 56k modems actually produce bandwidth at 48 kbps to 53 kbps as it takes a special higher voltage on the phone line to do 56 kbps. Most 56k modem users see jumpiness as the bandwidth struggles to keep up with the flow of info. This is usually apperant in times of increased info, specifically lots of NPC's (like in a mission or around a station) or ther are players around. There has been talk of 56k modem clients clogging servers, slowing everyone else down. I have never experienced this on Boston but Stinger when he ran Elite says it has happened especially by Russian dial-ups. Guess they are quite slower than other dial-ups.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

I could piggyback off a 512adsl connection till I can upgrade to the faster ones. Do you think this would still be able to cope with the 15 clients online, or would it go the same way as the processor eventually? (Internal meltdown!)
I'm planning on having it running on about a 2mbit connection in about 6 months but the 512 will be the only one I have till then.

By the way, how hungry is the serverside? It's been sugested, by my mates, that we run other stuff off the server too. I believe they want quake3, unreal tournament 2004 and doom3. Not at the same time, hopefully. My system will be running over rated as it is with FL.

I know that the later two in that list are CPU hungry, don't know about the first though.

It's beginning to sound like I need a bank of servers, isn't it. Oh wel... More upgrades to my current system and I'll be sorted....

Eagles may soar but wesils don't get sucked into jet engines!

hey there i wanna start running a server, but im not too sure how many people i can hold and stuff, i got a:
AMD Athlon XP 1900+ and an ADSL connection, im not too sure how fast but i know its a good conection. but the connection is being split between 3 computers with a program called "sygate". so am i able to host a server? and how many would i be able to hold if i can?
oh and also i tried hosting it once and when someone els tried to join they couldnt connect to the server, how do i fix that, doesnt it have something to do with ports or some crap?


Edited by - Cyber Mouse on 10/14/2004 2:04:35 AM

Hi, This is a similar question to Black Widdower, but from a different angle.

After playing FL for quite some time I decided that i would put a mod together and host a server, In the hope that I can provide some players with all the fun and excitement that I enjoy when playing MP Freelancer.

The mod is all but completed, however, I am concerned about the spec of the server I will use. I am fortunate in that I own a successfull business and therefore the budget is not a major concern to me. What is a concern to me is ensuring that when I start, the equipment will be able to provide the players with a satisfactory MP experience.

My business already has a "dormant" leased line with 2mb up/down which I will use (unless advised differently). I intend for it to be a permanent server - 24/7 and I have the time and inclination for a lot of admin work on the server.

Please could someone perhaps provide some ideas for a server spec. which would cope with 50 players on line. (BTW I am not being arrogant in suggesting that I would obtain these numbers of players, only that I would like to aspire to this number and I know it would take time/commitment etc. to get this number of players on the server)

Any constructive advice would be appreciated



Edited by - strail on 10/18/2004 8:52:43 AM

ok if you just what to host it for 10 people or less then you sold get this. this will support as many as 20 people. my computer is about this good and i can play and host a 23 people game with little lagg but its only in lan.
p4 2.6 gighrz with 1mb of L2 chach and HT support.
512 to a gig of ram (duel channal if possable.)
a good hard drive 40 gig min.
a cd/dvd drive that can burn one of them. (this is for backing up. if its not for the internet then backing up is less importint.)
get some 64mb graphics card doesnt matter what one.
if you go to new egg i priced it around 400 dollers. but thats my computer with a radin 9800 but thats not needed here. this price has a case in it to so if you have one its less.
but if you have all the money in the world get a duel optron 64.
2 gigs of ram
duel 500 gig hard drives.
same with the GPU
all on a gigabit internet

this stuff sould be grate. make sure if you go with the duel thing that you get xp pro bcuz home will not support duel prossers.

later


p.s dont look behind u