Questions about possibly setting up a steam content server

[Kharn]

Well i live in Australia and a peering company is interested in setting up a Steam Content Server which will be free data for a large number of ISP's customers.

Unfortunately here we have to pay for data so we get around the monopoly wholesaler by having peering companies who provide free data between ISP's for a flat fee.

So i was wondering if anyone would know what is needed and how if it is possible to set up a Steam Content Server. I have emailed the business section of steam but they are yet to reply.

So if anybody knows anything it could save me some money on my monthly bill

:cheese:

 

[Shockwave]

you probably need to sound proffesional in the email you sent steam. THey would want to know exact details of what you are offereing them. And also they probably dont wanna talk to you they wanna talk to the actuall host.

 

[bslinger]

*really hopes this happens, especially if it's free for his ISP*

What scares me is that I can never tell how much Steam is downloading when it updates the games. Sure, it tells you 'Half Life will take up XXX amount of space on your HDD', but is that how much it's downloading? We need more info, status bars, statistics, etc., so we can tell what the hell Steam is doing with our internet connection.

 

[Kharn]

Well i got a great reply from steam:


Hi,

Thanks for expressing interest in becoming a content host.

One of the benefits you will receive is access to our customer base. While
users are connected to your server they see a banner ad that you control.
This gives you the opportunity to advertise to the group. Many of the
content server hosts sell ad space to help offset the cost of the bandwidth.
A server connected to a 100 Mbps pipe will see about 1+ million banner ads
per month.

Another benefit is that we will supply you with some Steam accounts at no
charge.

We have the capability to set up the server to only deliver content to your
customers. This is not ideal but possible. All you need to do is supply
us with the CIDR list of the IP addresses you'd want to allow.

All you need to do is get the hardware set up and running. The easiest way
for us to get things running is for you to supply a Terminal Services logon
and password and the level of bandwidth you would like us to cap the server
at. We will then install the software and bring the system online. We can
also get the server running by working with you over the phone.

I have attached a zip file with more information.

Mike