New in Hosting Cabal~ Need advice

[casteryee]

Greet to Cabal Community,
I'm interested to host my own server,but I'm total new with this.
Please give me some helps on my questions.

1: Do I need a Windows Server?
2: Which version of MSSQL is recommended? Can give me a link to download?
3: How many GB of RAM is needed to host?
4: 1MB bandwidth is recommend for how many players?
5: Which of the post's server files are recommended?

These are the questions for now, thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Sorry for my bad English

[MentaL]

[Xc0deRed93]

1. Not necessarily you will use windows server, you can use other operating system, but for better performance I may require windows server os.
2. mssql 2008 so far.
3. 2-4 gb ram is enough for strating a server.
4. 1MB bandwidth is good for 10-20 players as far as i see, and 1MB is not really good for hosting a server.
5. chumpy's 2.81.

this is base only on my own opinion. maybe others may give better answer.

[jcdgreatest]

first thing to do for you is use the search function. there so much you could learn in searching than waiting for somebody to answer you. welcome to ragezone. http://forum.ragezone.com/f459/collection-545201/

[casteryee]

Thanks, I have searched and read.
But due to my limited knowledge about Cabal hosting, so I get prepared first before I do anything~

[casteryee]

I have download all the files, when I configuring database, I realize they are not inside my folder.
Can anyone gimme the link of databases?
Thanks for any help.

[cypher]

Here: http://forum.ragezone.com/f459/tdp-c...ack-v2-632493/

[casteryee]

I have a problem with MSSQL 2005, I reinstall the MSSQL since I got error from start because when installing section, I failed to select Language to Chinese and also remote services can't choose TCP/IP and named pipe services.

Information of my OS:
Version: Windows server 2008 64bits
RAM: 1024
Guide referring : http://forum.ragezone.com/f460/cabal...torial-827633/

[casteryee]

And I want to ask, do I need a dedicated server or just VPS with high performance?
What do they effect to server?

[emi]

You should do a research and choose the best solution for you. A comparison between these you can find here

[X_Sarah_X]

I've hosted a Cabal server before and have some basic experience with it, and based on my own opinion this is what you'd need to start a decent server:

- Windows Server with 1gb+ RAM for MSSQL / Webserver (if needed)
- Linux server with at least 2GB of RAM (depends on the amount of channels you want to host as well) chumpy's repack will show you how much memory it expects to use when you set it up (512MB RAM per channel)
- Protect your client (Changin XOR keys, changing secret key, packing CabalMain.exe so they can't easilly find your updated values)

I strongly advise new servers to make protecting their client high priority. Why? You can simply distribute a client that will use a "internal.txt" file to connect to your server and use the default "XOR Keys" but this will open up a lot of vulnerabilities such as players being able to use custom data-files on your server, execute "developer commands" since your client will run in "developer mode" etc.

XOR Keys

If I remember correctly, Yamachi once wrote a guide on how to find/change the XOR keys inside CabalMain.exe.
At first it might look a bit strange but invest some time in it and it's quite easy to do.
Then there is a set of Cabal Tools released (Balq's tools, was it?) which comes with a data files packer, which makes it possible to pack your data files using your new XOR keys.
When done, I highly advise (what Yamachi advised as well), to pack your client with Themida or anything else.
Otherwise players can simply debug your client and find out what new XOR keys you entered and all your work would hardly make a difference.


So far my opinion on what you "need" to start off. Perhaps I got into detail a bit too much :P Anyway I wish you the best of luck setting up your Cabal server!