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Entire forum ➜ MUDs ➜ General ➜ Mud hosting

Mud hosting

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Posted by

Dextermovie (4 posts) Bio

Date

Mon 16 Jan 2006 08:48 PM (UTC)

Message

I am currently looking for some mud hosting... it will be my self and possible a few other people working on the mud ... and I do not really want to pay a monthly fee for it, cause the public will not allowed on it for at least a few months
I am at college right now or I would host it my self

Posted by

Uru Canada (67 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #1 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 09:28 AM (UTC)

Message

Are you still around?

"What does not kill us makes us stronger."

Posted by

David Haley USA (3,881 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #2 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 09:46 AM (UTC)

Message

If you're still looking for hosting, unfortunately your wishes aren't likely to come true. If you ask somebody else to host it, they are very likely to charge you for it. Many hosts do however have plans where you pay much less per month, but can only have so-many connections to your game at once. This is probably your best bet if you want it hosted, but cannot host it yourself.

David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org

Posted by

Uru Canada (67 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #3 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 10:04 AM (UTC)

Message

What kind of limit on connections would a home computer impose for hosting? Ball park figures.

"What does not kill us makes us stronger."

Posted by

David Haley USA (3,881 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #4 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 10:20 AM (UTC)

Message

If it's a computer you run and manage yourself, then in principle there is no limit (well, other than the operating system limit, which is more than a thousand, if not much more). The only limit is that of bandwidth - and even then, if all people are doing is building, you're not likely to have much trouble.

Keep in mind, though, that even heavy use on a MUD is relative. Assuming you're typing a continunous 120 wpm of commands at the MUD (which is very fast typing), at an average of 5 letters per word, that's 600 letters per minute, or 10 letters per second. That's tiny. Now let's assume that the MUD is sending back a paragraph (room desc) per second. Those are about 80 characters per line, with about 6 lines. That's 480 characters.
So per player, at very high - implausible, in fact - usage levels, the MUD server needs 10 bytes incoming, and 480 bytes outgoing, per second. That's tiny.

So, to answer your question, if you have a decent connection (low-latency, not just high bandwidth), you shouldn't have to worry too much about connection limits for less than 10 people - maybe 20, 30, 40, even 50. Again, 'heavy use' on a MUD really doesn't use a lot of bandwidth.

I suspect that the reason hosts provide these connection-limited packages is not because it saves them money/resources to limit connections, but because it attracts MUDs-in-progress to their service.

David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org

Posted by

Uru Canada (67 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #5 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 10:30 AM (UTC)

Message

Wow, good answer Dave. I have a Cable connect through a broadband router.
The reason I'm asking is, I'm curious to know if dextermovie could use my computer as a server, in exchange for helping me configure everything properly.
I have a couple of extra HD's sitting around that I could add as dedicated to a MUD only.
I know some about networks but not enough, so I'd need the guidance for configuring a server.

"What does not kill us makes us stronger."

Posted by

David Haley USA (3,881 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #6 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 10:40 AM (UTC)

Message

You should be fine, since the MUD isn't going to be public. For that matter, you could probably run a (small) public server.

The big issue, I think, will be latency, not bandwidth. Sometimes a connection can transmit lots of data quickly, but it takes a while to make the transmission. Think of a CD drive, for instance. You have two factors in reading off a CD drive: how fast you can get the optical reader to the right place (latency) and how fast you can spin the CD reading bytes off of it (bandwidth).

Anyway, yes, you should be fine. There's only one way to find out for sure, though, and that is trying it out and seeing what happens. If things don't work out quite right, interacting with the MUD will have a slight delay. But remember that since it's all text-only anyhow, that delay will probably not even be noticeable.

David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org

Posted by

Uru Canada (67 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #7 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 10:48 AM (UTC)

Message

Great info Dave thanks. I know what you mean by latency, like when you try to read a Floppy drive and it's mechanically slow.
I ran SMAUG on a Win32 drive for awhile and had it working, this was an older version.
I'll start researching and setting up today. First, do the CGYWIN install thing, then download and compile SMAUG (put my other HD in first of course), and then fire up AreaEditor (of which I am a proud owner.) :)
How hard is it to find testers and builders?

