Devoted server for flash game page?

[Lakerol]

I'm about to set up my own flash game portal, and I'm expecting a lot of traffic, most probably up to 50 000 unique visitors a day during peak periods. I'm a flash game maker myself, so not only will I be putting up all the old games that are already all over the whole web but I will also make games especially for the site, which then I allow webmasters to download, and in the game I promote my site with a "play more games!" link. A tried and tested concept, right?

The problem for me right now is hosting. I haven't managed a homepage for 10 years, and I've never dealt with hosting before. I've been looking into loads of different ones, finally deciding site5 looked good (actually, somebody recommended them on this forum, in an older post). They have a $5 a month hosting plan (if you sign up for 2 months), with 5TB's worth of bandwidth, which is more than I've seen anywhere else. When I sent them a mail explaining my situation, they suggested I should get a devoted server instead, as 50 000 visitors a day probably would cause problems traffic-wise (i.e. not bandwidth-wise).

To be honest, I don't know to much about dedicated servers, but from what I've seen and heard they seem pretty damn expensive. I mean, I don't mind spending a bit more than $5 a month, but I don't want to spend 10 times that amount for a dedicated server when I don't even get half of the bandwidth that site5 offers... I mean, the bandwidth is necessary when you have a flash gaming page, is it not?

Any advice would be much much appreciated. What should I do?

[Mike]

This 50k visitors a day figure, is this just your prediction for the site or do you already have some traffic from somewhere else?

Wouldn't it be worth seeing how the site goes, watching it build traffic, then when it hits a certain figure and your hosting package can't cope, switch to a server.

As you don't have any traffic as of yet (is that right?) I don't see the point in you shelling out for a server when you don't need one.

[Lakerol]

It's a prediction I base on what other flash game makers have experienced after releasing popular games. (http://www.claxor.com/ released a game called "paintball - the game", which gave him 45 000 unique visitors - even though his game was sponsored by somebody else, who probably received even more visitors)

I agree to what you are saying, I would not mind to take it slow and see where it goes, but the thing is, I'm planning on releasing games which will garner a lot of attention pretty soon after I've put the page online. That means it's entirely possible that I get around 50 000 hits on my page pretty much the same day I publish it.

[Mike]

Yeah, I understand how huge the traffic is for makers who turn out a half decent game. Perhaps you'd be better getting a server at the low end of the scale, with a company who'd be happy to upgrade you (without any hassle) once your site reaches a certain level.

[Chris]

5tb of bandwidth for $5 a month is pretty funny.

If your site even came close to using it they're shut it down or bottleneck it, it is just like hosts who offer "unlimited bandwidth".

[Lakerol]

Thanks for the suggestions.

If anybody has a specific hosting service they would recommend it would be much appreciated.

I was looking into asmallorange.com, does anybody know anything about them? They're much pricier than for example site5 and the likes, but they have dedicated servers, as well as virtual ones, so upgrading shouldn't be much of an issue, I suppose.

But if 5TB for $5 is just a marketing ploy, are the kind of prices asmallorange offer more realistic for somebody who actually plans on using a fair amount of bandwidth?

For example, is this a good price for a virtual private server? ((from this page)

512 mb memory
250 gb bandwidth
20 gb storage
cpanel included
$90/month

Also, does anybody have any idea how much bandwidth might be necessary?

Thanks in advance

[Chris]

for $90 a month you're in the range of smaller dedicated servers.

You can always move your site when needed.

So, since it hasn't launched yet, you might as well just get the cheap account, with the understanding that you may have to move to up to a dedicated server later on. Moving a site isn't that hard.

[charlesgan]

if you looking for high bandwidth/mth and with cheap price. IMO,.. hostmonster is suite this, other than that is globat hosting

[mishytka]

if you looking for high bandwidth/mth and with cheap price. IMO,.. hostmonster is suite this, other than that is globat hosting

I have heard many negative feedbacks about Hostmonster.

[MaxS]

You may want to go straight to a VPS, rather than making the leap to a dedicated server.

To be honest, 50,000 unique visitors a day, that fast, is not going to be easy.