Starting a new server - advice required

[Vimesy74]

Hi all,

I want to start a TM Stadium2 server for my clan/website but have never done this before so I'm looking for very noob friendly advice please.

Last week I rented a server from MultiPlay only to find out that they can't offer the level of customization we require. On other servers I visit you can see all the local records displayed, with donate button, track ratings etc - I believe (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that this is due to a Mod called "Xaseco2"? Multiplay won't support this as it conflicts with their Clanforge software. So I intend to pull out and find another supplier.

So ideally what I want is a server that comes with all this installed as standard - is this possible and if so where? I've heard of a couple of sites like Trackmaniaserver.org (but not heard great things about their customer service - any truth to those?) or PingKings (whose site is woefully short of any in-depth detail).

Doe anyone have any recommendations? How/where do you have your servers?

On a side-note, how do you upload tracks? Do you just find the track on a site somewhere and upload the data to the server or something?


As you can tell I'm completely new to this kind of thing so any help would be hugely appreciated!

[TGYoshi]

If you have the money I'd buy a dedicated Windows/Linux server at e.g. http://www.hetzner.de/en/ (I can strongly recommend it). A VPN is often done too.
It's the most flexible and in my opinion best way to go for it as you have full control.

Using a server like that allows you to do anything, but it requires some more related to setting the server up etc., you have to do it yourself (but it's quite simple anyway).

On a side-note, how do you upload tracks? Do you just find the track on a site somewhere and upload the data to the server or something?

You can do that, but many controllers (a seperate application which remotely controlls your server, Xaseco2 is an example you've stated yourself) handle commands to automatically download maps from mania-exchange.com and put it into the tracklist.

[zootie]

Well I'm renting from PingKings and have ample control over what I can do. i.e. full control of xaseco customisation, restart controller, server, database tools, full FTP etc. only thing you can't do obviously is changing startup scripts etc.

I've tried maybe 4 other providers and none met my needs, but suppose it depends on what your expectations are.

[Vimesy74]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've gone with Ping-Kings as well and they've been excellent so far. All i have to do now is learn how to run Xaseco2 properly!

[bryan1998]

You could just home host your servers like i do. My servers are hosted right behind me. You just need a good internet connection. I host my website on that same server.