"What does not kill us makes us stronger."

Posted by

David Haley USA (3,881 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #8 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 11:26 AM (UTC)

Message

What system will your home server be running? If at all possible, run Linux of some flavor. I recommend Fedora (http://fedora.redhat.com/) but that's just my preference. It'll make a number of things easier. But, if you're on just one computer that is both your computer and your server, you might have to stick with Windows. Or, you could set up a dual-boot system, but that requires some know-how, not to mention that when you're in Windows you can't run your server, and when you're running your server you can't run your Windows stuff...

As for finding testers and builders: I don't really know the answer to this, since I've never had to go looking for them, but I can speculate.
From my experience running a MUD, lots of people want to build because they see it as a source of prestige. Of course, this is an already established MUD, and they have peers (other players) to impress. People probably wouldn't feel the same about a start-up, unknown MUD.

Keep in mind that good builders are usually busy with their own projects already, be it on an existing MUD, or starting their own. The question you'll have to answer to attract them is: "Why is your MUD worth working on, perhaps more than what I'm working on now?"

I'd recommend starting out on your own, playing with things and getting the hang of it all. Once you have a clearer idea of where things are going, you can get a team together. You'll know what you're doing, and (hopefully :P) you'll know what you want. You'll be able to provide direction, and keep things under control. When you delegate responsibility to other builders, you have to trust that they'll do the job right and not mess up mob/obj stats, etc. Or, you go and verify everything by hand, in which case it's worth asking the question if you shouldn't have just done it yourself in the first place.

Good luck!

David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org

Posted by

Uru Canada (67 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #9 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 12:03 PM (UTC)

Message

Ah crap, I didn't think of that, not being able to run Windows in Server and Client mode. Does Fedora allow that?
Anyways, you've been very helpful and gave me lots to research. I won't worry about builders and such yet. I'll be happy messing around till I know what I'm doing somewhat. Even if I find a handful of people to try it out would be ok.

"What does not kill us makes us stronger."

Posted by

David Haley USA (3,881 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #10 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 12:14 PM (UTC)

Message

Well, you *can* run Windows in both "server" and "client" mode. It just means that whenever your turn off your Windows machine (or log out or whatever) you will be shutting down your MUD server, as well.

Still, you can certainly run the server on Windows. Using Cygwin will make your life much easier in that respect. I strongly recommend against using native Windows, because it's harder to monitor and control. If you can't go with a full Linux installation - and if you don't have a separate PC and aren't willing to only run Linux, then you can't - use Cygwin.

David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org

Posted by

Uru Canada (67 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #11 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 10:27 PM (UTC)

Message

I just did that today. I installed CYGWIN or whatever, using the advice from Gammon help downloads. I also got the SMAUGFuss files, and the AreaEditor. I'll need to get familiar with cygwin, for one thing.

"What does not kill us makes us stronger."

Posted by

David Haley USA (3,881 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #12 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 10:35 PM (UTC)

Message

Nick has lots of guides on compiling SMAUG and using Cygwin around here. You might have to browse through the forum sections, or look around on the website. His guides are good - they should give you a pretty decent idea of how to do the basics. From there, you should be able to start up your server and connect to it.

David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org

Posted by

Uru Canada (67 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #13 on Wed 25 Jan 2006 11:51 PM (UTC)

Message

Yeah, I noticed the guides, they are good.

"What does not kill us makes us stronger."

Posted by

Conner USA (381 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #14 on Thu 26 Jan 2006 04:49 PM (UTC)

Message

One minor problem you're likely to run into is that the current SmaugFUSS uses a different reset system than the old Smaug which is of great advantage to you, except that Area Editor doesn't support the new room based resets which means that you can still use Area Editor to create new areas and edit areas that are to be imported or original stock areas, but once an area has been installed to the mud and the command foldarea has been executed on that area then Area Editor will no longer be able to open that area file.

-=Conner=-
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