Hi Neil,
I am running FSHost through FireDaemon which is working well but logging into the server via Terminal Services which means the FSHosts icon does not show. (Dont ask why but apparently its a well know issue) this means I can not set the value and the Web interface does not allow you to set it.
Whats the registry entry thats needed?
Funny, I never noticed that I forgot to add the IP Address field to the admin web page. Oops. Next release.
Usually the registry entry for the IP Address would be here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FSHost\FSHost\Settings
But I believe since you're running FSHost with FireDaemon, it might be here instead:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\FSHost\FSHost\Settings
The registry key is named "HostIPUserEntered", and it's a string value. Just double-click it and enter your IP Address, such as "123.123.123.123".
Been reading the FAQ about requirements for the host and understand that its Peer to Peer. What traffic actually goes to the host and how much work does the host have to do?
This depends on a couple of things actually... If you're only running a 2002 session or only a 2004 session, then FSHost basically acts as a traffic cop, and just takes care of things like letting new people join, and a few other features such as Hop Lists, Chat Commands, etc. Since all players connect directly to each other, FSHost is just acting as another player and receiving all the data from all the players, but not forwarding anything. Its CPU usage is usually very low. And since it hardly sends anything out other than chat messages, its upload bandwidth is also very low.
However, if you're running both a 2002 session and a 2004 session, things are different. In this case, the players in one session aren't able to communicate with players in the other session, so FSHost has to forward all the data between sessions. So when a 2002 player joins, FSHost starts forwarding all of the player's location data (which FS2002 sends 4 times per second) over to the players in the 2004 session so they can see him.
And the same thing for when someone joins the 2004 session, FSHost is forwarding the data to the 2002 session. But FS2004 has a
problem (bug?) and sends its location data at the same rate as the game's framerate. So if you're getting 50 frames per second in the game, you're sending data to all other players in the same session (including to FSHost) 50 times per second instead of 4 times per second like FS2002 does. FSHost throttles this data and forwards it to the other session at a slower rate (the default is 4 times per second, but is changeable on the Options / Session tab), so although you can't control how much data FSHost is receiving, you can still control how much it sends out.
In a 2002-only session, you can count on needing a total bandwidth of about 1 to 1.5 KBytes per second, per player. So if you had 10 players, you might be using around 10-15 KBytes per second. With 2004, it's impossible to estimate how much bandwidth FSHost will be receiving, because everyone's sending data at different rates. But at least you can still figure on about the same 1 to 1.5 KBytes per second for its upload bandwidth.
Bottom line: you may have to just try a few tests and see how many people you can handle, and see how well your system copes with it. Running a 2002-only or 2004-only session will reduce the upload bandwidth and the CPU used, but you'll still be receiving the same amount of data as if you ran a multi-FS session.
Russell
