Newby looking for advice re dedicated server.

[HerpaDerp24]

Hi all, my brother an me are both fairly new to ark, I decided to have a hosted server so we can play together. I'm not over happy with the host I chose. I've looked around for reviews etc and saw people saying it's better to look at a dedicated server, but with not much further info.

For the foreseeable future I can't imagine the server being open to many of any others, so maybe a max of 5 slots.

I want the ability for cluster so we can have different maps installed to explore.

We're  UK based and I'm not sure what kind of specifications I should be aiming for. 

And any recommendations would be appreciated 

 

Thanks.

 

[StriderUk]

Morning mate, I host a couple of servers myself, it's fun but can be a lot of hard work .

there are some pretty decent hosts out there but it can and will get costly the minute you get into clustering and hosting in general. 

I have a dedicated box, about 8ks worth of kit, with a fiber business line.

to give you an idea, it costs me around £60 a month for the power and net for this.

then for add ons such as battlemetrics another £7 a month. 

I have 6 admins to help look after the servers and get it as near to 24/7 support as we can.

kit wise the server dl360 g8 is running x 2 , e52660 8 core xeons, 64 gb ram with 6 15k sas drives .

i just run x2 servers with this in cluster.

to get a decent community it's probably taken me well over 12 months, so in a nutshell perhaps find a good host with rates you want? 

There are plenty out there.

 

 

[HerpaDerp24]

Thanks for the info, I think maybe I might look at a different host for now, I like the elements t of control on how easy/hard the game is, I've got a spare pc but it's a bit clunky so not sure how well it would run a server, guess the only way is to try it and see.

[StriderUk]

post the specs mate, 

if your only planning on a few of you playing on it, it probably will suffice.

 

if its running windows, would suggest getting this tool -

 

http://arkservermanager.freeforums.net/

 

its a gui for running your own server. Once you have set up your firewalls and port redirection, very easy to manage your server.

 

[Fifakingz2580]

Hi mate.  I tried using a old rig to run the server (using Ark Server Manager) and had nothing but trouble...  It was constant a few times a day problems /-: I moved on to rented hosted now and because of it.  No issues and no lag and 15 slots available for other players.  I went with LogicServers (UK based).  Tech support amazing & 24/7.  Paid £35 for 3 months have been running it about a week now and 0 problems.  You and the other person is welcome to join my server (see my previous posts for details). 

[HerpaDerp24]

Thinking about how old the pc is, and what it was used for, I doubt it'll run ark with any real success.
I think for now I'll stump up for a 2nd server so we can cluster them and explore either Ragnorok or Scorched Earth (yet to be decided)
I'm quite an anti-social gamer, even in MMORPG's I was always happy doing my own thing, I did the whole group thing, mass manufacturing, manufacturing huge stuff, upper management of group etc.

I think Dedicated is out of my budget to get something that will do what I want, so for a hassle free life I think a 2nd server will be in order. I'll have a look at LogicServers and see what I reckon, might even move from my existing to have both on the same provider to make cluster setup easier.

 

 

[Fifakingz2580]

Needs to be a fairly decent rig to run it as a server.  Okies well as I said your welcome to join me on my server... it's public and PVP and you can do your own thing.  I was really impressed with LogicServers and have had no problems with them thus far (a week in).  If all's well after my 3 month purchase I will extend another 6 months.