Criteria for Finding a Game Server Host

I want to host a game server, using a dedicated server in a
datacenter. Network performance, such as pings and packet loss, are of
critical importance.

I need unbiased, no-nonsense, fact-based advice for finding the right
host for my game server. I need to know what to look for in a
host...what criteria to use in order to gauge their suitability to my
needs.

I don't need Google Researchers to find the host for me. Rather, I
just need to know what to look for in a host, so that I can be
confident that the host I choose will be suitable.

I need to know what information to look for in a host, and how to find
such information.



To give you some ideas as to what I'm talking about, here is a list a
few things I look for in a host:

1. WhoIs lookup to see how long their site has been online.

2. Google Pagerank to see how popular their site is.

3. Looking their URL up on Google to see what others say about the
website, such as "host.com sucks" or whatever.

4. Finding out if the host uses several premium backbone carriers.

What I want to know is what other criteria I should be looking for in
a host. Furthermore, whatever criteria you recommend, I want to know
how to find the information pertaining to the criteria. For example,
if I am to look up what backbone carriers a host uses, I need to know
how to find out what carriers they use.

I want to know if a host has its own datacenter, or if they're just
merely resellers of someone else's datacenter.

I want to know if I rent a server, if it will be shared with anyone
else. I want the computer's resources for my server's exclusive use.

I want to know the best places in the U.S. for a datacenter. For
example, I've heard Chicago is one of the best places for a datacenter
because of all the fiber optic lines passing through Chicago, making
it an ideal place to transfer data since it has the longest stretches
of fiber, from coast to coast.

I just need a lot criteria such as these that I can look for in a
host, and also how to find such information.

Thank you!

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Clarification of Question by teamfluffdotcom-ga on 14 Feb 2006 19:05 PST

I'll be deciding on a host within the next week, so I need an Answer
within the next 7 days. After which, I'm cancelling the Question.

If I was looking for game server hosting, I would check out
http://servers.aplus.net, as they have great credentials from places
such as C|Net.

But, it looks like they provide the server, and it looks like you were
not asking for a server in a remote data center, but to use your own
game server in your data center.  Is this correct?

Steve