How to... Run your own games server

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It's Sunday night and you're talking with a few friends on Xfire. You've all just been kicked off a BF2 server, the admin having taken an instant dislike to the way you were better than him. He says he's "making way for clan members", but a refresh of the server shows nobody else has turned up. He's simply knocking seven bells out of a poor sap who bought the game on budget yesterday. The mark of a true champion.

It's a sad fact of life that out on the Internet, each game is a self-contained dictatorship - and if you're not contributing to its upkeep, you have no right to be there. Instead of having your butt kicked between servers by short-tempered 14 year olds, why not set up your own server for you and your friends and make your own set of rules? Here are five easy ways to become your own admin...

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01. Home PC
Want to make a game other people can join while you play it yourself? The obvious place to start is the PC on your desk. If you're behind a router, you'll need to open its configuration page and forward ports to your machine (see the router's manual for full details). The ports themselves will be numbers between 1024 and 65534, and will be different for each game - visit the Common Ports section at portforward.com to establish which ones you need. To run the server, simply start a multiplayer Internet game. Other people will be able to connect to your WAN IP address and start playing straight away.

Pros: Costs nothing over what you're already paying for broadband. Easy to set up with a private networking tool such as Hamachi.

Cons: Home broadband has limited upstream bandwidth not suited to servers. It also advertises your presence to hackers and other ne'er-do-wells.

02. Dedicated Home PC
If you're an exhibitionist, setting up a dedicated server on a home PC means you don't need to be playing the game yourself for people to join in. A dedicated or 'standalone' server will run in the background, accepting requests from newcomers and hosting games without you having to be there.Running such a setup depends entirely on the game you're wanting to play. For example, Half-Life games such as Counter-Strike: Source include tools called HLDS and SRCDS that allow you to get going within only a few minutes, whereas Battlefield derivatives require you to visit the main battlefield.ea.com website and download the tools separately.

Pros: Leaves you free to do something else while the server is running - and your friends can join in and play while you're out.

Cons: Without a password, your network is a target for hackers. Also likely to use up all your bandwidth.

03. Games Slots
An increasing number of hosting companies will rent you player 'slots' on ready-made games servers, meaning you get to avoid all the complications of setting up the software and administering an entire Windows PC. All you have to do is pick the title you want to play, decide the maximum number of players you want to allow on it and then reach for your credit card. Buying game slots is the first step away from hosting games inside your house, and if you're really not keen on the idea of running your own server, it's simply the most sensible choice here.

Pros: Cheap to run, especially if you restrict the number of player slots. Easy setup, zero maintenance and no long contracts.

Cons: List of games titles can be restrictive, no beta or demo versions. Also, you can't run other software or host other services.

04. Dedicated Server
A dedicated server is a slimline PC bolted into a cabinet of ten or more similar machines sitting alongside countless others in an air-conditioned room. You pay monthly to rent the server from the hosting company which owns it, and get to treat it as though it was your own for the period. You can host games, run a website or blog, start a file download service - anything that takes your fancy. Most dedicated hardware will be capable of running two or more games servers at once, meaning you could even start your own business renting player slots to others.

Pros: You can use the machine for anything, not just games, and it leaves your broadband line decongested.

Cons: You're paying for hardware you'll never actually own. Also, for the best rental price you'll need to sign a 12-month agreement.

05. Dedicated Clan Server
A clan server is the same as a dedicated server, only it's hosted by a company which specialises in games and has games players for customers. What that means is that all the software you need comes pre-installed, and it's easy to have new titles added as they're released. Depending on your host, you can also elect to cut your monthly costs by restricting the server's coverage to UK-only bandwidth. The best thing about renting a clan server is that you and your clan become part of a bigger community, with access to specialised technical support, tournaments and competitions.

Pros: All the software is provided for you. You're helping to support gaming communities by buying into them.

Cons: Expensive, so everyone in your clan will have to chip in. As with dedicated hardware, you're paying for something that isn't yours.

Huh?

Your WAN IP address is basically your unique 'telephone number' on the Internet. Depending on which broadband provider you use and which package you've chosen, it could be static or dynamic. If you want to tell your friends where to find you, you'll need to know the address of your server. Find your WAN IP address by browsing to checkip.dyndns.org. If you're running a dedicated server on the actual machine you use to play games, its IP address will always be 127.0.0.1. Together with Source Dedicated Server (SRCDS), Half-Life Dedicated Server (HLDS) is the entertainment world's most popular server software, given that it powers every Counter-Strike game, together with every entry in Valve's back catalogue.

Phil Wand