After four long years, our long-suffering Server Master, Pete 'Picnic' Allnutt, wishes to step down from his role. He has very ably presided over the server rental process, and looked after the day to day running of the server since the inception of the league, and without his help and dedication we would not be here today.
He has decided that whilst he's happy to continue launching the game servers for UKGTR and doing the odd mod install, he would like to pass on the duty of managing the hosting package itself to somebody else.
There's very little technical stuff to do day to day, though some experience of using Microsoft's
Remote Desktop Connection would be helpful, and in particular it would be helpful if you're in a position to access the server during working hours (I'm not - I can't get to it from my PC at work - which is why I'm very hesitant taking up the role myself).
The cost of the server is paid for by donations and I manage the collection of those donations myself, simply passing the money on as required (the current server is paid for monthly via PayPal). You
do need to be willing to pester the hosting company by phone, instant messaging and email when the server is misbehaving (we haven't had a huge amount of trouble over the years, but when things go south it usually takes some pestering before the hosts take corrective action).
You should also be willing to take charge of the process of selecting a new host if we decide (or are forced, by poor service or the host going out of business) to move - indeed your first task will be to look into whether we can find a better package than the one we're currently on -
see below. For this reason, some technical knowledge of Windows hardware would be useful, particularly concerning the relative performance of various Intel and AMD CPUs.
If you are willing and able to take on the role, please send me a PM. Picnic has assured us that he won't abandon us until and unless we find a suitable replacement, and I'm sure he would be willing to help ease a new volunteer into his large (but definitely not clown-shaped) shoes.
Now, on to the server itself.Our current rental is on a monthly basis and after the problems we had just over a week ago we're looking around to see if we can get a better deal before the current month expires on June 20
th. The current server is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz, 4MB L2 cache) with 2GB of memory - we think that's probably a sensible minimum for our needs. It's hosted by
Direct Clan Hosting, who appear to be resellers for
Killer Creation. One suggestion is to move from DCH to KC and cut out the middle man.
ClanPlanet's
and
packages have also been suggested; I don't know where the AMD CPUs sit in relation to the E6600 in performance.
Some - perhaps many - of you must have experience with other hosting companies from other leagues. GTR2/GTL hosting is slightly trickier than hosting FPS type games as the latter are often hosted explicitly and controlled through a 'contronl panel' type arrangement, rather than as a full dedicated server package. In any case, we would welcome any and all advice and suggestions as to other hosts.
Please post suggestions and related discussion in this thread. Thanks.
