Hosting a Game Server?

[SillyBrick]

Hey, guys.
Now, i'm only 12, so if this sounds retarded i'm sorry.
Okay, I am interested in creating an mmorpg, and my language of choice is C++...... but I'm just learning SDL, so that won't work out right now. My first language was C, and I mean... it's kind of slow learning C, so I decided to learn another high-level language along with it so that I can have a little more fun. The language I chose was ActionScript 2, and I decided to use Flash along with it. Anyways, I stumbled upon a website (mainly for 13-17 year olds) about creating little flash games, and some of the website-viewers have attempted to make flash-mmorpgs. Those mmorpgs quickly gain a number of players, and kids wanting to be "moderators" on the game. Anyways, I am starting to get into the realm of actionscript 2, and I just want to mess around with some online stuff, like servers etc. Theres a program called SmartFox server which is made for flash-games and turn them into mmos, and all it needs is a server to host it on. Most of the people on the website just use their computer to host it on, but I am thinking that would be slow, unprofessional, and possibly risky.
I really don't know anything about servers... I... I think you buy them and then use the I.P on it to connect clients onto??
I mean... could somebody explain this to me? 'Cause I was thinking of buying one (like.. the cheapest one there is) and either a. Host games for the people on the site, B. Host my own game on it.
Also, are there like specific types of servers you need to get? I mean, could I buy a server and have it host like a website AND a game?
I would really like somebody to help and answer these questions
Hopefully you understand what i'm getting at... thanks for reading.

[mv2112]

These have to do with the internet and servers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_server~All about gameservers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol_Suite~TCP/IP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP_and_UDP_port~Ports
These would help you if you actually buy a real computer to use as a server
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_forwarding~Port-Forwarding
Teaches you HTML,JavaScript,PHP /SQL,etc
http://www.w3schools.com/~WebDesign
I don't know of any rent-able game-servers out there but for websites, there is google and dyndns.com.

I also would get 1 server for a website and one for the game, for speed purposes.

Honestly, start out with something small like pong. Based on your post, it sounds like you are WAY away from being able to create a mmorpg. I quote GyroVorbis, "go buy a book", you learn a lot more from books than the internet.

BTW, im 14, and your not retarded, you're just a noob ,everyone starts out as one. Hope this answers your question.

[short]

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[mv2112]

...

Thats why i answered the question, cause nobody else would

[short]

nevermind I retract my statement.

[SillyBrick]

Screw it, i'm going in with C++ or im not going in at all.
Btw, how much would a very cheap server cost?
Because I saw this 60$ HP "Server" thing, but then i'm seeing this 1k$ xenon server thing :P
I mean, i'm far away from even having to worry about this, but I'm just curious.
(If somebody could direct me to a good server-buying website that would be great)
Thanks for the help, guys.

[Live-Dimension]

You can host on your own computer till you actually release something. If you need more power then that you'll know.

[mv2112]

You can host on your own computer till you actually release something. If you need more power then that you'll know.

I agree

[LeonBlade]

...

Not a really appropriate response, do you think?
Everyone starts somewhere.

If that's not what you meant by your post, then I apologize in advance, and sorry for misinterpreting your comment.

Anyways, SillyBrick, it's good to see kids at such a young age get interested in programming, I enjoy seeing minds so young learn such advanced concepts shows a lot.

Your best bet is to check out the links that mv2112 gave you to learn more about server and other networking related things.
A game server is where your clients will connect to in order to share their information online with all the other users.

You have two options when it comes to online gaming and game servers.

There is first off, peer to peer also written as P2P.
Peer to peer lets everyone haul their own weight around, and connect to everyone in individually.
Normally, there will be the Host who is in control of the game session.
Everyone connects to the host, and is responsible for sending their data to everyone else in the game session, and in return, also retrieving everyone else's data as well.

There are some disadvantages with P2P however. With P2P you are more likely to encounter slow network issues.
If one person has a slow network, EVERYONE has a slow connection regardless of your own speeds.
Also, P2P is not good for large scale game sessions.

The other server option is going with Dedicated Servers and that's actually having servers setup by the person/company who makes the game for people to play on. The benefit of using dedicated servers is that you don't have to worry about overall lag, the only ones who will lag are the people with slow connection, however someone with a good connection wont experience these issues like they would with P2P. They are great for supporting large number of users in the game session, which is great for massive battles having 60 players instead of 16 for example. The downside is, having physical servers costs a lot more to supply all the servers and maintain them all.

Hopefully this will help.

[short]

hah I figured it was an april fools joke post that's why I did it ladida da seen waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to many april fools jokes today i guess :l