Hosting Gametable on Amazon S3 or Linux Hosting Account?
August 5, 2009 10:10 AM   Subscribe

My friends and I use a java based program called Gametable to play long distance Dungeons and Dragons. We're having trouble finding someone who can host the game each week. Firewalls and general computer problems are preventing one of us from hosting the game. Can I use my linux hosting account (or even better my Amazon s3 account) to host Gametable?

I don't have the knowledge to do complicated coding outside html and css. If it's relevant.
posted by royalsong to Computers & Internet (9 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
That depends on your "linux hosting account"... so could you provide more information about that?

My understanding of Amazon S3 is that it's just for storing data.

In order to run Gametable, from what I briefly read on the website, all you need is a JRE... you can test this on any shell simply by typing "which java", and see if it comes back with a path to a java application. Then you need to double check versions of java, but I doubt that will cause an issue.

Is Gametable a server/client setup? Meaning the host can run a separate app just for the purpose of hosting? If not, and it require a GUI, this could get more complicated.
posted by teabag at 10:28 AM on August 5, 2009


The documentation on GameTable's website isn't very thorough: I understand that one person sets up as a "host", and each player connects by putting in the host's IP address. What happens if a "host" sets himself up, but does nothing during gameplay? Can the DM be a "player"? If your linux server has a Java runtime, and gameplay does not require the "host" computer to do anything, you should just need to get the Gametable program running on the server, behaving as a "host", and each player connect to it using the server's IP address. If you can only set Gametable as a "host" via a GUI frontend, you might have trouble, unless you have X available on the linux machine; if there are command line arguments you can start it with, or you can run Gameplay entire from a CLI, you might be able to get it working.

Gametable also has their own support forums; they might be a better place to ask.
posted by AzraelBrown at 10:34 AM on August 5, 2009


Have you exhausted attempts to solve someone's firewall issues so they can host? I'm sure there'd be plenty of help here to resolve that issue, if Gametable won't work on your linux server like you want it to.
posted by utsutsu at 11:30 AM on August 5, 2009


Here is a link to the Gametable FAQ; it outlines a number of common problems and solutions to those problems.
posted by axismundi at 11:50 AM on August 5, 2009


I think I'm with utsutsu ... fixing the firewall issue seem easier to me than dealing with a remote host.

S3 absolutely will not work. Amazon EC2 (a VPS) might work, but it looks to me like this application wasn't designed to be used in that way.
posted by samsm at 12:13 PM on August 5, 2009


Response by poster: http://www.godaddy.com/Hosting/Legacy.aspx?ci=1234 - This is the linux hosting plan i have. Specifically the middle one.

To host a gametable session, you use a GUI to determine game-info (player name and character name), determine a password, and the port you're on. You can be both player and host, or just host and not a player.

Have you exhausted attempts to solve someone's firewall issues so they can host?

I think a lot of the problem is user error/inexperience. But in one case the guy hosted it fine one week, but we couldn't join him the next week and he said he didn't change any settings - so your guess is as good as mine.

Thanks for the help so far!
posted by royalsong at 12:17 PM on August 5, 2009


Why don't you just use Hamachi so you don't have to concern yourself with NAT traversal problems at all? Once installed, it's like having everyone in the room on the same wire, regardless of intervening NAT "firewall" routers. It's the solution to exactly the kind of problems you are having. I use it to host games with my gaming group all the time.
posted by majick at 12:31 PM on August 5, 2009


I don't think you'll be able to host the java program on your indicated hosting plan, as that looks like basic web hosting. What you need is shell access, which I don't see indicated on Godaddy's website-- I could be wrong.

Trying to host this any other way is going to be a mess, I think trying to fix the problem at hand is the best advice, rather than complicate it further.
posted by teabag at 1:03 PM on August 5, 2009


A more educated voice can correct me on this, but GoDaddy's normal (non-dedicated) Linux plans can have SSH enabled on them through the control panel, although (and this is often the deal-breaker) they do not give you access to any compilers.
posted by ThatRandomGuy at 11:05 AM on August 6, 2009


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