ok, so we have a lot of extra space on the chat server (to put it, 60GB of extra hard drive space). i was thinking about hosting an openttd server on it, but what would u guys like to see?

==============================================================================
NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Due to hosting issues, we've reverted to the FM chatbox for now.
Thanks for your understanding.

-Site Staff
==============================================================================

I think if the server was made for the chat, then it should be used for it. If we put something else on there too, it might overload it, and may put the chat at jeopardy, which is a big risk when a dedicated decision like this is made.

Just my 0.02 cents.

seeing that something as bandwidth-hogging as a chat script creates enough lag, a game server would just make matters twice as bad.. so no.

not trying to start a fight here, but the chat doesn't take up much ram, the issue is probably that you're further away from the server (our chat server is in florida).

the chat barely uses less than 60mb of ram, as seen in this picture: http://puu.sh/1jGaF. the used category is how much ram is used.

plus our CPU is a server-grade quad core Xeon: http://puu.sh/1jGbI.

I am gonna let the admins talk this one out, I already placed my input.

Well I'm going to be straight up, I really don't know anything about servers. My question is the fact that this site keeps growing, so if we have a very high attendance and twice as many members (like in the neighborhood of 20-25; a big night for chat is 10 now), would that server have any chance of lagging? The last thing I want is to have a server lag like Simtropolis does.

OpenTTD would barely use anything, thats was what I was thinking about.

Of course, we could have a SimCity 4/5 wiki instead and use the existing bandwidth use (the webserver hosting the chat).

Right now, the original config that I set up for the original chat installation was set to conserve bandwidth. Some of the lag we have now is probably fixable just by allowing the client end computers to poll the server for more chat posts more often. The problem is, if we set that polling frequency too high, we'll actually induce more lag because the server won't be able to handle all the requests. If we set it too low, the server will appear to be busier than it actually is, and there will be lag simply due to the settings. Right now, the polling frequency is set to poll the server every 2.3 seconds (slightly slower than normal, again, to conserve bandwidth. ) I'm not certain, but I think we can probably set that value to 1.8 or 2 seconds and reduce the lag without overloading the server. Only Duncan (Suzaku) actually knows how much the server is being taxed. Either way, I would like to experiment with different settings and see what works. That will give us a better idea of how much bandwidth and server resources our chat actually uses.

Still, as K50 mentioned, as the site continues to grow, we are likely to see more chat use, and more bandwidth is going to be used along with it. If it turns out that we have WAY more server resources than we need, it's probably not going to affect the chat that much to have other things on the server. Being that chat's are bandwidth intensive, however, even with optimal settings, it's probably better just to let the chat be the only major thing on the server, just to make sure that it stays stable, even under heavy use. After all, Simtroplis-like lag is never much fun to deal with.

That's just my 2 cents of advice.
-Blakesterville

suzaku wrote:not trying to start a fight here, but the chat doesn't take up much ram, the issue is probably that you're further away from the server (our chat server is in florida).

the chat barely uses less than 60mb of ram, as seen in this picture: http://puu.sh/1jGaF. the used category is how much ram is used.

plus our CPU is a server-grade quad core Xeon: http://puu.sh/1jGbI.

RAM and CPU has nothing to do with bandwidth usage, so unless the RAM and CPU are extremely low (can't handle what the server is running) it wouldn't affect how much lag there is (or isn't). As far as 256mb ram and the Xeon CPU, those I find are typical of most web servers, and most chat scripts and game servers can run quite well with those specs.

Lag is inevitable for something like chat scripts or game servers, but having two running at the same time will reduce available bandwidth too much, depending on the amount of bandwith there is. The more, the more connections that the server can accept before lagging. It has nothing to do with CPU or RAM specs as I think those can run both a game server and chat fine. And I don't think openTTD is really going to use much in the way of resources except for bandwidth either.

Now, the thing that concerns me the most about having an openTTD server is.. how many people are going to use it? The more people that play on a game server, the less bandwidth that's available as each player has to connect to the web server to send/receive game data.

As for a wiki, it can't be considered a "program" really, so I don't think it would be much of a problem unless we had hundreds of people using it on a regular basis. Also, as for site growth, this is another issue.

Can I ask, how much bandwidth is the chat using now? And how much is your host giving you in total? I should also add that it's important to factor in a user basis, chat uses plenty of bandwidth from a person's network also. So depending on how far away they are from the chat server, the higher the ping will be.

edit: duncan has 500gb bandwidth on his server. 500gb is more than enough to run a game server and chat at the same time (unless we're taking something like maybe BF3 or minecraft with huge world and 20 players). But openttd doesn't come close to that.

Ok, since we settled this on chat, I have a new conflict: the domain.

Should I get simmania.org, and make wiki.simmania.org, simmania.org and chat.simmania.org (with Blake and K50 getting control of course), or buy a different domain? Network Solutions is doing their 99 cent domain thing again.

Since when was there a wiki?

K50 wrote:Since when was there a wiki?

Well, we have a lot of extra bandwidth and hard drive space, so I'm just looking for a solution to fill some of it since chat barely uses anything (we have a 60gb hdd and webserver only uses 500mb right now). i was thinking a wiki and possibly the file exchange could be hosted there while the forums stay on freeforums until u guys are ready to move or whatever.

I like the idea of having the exchange on that server. I don't see a wiki getting much activity, quite honestly.

K50 wrote:I like the idea of having the exchange on that server. I don't see a wiki getting much activity, quite honestly.

Hm, okay!

do you want it to have a private IP address-based url for now or do u want me to register simmania.org (to host just the file exchange ofr now)? jw

I'd actually register simmania.org for the main forums (its possible to specify a domain with FM) and use subdomains for wiki/exchange/other addons

Cheeseguy wrote:I'd actually register simmania.org for the main forums (its possible to specify a domain with FM) and use subdomains for wiki/exchange/other addons

right. i was thinking files.simmania.org, just that for now then moving the site to the domain once k50 and blake are ready.

Actually, the wiki could easily be hosted on a free host. We could get a file exchange on the chat server, and that would make good use of the available resources.

Again, for now, we're not really considering actually moving the site. Not sure if the time will ever come or not, but for now, we're not really thinking about moving the actual forums.

Files.simmania.org sounds just fine.

true, you could host the wiki on something like wikia..
and yeah, I don't think we're gonna move the site any time soon. It'd be too much hassle to try to get on our host's back to get them to give us the database (they will, but not unless you hound them for ages)

PLEASE CHECK HERE IF THE CHAT IS DOWN BEFORE SENDING A PM TO THE ADMINS OR ME.

Downtime - 5 to 30 minutes - 10/28/2012
Reason: reconfiguring PHP. Drupal needs the PDO MySQL driver so the server will be down for about 5 to 30 minutes depending on how fast this can go.
Back online @ 10/28/2012 at 5:34PM EST.

Cheeseguy wrote:I'd actually register simmania.org for the main forums (its possible to specify a domain with FM) and use subdomains for wiki/exchange/other addons

If I'm not mistaken you can. I've seen an FM forum go to a domain from subdomain.

exchange.simmania.org sounds better IMO

I know a thing or two of OTTD as well as 5 star mods to "enhance" OTTD experience, we might as well add tournaments with it as well but this is an idea.

Hey guys I see a lot has changed since I was last here.

I'm having trouble logging into the chat. I type in mayorm and my pasword but it doesn't let me in

Don't type in a password.

Got in!