Am I missing something re vps or game server hosting?

I've spent hours looking over various options (providers) to set up a remote server for mates instead of hosting it locally. For the same price as a hosted game server from say gtxgaming I can get a vps with 20 gig of space, can install my own distro, can access via ssh from anywhere, hell I can even setup my own port configuration and firewall.

What do hosted game servers actually offer that makes it worthwhile? Does the web interface really make it that much easier? *confused*

Quote from Minotorious

Well quite a few things I can think of the top of my head now (might have missed a few as well):

1. Good upload speed for people not to lag (usually not available or more expensive in personal network connections)
2. DDoS or other hack attack protection since they usually have quite strong firewalls on the overall server
3. Some providers give you the option to also run a MySQL server in parallel for your world which makes things more foul proof
4. Automatic updating of the server (ok this is not so important)

Cheers. I had thought of most of them though (apart from 4) which is why I don't understand the price for what you get.

1: the vps I'm looking at is 100mbs
2: DDoS can be mitigated against within the vps though.
3. I can just install MySQL on the vps (it's open source)
4. As I say - I didn't think about that but yeah not a big deal

Quote from yahwho

Hosted game servers are more public-friendly. For example you don't need to know what ssh is to "own" one.

A plus for virtual machine servers is you don't ever need to worry about hardware upgrades as the host will do all this (or at least should).

And of course there is always the cost of electricity (my server sucks up about £10 worth of the stuff every month).

Also a virtual server should also have some sort of AV software and backup system (probably to an FTP site).

Display More

Thanks Yahwho - The electricity is why I'm looking at either a vps or game server provider. Electricity is a rip off here and the problem I'm having is that I'm ok running a server in the background when I'm using the computer anyway, but now I have two people asking if I can leave it on all the time (they are older and old fashioned.. they don't want to play on unlocked public servers but enjoy playing with each other as long as it's only people I know that are on.

Apart from needing to know what ssh is, and as Minotorious noted above the upgrade thing, is there any other reason to go for a dedicated game server instead of vps? I guess I'm just double guessing myself because it's a case of 'to good to be true'.

Yep.. tt's not what I'd necessarily do (at least not in the short term) but the fact a vps offers so much more flexibility is why I'm asking the question on what you miss out on. All it seems so far is auto update of server and a web interface.

I emailed the provider to double check what I can do re port configuration and installing IDS and IPS software and they said I can do whatever I want with ports, access, pretty much anything - it's like extending my home network boxen with one 'the cloud' and I'm really surprised it's cheaper.

I think I'll go that route. Cheers.