server help needed

[Bldyannoyed]

I've decided to put together a cheap (less than 300 quid if poss) server to use as a dedicated teamspeak/clan gaming server. The only problem is that i dont have the first idea about networking, or what security measures i need to take. I have 1mbps broadband which will be shared with my gaming rig.
If any one can give me some pointers about how to set it all up, what kind of modems i need, some good hardware/software firewall stuff it would be much appreciated. Also a minimum spec reccomendation for the hardware would be cool. Thanks for your time.

[nvening]

well basically, a server is just a dedicated Pc, so build a good pc for £300 (onboard or v cheap Gpu needed). u can run linux or windows server stuff. You just plug the router in the server. But i must say, as far as i no, u need a good server for games.

[Nick]

With the server box, the majority of your money should be spent of CPU and RAM, HDD storage space isn't as important... as long as you have enough for what you want to install on there.

Yep, OOMPH and memory, that's what you need.

If you're going to be running a TS server or a dedicated gaming server, you'll need all that power to actually run the game and keep players pings reasonable.

Don't forget taht even with a 1mb line, you're upload is still only 256kbp, so you'll be limited on the number of people who can connect at one go.

As for hardware, a BB gateway modem should do you, you can network into it from you're own machine and have an always on connection for the server.

Firewalling will be done by the modem, so you won't ahve to worry too much about that, you'll just have to open ports on the modem to allow people to connect to your server to play.

If it were me, I'd got for a 40gb HDD, then blow the rest of my cash on a quick CPU and a couple of gig of ram. I'd run the thing bolted to an old cereal box rather than waste money on a flashy case etc.

See what you can scrounge together and what you'll HAVE to buy, then you'll be able to see how much you can spend on the essentials... a crappy old CD drive will be fine for getting software onto the thing, so perhaps even whip one out of a rig in use, just to load stuff on... anything to save money and get power in its place...

oh, and running it on an S3 Virge 2mb GFX card is fine too... you won't actually SEE anything if you run a game in dedicated server mode anyway... with servers it all about blow, not show!

[Bldyannoyed]

Awesome, cheers dudes