Hi all!

So I got wondering the other day, how do I create my own game server?

Specifically, what do I need to setup or create in order for my own game server to be fully functioning? Also what grade of finances are involved in the creation of dedicated server?

And what kind of work is involved in maintaining or modifying a server?, I.E What kind of freedoms can you exploit with the creation of your own server? What are the do's and don'ts?

Most importantly which is the best region to setup your own halo server?

If anyone can help with these queries, it would be greatly appreciated.


(Creating a topic for this was my last result, since googling my questions returned with a sweet nothing. Apologies if I have overlooked a previous thread containing all/most of the information I need)

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?nid=323

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?nid=240

You can't make our own server. It will probably (actually it's 100%) that it will lag horibly. The only way to do it, it's renting a server from the site mentioned above. If you want a profecional server, that's the way to do it. If you want it for just a game or two for 1v1 matches then dedicated server is propably ok.

No offense, but this is completely untrue.

It all depends on your Internet connection and what you have access to.

If you have a spare computer sitting around, it's more than powerful enough to host a Halo server, your primary bottleneck will be the network speed.

Last time I did some research about Halo PC servers (which was quite a few years ago, so numbers might be fuzzy) but hosting a server with 16 players required a connection speed of at least 5mbps up and down. This is well within the possibility of home networks these days. Do a speedtest and find out what you can hold.


If further depth to answer OP's question. Creating a dedicated server is completely free if yo have a computer sitting around and a connection to support it.

Now a'days people generally use modified dedicated server binaries like Gandanur. These have many features that aren't available in the vanilla dedicated server files. For most of this, you configure it all once (upload maps, set up votemap or mapcycles and turn the key) your biggest problem will be administrative. There are quite a few aimbots and the like floating around Halo so having people that will kick/ban those abusers from your server will set it apart from the others.

Googling will return everything you need. The articles PRPatxi linked are some of the best out there for describing setup of a dedicated server, but a lot of it is just experimenting and seeing what works, that's part of the fun anyway.

Hope this helps!
Edited by Somone77 on Jan 27, 2014 at 12:50 AM

Like Someone77 said, you can easily host your own dedicated server if you have an extra computer laying around that dosen't get used or an actual server box. the only limitation is your network speed, how fast it can dl and upload info. Eg I have high-speed internet, however, my serverbox can only really handles max of about 10 -12 players.

@ALL: Thanks so much for your replies, and helpful links!

I am sorry I mentioned dedicated server, I was actually curious about those servers which are rented from sites like, Elite game servers and Game tracker.

I live in the UK, so I have fair to good net speed. Around 120mb is what I am promised, but I actually get 90 - 105mb/s in day light hours.

http://store.virginmedia.com/?buspart=googlesearch&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=virgin&utm_campaign=P_BRAND_CORE

Are the prices for renting a server likely to fluctuate over time? For example should I expect the prices to sky rocket after 6 months? Or will the annual fee be more or less the same?

The prices have been the same for years now... 9.99$ for a 24/7 server for a month, 100$ for a 24/7 server for a year. That's for EliteGamerServer which by the way are the bast for Halo Servers
Edited by AlekosGR on Jan 27, 2014 at 01:47 PM

@All: Next question, I have a few others asking me this so although it isn't urgent I would still like to know how exactly it is done.

In a nutshell what is SAPP, and how would one apply it to his\her server.

I never hosted a dedi on my PC but I'm sure you can find info here http://www.elitegameservers.net/sapp/

Use this site for the info and newest version of sapp, most other sites that have it are
providing old versions.
http://xhalo.tk/

How to set it up
http://xhalo.tk/setup

The main features are also listed on that main page.

Huh, I am not sure why stupid IE9 Didn't show that.

Noob internet browsers.

Thanks ally.

SAPP is a must.

It adds so much functionality to the server that I can't imagine going back to vanilla dedi. If you want an example of what is possible with SAPP, join this server:

@Stunt_man: Additional mods like "SAPP" don't cost do they?

(Question which I am forwarding from an offline hmaps user)

No, SAPP is free (in terms of money and performance - adding SAPP functionality to your server won't slow it down or anything).

@Stunt_man: Ah that is good, well maybe I will save up to launch a few a few servers at the end of the year for all the good peeps at halo maps.

Oh and, is it possible to restrict certain people from certain countries entering your server?

(Its not a racist thing, its just most spanish players are always trollers and abusive. Not to mention there horrible pings, draining the server with there lag!)

Although i doubt sapp can kick people from specific countries, sapp can kick people with too much ping i think. Set it to like 300-400 ping max when you set the server up

By the way, higher ping does not mean that the server has any more trouble processing all the other players' data than a person with lower ping. Ping is just the time between data travelling from client to host, so a person with 300 ping, his data takes 300 milliseconds to travel from their computers to the server.
Edited by nihao123456ftw on Feb 23, 2014 at 08:29 PM

Yea like nihao123456ftw said, you can set ping kick to whatever you want. However, I wouldn't recommend using this to block players from South America (if that is in fact what you are trying to do). In any case, those players likely won't be joining your server, because they will see in the server list that the ping is unreasonable. I personally would never set ping kick to <200 or even <300, just for the reason that sometimes myself or one of my admins will be experiencing lag (because of other users at their home or whatever) and will get auto-kicked because they forgot to sign in.

Speaking of which, contact me when you are setting up SAPP, I just went through my third reinstall and I'm pretty confident in my abilities to set up admin levels and privileges correctly (very important to prevent your server from getting hijacked).

@All: What your saying is true, personally since most people insist on using wifi in todays world I am probably going to have to set the ping kick ratio to 500 - 1000.

Just to be fair for all those laggy players who have mind boggling skills.

Oh and thanks for the offer stunt_man, but I am really only posting these questions for people who are asking me these questions. When I do setup my own, server. It will probably be in the winter, I will be sure to contact you for any help and advice.

As much as you can maintain in the log files. Or to put it another way as much as you have space for log files.

For me that would be something like:
Directly in front of my monitor, about 4 feet away.
Mouse and keyboard.
Some kind of pop and chips or chocolate.