Dedicated Server Hosting

[evenmonkeys]

I was curious if every server out there is being hosting from one's home or if people are hosting them with a specific company. Back in March/April when I launched my server, I noticed after a few days that my internet really started to slow down. Not because of the traffic, but I believe my ISP was throttling me. I ended up closing down my server mid-April and my internet connection was amazing again, around 50Mbps down/10Mbps up. About ten days ago, I brought my server back online again and wouldn't you know it.. my internet is having the same issues again.

I remember that Final Fantasy XI can be played on dial-up so the bandwidth shouldn't be an issue. But I think they're just watching the amount of traffic in general is constant and they're kicking me off. What do other people out there do?

Thanks.

[Delaide]

Sounds like it is your ISP. Let me guess, Comcast? This is pretty normal for US ISPs. They tend to like throttling "heavy users". The issue is nothing to do with the server itself.

[evenmonkeys]

I'm using CableOne. They're a smaller ISP in comparison to Comcast, but they're still an ISP that hits several states. If there were a dedicated server that didn't cost an arm and a leg that was capable of running a FFXI server, I'd be interested. We'll see.

[Delaide]

If you are willing to pay, I think you could use things like AWS S3. But, since FFXI is protected under copyright, I am unsure how they would react if they found out. It is a little more risky having it hosted by an external company, since you are hitting legal grey areas with things like DSP.

[atom0s]

I'd say more than 75% of the servers that are posted on this forum are hosted from someones house. Not many understand how to work an actual server, so they tend to stick to home hosting.

Some things to look into before you jump to actual hosting:
- While the server is running, monitor the traffic of your entire network. See if there is anything suspicious going on like someone DoS/DDoSing your server. (People do it to stay competitive.)
- While the server is running, disable any anti-virus, firewalls, etc. you have on your network as well as the main machine running the server(s).
- Are you hosting downloads from your house as well for things like PlayOnline, FFXI content, etc? If so, you should upload them elsewhere and not rely on your home connection for that as well.
- Take a look into your website code, perhaps there is a flaw in it communicating with the server causing unwanted amounts of traffic. (Use caching for information if you are not already.)

After you analyzed all that with the server running, do the same with it off and compare the results. See if something is causing more network traffic than it should.

If you still cannot figure out the problem, it would come down to your ISP throttling the connection more than likely. Review your ToS with them and see if they mention any "peek hour" throttling, or overall throttling when you hit any type of threshold. Most home ISPs do not provide unlimited data per-month, and usually cap you at max speeds for up to 50-250gigs. (Depending on the provider.) So you may be hitting that cap with your server running + any other daily usage that goes on at your location.

Be sure to check your network for any holes as well, as in if someone broke into your wifi etc. and is leeching your connection.

[xelloss]

I use servers from my house, but I always use Business internet. Yes, you can get Business internet delivered to your residence, even in an apartment complex*. It won't be on the same tier system as Residential, it will be more expensive, and there is more setup to do ( particularly in the paperwork dept, but no, I have not ever had to have a registered business to get business class net ). They won't throttle you on Business 'net, you pay for exactly what you get and typically the support services are far quicker to respond. Typically you will also get 1-5 free static IPs with it too. I find it to be far cheaper than running a dedicated / VPS server network elsewhere, especially since I have immediate access to my own hardware.

Having said all that, I have not ever used CableOne. Since you provided me the name of the company though, it was a real quick check to verify that yes, they are probably throttling the everloving fuck-hell out of you because their AUP says they will. Specifically:

Technical restrictions
...
- use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network ("Premises LAN"), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail, Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers;
- use or run programs from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises LAN, except for personal and non-commercial residential use;
...

Which, honestly, every residential plan I know of in America will have this exact statement in it. If you are not on business, you do not get to run a server. Sure, you may get away with running a server. For a little while. If it doesn't use much bandwidth. If it uses non standard and high numbered misc ports. Otherwise, welcome to residential 'net in America, they are all exactly like this.

If you're going to be setting up public servers, the first thing you should do is forget the notion of DMZ and public access. Anything open to the public can be seen and will be exploited by the botnets and script-kiddies if you're not secured / locked down ( and even then they will try, oh yes they will try... back when I ran a Wordpress blog it was like a daily ritual to watch them ). Just because you haven't been hit yet, don't think you won't get hit eventually if you're hosting something.

The easiest way to manage a public available net is to familiarize yourself with Proxy servers and IDS. No, I'm not talking about Proxify or other such items, I mean something like HAProxy. With HAProxy or some other Web Application Firewall, you can reverse proxy / loadbalance and SSL offload, allowing you to control exactly how services are used which also ties in to the next point, IDS. Using a UTM like pfSense will give you access to Barnyard - Snorby - Snort / Suricata / other IDS etc. pfSense in particular also comes with nettop, and is free. Nettop will tell you everything you ever wanted to know ( and not know ) about exactly what traffic is going down your pipes and at what bandwidth. Most UTMs ( including pfSense ) will also provide some out-of-the-box support for dealing with DoS/DDoS attacks.

Full disclosure: I personally prefer to use a different type of UTM than the one I mentioned above, but pfSense is probably the most well known community supported ( ie available for free that doesn't require special hardware ) one.










*In most cases, can vary on how populous / new the area you live in is.