Getting Game Server Hosting – What You Should Know

Game server hosting is a specialized version of internet hosting, designed to for gamers to use to play games via the internet.

Usually, gamers use a piece of software called a game client to connect to the game server. Many individual game clients may be connected to a game server at once.

There are actually two basic types of gamer servers – listen servers and dedicated servers. Listen servers are mostly used by individual players. For example, you might use a listen server at a LAN party.

Dedicated servers are generally setup on a remote server (i.e. The server is not in the same locality as the gamers). Usually, this server will be part of a data center, which is a facility which contains many servers for various purposes.

Maintaining a dedicated game server can be very expensive, as a game server usually will require large amounts of bandwidth. (Bandwidth, also called data transfer, is a measure of the amount of data that comes and goes from the server.)

Sometimes a gaming clan will collectively pay for a game server for their use, but often times the best way to get access to a dedicated server is to pay for access. There are many Game Server Providers

Game Server hosting may also come with extra features, such as voice capability. Ventrilo is a good example of this. Ventrilo is a voice communications system that gamers can use to communicate between themselves. Using a headset with microphone, game players can communicate, plan strategies, etc, without taking the time to type.