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Jul 15, 2000, 7:26pm

I am thinking of offering bot hosting 24/7 (not including various downtimes ;) ).

I'd like so opinions about this. Would you use this kind of service? What sort of downtime would be acceptable to you? Would you pay
for it?

Thanks!
-Agent1

Jul 15, 2000, 9:47pm

Well I dunno very much about hosting, but I do know bots take alot ram. So
wouldn't the host server computer need like a sh*t load of ram?

[View Quote]

Jul 15, 2000, 10:22pm

Maybe it would... hmm :)

Aha! Once Faber adds the "remote control" stuff to Preston, I could host those...
I'll need to think some more about this :)

-Agent1


[View Quote]

Jul 15, 2000, 11:57pm

I am running 5 versions of x1.exe (the Xelagot bot program) here - thats
a possible of 15 bots, but I only run 12, the other x1.exe is for the
bot communications server.

The 12 bots all run scripts varying in size and most all keep a dialog,
they all run 24/7

Out of 128Mb of ram I have around 67Mb free, and remember WinNT itself
likes a bit of ram to operate in :)

I usually find a bot will absorb between 2 and 8meg of ram depending on
what script it is running.

The main problem with running bots 24/7 is the AW or world servers, not
the local configuration. Running a bot server for other people's use
doesn't seem to be a great idea (but then I am only running Xelagot's)
as problems quite often occur that do need access to the bot's GUI. If I
were to run bots on a remote server somewhere I definetly would require
that server to support a remote screen display, something like
VNCServer, just to overcome a few minor glitch's that do crop up.

[View Quote] --
Cheers,

Ricta (aka Who)

Jul 16, 2000, 11:43am

I will be offering commercial bot/world hosting in the next few weeks. I'm currently discussing a deal with JKMT to be their official
bot hoster. =) About how much RAM you would need to host bots...it depends on which bots you are going to host, if they use any scripts
or have automated tasks, and the complexity of those scripts/tasks. Prestons, Xelagbots, Magsbots, Hambots, custom bots, etc. all take
up different amounts of RAM. In my experience, the bare MINIMUM amount of RAM you would need to host a decent amount of bots would be
96MB (but 128MB is recommended). The more, the better. Also, try not to buy Generic type of RAM. Get good quality memory from a well
known source. You could have 1GB of RAM in your hosting machine, but will it be stable enough to run 24/7, or will it keep crashing all
of the time?

On the pricing issue, I would think that $3-$5 per month per bot is the BASIC rate you should charge. Of course, it would depend on what
type of bot you would be hosting. A simple bot that greets people when they enter a world would be much less expensive then a full blown
paintball bot. Another thing to point out...will you configure the bot for the user, or will they send/transfer it to you
pre-configured? What type of connection do you have? 28.8k? 33.6k? 56k? Cable? Satellite? DSL? T1? Higher of lower? You could probably
get by on a 56k modem, if you stayed connected to the net almost 24/7 (and used a "keep alive" tool to ping your ISP). I know of one
person that hosts about three worlds over a 56k modem and (ironically) doesn't have too much lag

Another thing to point out...if you yourself can not host bots, then look into telnet and/or shell accounts. They are relatively
inexpensive for the amount of space you can get. I have yet to come across any good, free shell accounts, though. I believe Realm-Corp
(http://www.realm-corp.net/) uses a Linux shell account to host all of their bots/worlds.

Finally, if you plan to be connected to the 'Net for an extended amount of time (or 24/7), make sure you have all of the latest security
patches for the OS you wish to use. I would also highly suggest that you run a firewall on the hosting machine (if you don't have one
already). Visit the world Russ (which I also host ;o) for some good "Anti-Hacking" tools. As you can see, there are certainly a lot of
things to think about before getting into hosting. =)

-Builderz

[View Quote] > I am thinking of offering bot hosting 24/7 (not including various downtimes ;) ).
>
> I'd like so opinions about this. Would you use this kind of service? What sort of downtime would be acceptable to you? Would you pay
> for it?
>
> Thanks!
> -Agent1

Oct 28, 2000, 5:17pm

I would use it if it was free. i would not really be bothered by downtime,
since it would truly be much shorter downtime than when i run them from my
machine. it would be really usefull, since the bots I would get hosted are
my town bots. I use HamBot, so no big complicated stuff. You can see my bots
(whenever i remember to run them) in KAH Town (AW 2222S 2142E 270).
[View Quote]

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