I''ve completed the prerequisite command line chat client, which allows users to open a channel and send a single line of text to eachother. My final goal is a client run client-server hearts game, where people connect to my server, find people, then disconnect from the server and connect to a single client when they begin to play. I guess a roll my own gamespy or battle.net. I REALLY don''t want to spend my time maintaining a server. I see all these hosting options which include private CGI Bins and unlimited MySQL tables for $5 to $10 a month. Some people have told me I need to run a service, while others say an automatic script is all I need.(I guess simular to a tag board) What hosting options would I need, and what would be the general algorthm or components I would need to complete my project. Even if you can just point me in the right direction, I''d be happy.

What level of performance do you need? The free or cheap hosts have pretty abysmal server throughput.

A script language (PHP, Perl, etc) and some shared state (MySQL is fine) is all you need for match-making, although a dedicated server with a custom protocol will work faster/better/slicker. However, finding a host that lets you run arbitrary C++ code is much harder :-(

Note that connecting peers to each other will quickly run into NAT/firewall issues. There''s no good solution for TCP, but for UDP, you can use an introducer. More info.

Level of performance. I optimistic estimation is about 20 ~ 30 clients at a single time. I should design assuming 100 people would connect max.

I really don't believe it would take off beyond that.

I have a PIII 400 with 400 megs RAM sitting around in my basement, assuming I decide to purchase a static domain from my ISP, ($100 a year) would I get about the same benifits as my $5 ~ $10 a year counterpart? How much time would be eaten up with admin work after setting it up, assuming I go with debian or WindowsXP Pro, I'm the only one hosted on my box and I rarely upgrade because I'm happy with the verson of Linux I have?

$50 ~ $100 dollars for co-location is out of the question nor is paying a person to maintain it, Subway doesn't pay enough. I really just want something that works, I could care less if it gives me optimal performance.

Edit: Thanks for the link, it'll be quite useful.

[edited by - dede on May 6, 2004 3:29:16 PM]

If you have DSL at home, and all it''s doing is match-making, then that machine will work fine. There really is a 100x difference in performance between a custom-written C/C++ program, and a script-and-mysql program, when it comes to matchmaking, because matchmaking is not something you really want SQL for. It would just be used because that''s the only persistent state you GET at those free web hosts.

I have a linux box that''s been up for ages. I only bring it down when I patch security holes -- and I don''t run that much software on it. Assuming you work out bugs (so there''s no memory leaks) in your matchmaking process, I don''t see why it couldn''t stay up for a year without intervention. Maybe you have a cron job to reboot it once a day, just for good measure :-)

I''m getting near the finishing point of a working version of my networking/engine project. There is pretty basic info about it on my web site (link below), but when I am ready to release I will do a complete update.
Simply put, using my project, all you would have to do is write the server-side and client-side code. The client/server interface is already taken care of and can be manipulated using either the API functions (for novice programmers) or a pointer to the server/client classes(for advanced programmers).

Intro Engine

Neat Deebo, but I rarely touch a project, even a free one, if it has no documentation.

Plus, this question is more about hosting a matchmaking service, rather then how to connect two clients together.

It seems as if Dedicated Managed Hosting would be my best choice, but I don''t seem to have the $58.00/mo to run it. Life is so expensive. Either that, or transfer to a different ISP which allows Servers.

Or buy a static IP from your ISP, and stick a linux box in your closet. Assuming your upstream is beefy, that is.

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Original post by hplus0603
Or buy a static IP from your ISP, and stick a linux box in your closet. Assuming your upstream is beefy, that is.

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It''s not so bad, but it turns out it''s much more expensive then the last time I priced it.