Hosting Announcement

[TeaLeaf]

As most members are probably already aware, the dMw community has been supported  over recent years by Crosswired Ltd - a co-location company run by Stryker (and previously run by Dogmeat & Stryker jointly).  This has enabled the dMw to grow and to provide the services it offers to its members at zero cost.  Recently Crosswired Ltd became part of Modern World Internet Ltd (MWIL) and Stryker elected to step away from his previous role.  On behalf of dMw's many members I would like to formally thank both Stryker & Dogmeat for their support.

Understandably, as none of the MWIL directors have any relationship or feel any obligation to dMw we were advised by email on 27th October (2 days before the LAN) that dMw's relationship with MWIL must be moved to a commercial basis with effect from 1st November.  In light of the non-commerical nature of our community and our previous relationship to Crosswired they offered to discount their full commercial rates by a small percentage.  Due to the severe time constraints Oldbloke and I confirmed that dMw would accept these rates for the month of November whilst we considered how best to proceed thereafter.  The dMw Community Account has more than sufficient funds to meet this cost but we needed the additional time to consider the full impact of such a change and also to assess what we would want from a host.  The following were immediate considerations:

• BlackAdder is a 2U server - this costs twice as much in rackspace charges per month as a 1U server.
• BlackAdder  is currently hosted in MWIL rackspace in Manchester.  This is not the most convenient location for Oldbloke and me to travel to in order to undertake any required server maintenance.  
• Manchester is not exactly at the centre of the UK's internet backbone, it is more of a side street off the main information super-highway.  More hops equals higher pings.
• MWIL have confirmed that the horrendous lag problems we have been suffering are a known routing problem with their bandwidth providers.  MWIL have told us that there is currently no specific date for the resolution of this problem.

Oldbloke & I have considered the options carefully and concluded that members' interests are best served by moving dMw's game servers, website and forums to a new host and bandwidth provider before 1st December 2004.  

We are therefore delighted to announce that dMw's server will imminently be moved to Hi-Velocity.  

Hi-Velocity have a number of hosting facilities and we are fortunate that we will be able to have our server hosted in their rackspace at Redbus which is in Docklands, London.  As most of you will know, Redbus is one of the UK's biggest internet exchanges (if not _the_ biggest) and is almost certainly closer to your current ADSL provider's gateway than MWIL's are currently.   Having our server hosted at Redbus should mean that we should be able to obtain a very high quality connection to our server with a minimum number of hops.  This which should result in some stunning gaming pings particularly for those who choose to use Hi-Velocity as their ADSL provider.  Members should check out their website as they currently have an attractive 'Christmas special offer' for a 1Mbps line for £23.99 per month.  

The move of our community from MWIL to Hi-Velocity has some logistical implications:

• In order to minimise ongoing rackspace costs we will be swapping the current 2U BlackAdder for the silver 1U server seen at recent LANs.  Please send me a PM if you have any suggestions for the server's name as BlackAdder does not seem appropriate for the silver case!
• There may be a short down time whilst the forums are transferred from one box to the other.
• There is likely to be a small service interruption when the DNS changes are made.
• We intend all changes to be complete before the end of November 2004.

Oldbloke and I are indebted to Gandalf-LoJ for his assistance in this matter and would like to thank him for both the introduction to Hi-Velocity and also his help with negotiations.  He has also kindly agreed to provide various 'hosting' assistance relating to the the transfer of the forums and website to their new Redbus home as he already has servers in the Hi-Velocity rackspace at Redbus.

Financial Implications
As accurate information about the amount of bandwidth (amongst other things) that we use is not currently available it is not possible to accurately assess the likely costs of running the dMw community in future months, however the last 18 months have seen us accumulate a significant community fund and this will allow us the necessary breathing space to make more detailed calculations.  Over the next few weeks and as things become clearer Oldbloke and I will finalise our discussions with Hi-Velocity and will then provide details of the financial model that we will need to put into place in order to secure the community's future.  We hope to have this financial structre in place with effect from 1st January 2005.  

Whilst Oldbloke & I are currently unable to confirm either the level of membership costs or the membership benefits until December, we anticipate that the final level of the monthly membership fee will be minimal and seen by most as excellent value for money or by Sheepy as less than the cost of a pint of beer.

We hope that they above information is helpful and will provde further information as soon as it becomes available,

TeaLeaf & Oldbloke
On behalf of dMw

[Barley]

Wow, nicely laid out and explained post!  Sounds to me like you got everything covered there.

On the Manchester issue though, it's actually pretty up there, 3rd largest city in the UK I believe.  Plus it's one of the fastest growing cities in terms on Internet development, or so I've read.  However, sounds like you live a long long way away  

[DarkAngel]

Thanks for keeping us imformed and once again thank you to all those helping out  

[Sn00ks]

Yeah thanks for the update. A remarkably erudite piece of prose to enlighten us lesser dMwers.

Big shout out to Stryker and Doggers for all the support they have given to us.  

Sounds like the future for dMw is bright and silvery.  

As a suggestion for a server name... well  Fiona just sort of popped into my head.  :blush:  Imagine hours spent playing with Fiona  :dribble:

[Anonymous]

:withstupid:

Oi! Stop playing with my wife!

No more BlackAdder? What about SilverSubtracter?

[Jamoe]

nice one, thanks for the heads up.

echoing the big shout to Stryker and Doggers.

for some reason bridget popped into my head as a server name  :huh:

[DuVeL]

Originally posted by Jamoe@Nov 20 2004, 10:18 PM
for some reason bridget popped into my head as a server name :huh:

[post=69708]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

Was reading all the replys, had the same name in mind, rofl!!!!!
Cheers for Stryker, Dogger, GLJ and all others involved.
I appreciate it much! My twinbro and bro also like the servers so thank you for that. If some more guys are on, they might play on it more aswell. Sorry I'm not playing that much, schoolstuff and work before CS though.... . Ahwell.

Good effort all involved, keep up the good cause (-=dMw=-). I'm even considering a monthly fee if you need to have one.
Greetz and all the best to our dMw!!!!!!

[Grimnar]

Originally posted by DuVeL@Nov 21 2004, 03:59 AM
Good effort all involved, keep up the good cause (-=dMw=-). I'm even considering a monthly fee if you need to have one.
Greetz and all the best to our dMw!!!!!!

[post=69717]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

 :withstupid:

[MAD_ness]

Nice one .....



Good work guys

 

[Doorman]

Originally posted by BlueBall@Nov 20 2004, 10:15 PM
:withstupid:

Oi! Stop playing with my wife!

No more BlackAdder? What about SilverSubtracter?

[post=69707]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

Or.................Silver Sub-contractor

[A Twig]

Or Henry the Double-Headed ....ahem

[Dr Sadako]

if you have any suggestions for the server's name

Haven

[tugs]

Me, I was thinking "Bob" (aka Kate).

Manchester is a lovely place I'm sure, but let's face it, in Internet terms, London (LINX specifically) is the core. It is the place to be. As an aside, LINX recently announced that it was now the highest capacity Internet exchange worldwide.

Good work all, and I'll echo the thanks to all involved in setting this up, as well as to doggers and stryker for their original generous use of their hosting capabilities!

GG all!

[Gone_Away]

Well done that gents.. I'm sure that you'll be able to put forward a plan that will be readily accepted by the masses here...

Server name: Silver Surfer..

[MAD_ness]

what about the Greek gods


Hercules
Aries
Zeus









I'll get me coat !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



 :whistle: