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VServer 1.0 - ( August 2002 )
VServer: A term that relates to the physical hardware in which the Viper01 web site resides upon.
VServer Project: A nickname given to the development of the Viper01 web site itself. Each major development is categorized by a different version of the project.
Viper01: The nickname of the individual responsible for creating, hosting, and maintaining the Viper01 web site.
This web site was not always as you see it today. In fact, over the years it’s changed drastically. This page is devoted to the history of the Viper01.com web site in honour of it’s administrators, both past and present.
The vServer started out with one server hosting a simple HTML-only web site, only accessible through a redirect from a fairly lengthy web page address. Server 1 was a Pentium II 450MHz computer purchased through a local computer "garage sale" for just under $40. This server was setup with a Windows 98SE installation and a Ragnarok Online emulator, as that was about all the server could handle. The official Ragnarok Online servers, operated by Gravity Entertainment, had just changed to a pay-to-play format so there was a high demand for those offering the service for free which made my timing perfect. I
named the service vRO, or Viper’s Ragnarok Online, and almost overnight the server began to see a player base in the 100’s.
Creating the vServer project took a lot of effort, and over the year also included others in its development and maintenance. GM’s like Draconjager, Faalzin, and NeverCaught were amongst the first to venture into the realm of vRO, long before World of Warcraft was even thought up. That system over the years has gone through many changes including increased hard drive space and additional memory. At the end of vServer version 1, it had a total of 8GB of hard drive space and 512MB of PC133 SDRAM, more than enough for what it was being used for.
VServer 1.5 - ( February 2003 )
With version 1.5 came a powerhouse added to the vServer project. Server 2 was running an AMD Duron 1.2Ghz processor with 768MB of PC133 SDRAM memory. It also has a total hard drive capacity of just under 100GB, which is way more than required for what it does. This server was used to host a custom made Neverwinter Nights module called "Aleros", and also a backup of the website's files and database.
VServer 1.7 - ( January 2004 )
We had several losses in this version of the server project. The player base for Ragnarok had been shrinking exponentially due to the fact that it was almost impossible to keep up with the emulator projects. The emulator I had been running saw its team fall apart, which forced me to switch to an unfamiliar emulator, and it just took far too long to get everything updated. Thus Server 1, running vRO, was retired as more powerful and more popular 3rd party RO servers were available online. It was basically put on a shelf and left there.
Server 2 also saw some major changes, since the Aleros project (our custom module) also fell behind and people lost interest in it. With that being said Server 2 saw the loss of Neverwinter Nights but the addition of World of Warcraft, which had quite a large fanbase at the time. Once again the server became very popular almost overnight.
VServer 2.0 - ( March 2005 )
Some dramatic changes occurred with the vServer project in this update. The first, and most important, change that occurred with this update was the procurement of the “Viper01.com” domain. People would no longer have to type in some lengthy nonsense to get to the website!
Hardwarewise there were also some fairly dramatic changes. First there was a motherboard swap in Server 2 which allowed me to change the memory from the 768MB PC133 SDRAM to a newly acquired cache of 512MB PC2700 DDR memory. This would speed up the system dramatically. Then we increased the hard drive space in Server 2 to a mind-numbing 300GB. We also began work on Server 1, however it wouldn’t be brought back online in time for this launch.
As far as software goes, this version of the project also saw some drastic changes here as well. The first change was the merging of the World of Warcraft server to the server hosted by The Dank Domain, which had much more CPU power than we could offer at the time. Since Server 2 had nothing to do except run the website we attempted to return vRO to the people. This idea, however, was quickly abolished when we began looking at the available emulators, their complex setups, and their endless lists of bugs. As such, Neverwinter was brought back online on Server 2 to see if there was still a "market" for the game. Finally, the website was upgraded and now allowed PHP and MySQL usage. This brought about the addition of a forum as well as Viper01’s personal blog. Finally, we added a selection of 12 flash games for our visitors to play with.
VServer 2.3 - ( January 2006 )
This version of the project saw some major additions and boosts to both the available selection of games as well as some additional hardware.
The additional hardware added to the project was a specially built 650Mhz system, Server 3, with 512MB of PC133 SDRAM and a total HDD capacity of just over 4GB, just enough to meet the requirements of what we wanted it to do. Then twin 10/100MB Network cards were added to ensure the network availability would be sufficient for the server. For software we decided to go with Slackware (Linux) and the KDE interface to make things a little more user friendly. We then found a Linux version of the Neverwinter Nights server and moved the "Aleros" module from Server 2 to this new Server 3 so we could advertise our Neverwinter as being on a "dedicated server" for once.
So, the overall server lineup was as follows... Server 1 was receiving upgrades, but remained offline. Server 2 was hosting the website in it's entirety. Server 3 was hosting the Neverwinter Nights "Aleros" dedicated server. Up until this time this was actually the busiest time we had ever had with over 300 unique visitors daily.
VServer 2.6 - ( February 2006 )
Very little has occurred hardware-wise in this version of the project. We unfortunately lost the Neverwinter server due to a catastrophic hardware failure in Server 3, which was unable to be repaired for over 3 months. By the time we brought Server 3 back online the players had left for other Neverwinter Nights servers, or stopped playing entirely. As such the "Aleros" project was put on hold for an undetermined time and Neverwinter Nights was removed from Server 3 once more.
The webpage went through a complete revamp in this update. It now has a more sleek design, a few things have been added, and a couple things have been removed. All the changes have made the website better looking, more negotiable, and more informative. The design is fairly flat, however, with links on the left and content on the right. I may decide to revamp it again in the near future to add more graphics for a better look. I've also upped the site's resolution requirement due to the fact that almost nobody should be limited to 800x600 anymore.
We finally brought vRO back online again and had an instant fan-base. During this time we also hit our 10,000th account for vRO. Which isn’t bad considering the largest complaint we seem to get is that the vRO server is usually empty.
VServer 2.7 - ( August 2006 )
There was almost no change in this version of the vServer. Once again we tried to bring back Neverwinter on Server 2. This saw the return of a MySQL database for the "Aleros" module, returning some functionality, and also allowed the new module to be tested on and off in real-time. With the recent release of Neverwinter Nights 2, however, the online community isn’t as large as it used to be and it might be too little to late. We also gave official notice that the "Aleros" module was going to be completely revamped.
VServer 3.0 - ( January 2007 )
It's January 1st 2007 and another year has come and gone. With that being said it's time to give a rundown of the changes to the vServer that have happened to make the version 3.0 milestone.
2006 saw the final removal of Server 1 (or so we thought). It was determined that a 450Mhz computer system was just never going to be powerful enough to do anything that we wanted it to do. By this time Ragnarok emulators required a minimum of 600Mhz processors, Neverwinter Nights required in excess of 800Mhz processors, and World of Warcraft was unplayable if your server had anything less than 1Ghz of processing power in it. As the system was setup with Linux at the time we played around with the idea of putting the website on it, however at the time nobody on the team knew much about Linux so we deemed that maintenance to the site would be virtually impossible if something went wrong and as such decided against it. As of now we’ve officially retired Server 1, as we can’t come up with anything to use it for.
As mentioned earlier, I had played around with continuing the revamp of the
website. In late 2006 this actually happened. The old site resembled really
nothing special, it had a row of links on the left and the content on the right. It
had nothing of what our current website offers in the way of a community.
This revamp was completed in late December of 2006 as a Merry Christmas to
our frequent visitors. We also added an IRC chat, further opened up the
forum, and even began to write reviews that our viewers could comment on.
Detailed information on several games followed, and community sites
specifically for them. Finally, we decided once more to work on our much
neglected "Aleros" module for Neverwinter Nights. We wouldn’t put the module
online, but we developed a section of the website to allow people to see our progress in it’s rebuild. All in all, in the last quarter of 2006 the website part of the vServer project expanded greatly, much to the applause of our viewers.
The next major change in 2006 was the change from our cable connection to that of DSL. The DSL service (modem shown in picture) offered unlimited monthly bandwidth, where-as the old cable service was limited to 30GB a month, which we easily surpassed. The initial setup of the DSL service was riddled with problems. First we had the issue of the modem (shown), which is actually a modem and router, blocking all internet traffic from getting to the servers. I had to "reflash" the modem to eliminate the ISP's custom software, so I could set the modem to a Bridged mode. This opened the server up to the internet and once more allowed access back to the website and games. I also had an issue where-as the IP address for the site was constantly changing every time my actual router (not the modem) was rebooted, which was resolved using the no-ip service. In the end of 2006 we’ve once again returned to our Cable internet service provider. First, it’s cheaper. Second, the IP address is fairly static which means I don’t have to constantly update my domain. Third, I hate my phone company (DSL provider) because they bill you for things you didn’t order. The list goes on…
Also late in 2006, in December actually, I was presented with a laptop as a hand-me-down. It’s a 600Mhz Compaq Presario 12XL laptop. I intend to use this little peace of hardware as a mobile platform to work on the "Aleros" module. As the delay in launching the module has been due to a lack of time. Being able to work on the module everywhere I go, more specifically at work (call center) since there is a lot of down-time on graveyard shift, should resolve that and help me get it done faster.
VServer 3.5 - ( February 2007 )
Server 3 had some major upgrades in this version of the vServer project. The
troublesome 650Mhz motherboard was replaced, thanks to many donations,
with a 1.4Ghz one. It was a tight fit getting it in the mini-tower, but a few
custom modifications to the chassis allowed everything to fit properly. I was
able to put 256MB of RAM into the server, and just under 30GB of hard drive
space. As of this writing the server has been setup with a Neverwinter Nights
server, using the default storyline modules, and an automated system
recovery just in case something happens while I’m not around. Once the
"Aleros" project is further along I intend to run it off this server, however I
must say that work on the project is tedious and I’m not enjoying it as much as
I did so long ago. Perhaps it’s because Neverwinter Nights 2 has been out for a while now, and I doubt heavily that anyone still plays the original.
Server 1 also had a few changes in this version. The main change being that it was resurrected due to my learning enough about Linux that I felt confident putting the website on it. This gave us extreme stability and reliability, as well as made the site about 100 times faster than when it was hosted off a Microsoft Windows operating system. This also left Server 2 with absolutely nothing on it. I’ll be checking pretty heavily for a possibility of turning Server 2 into a dedicated gaming server. On the forum I’ve also placed a "suggestion" area so that our players might have a hand at picking what game I host off of it.
VServer 4.0 - ( January 2008 )
We’ve hit another milestone, that’s right it’s 2008 and we’re now at Version 4.0! Many changes went into this version, some good and some bad, so let's get down to business...
We’ve moved away from the Emulator scene, since we’ve determined that no emulator will ever replace the official servers, although we continue to support emulator development as it’s a very real threat that one day official servers will cease operation. We hate to see good games lost due to financial limitations. I do, however, believe that this version of the project is finally on track for what we wanted this project to become in the first place.
Server 1 is currently the only system still attached to the vServer project. It continues to run this website off its Linux operating system. We’ve removed a lot of nonsense from the website and have begun to focus primarily on the reviews aspect of the site. The forum has been revamped to allow users to give feedback on our reviews, or write reviews of their own. This will hopefully build an online community of individuals with like interests. We’ve also drastically increased our Reviews to not only include games, but now applications, hardware, and peripherals as well.
Server 2 has been retired from the vServer lineup for good. Since we’ve had many issues of vandalism around my area I decided to put Server 2 to good use as a security system operating multiple web cameras that see the area around my residence. The hefty processing power and immense hard drive storage space ensures that it can easily handle this task, while providing safety and security for my family. The system itself has remote wireless administration setup so I can cleverly hide the actual PC in my residence. Only a fairly detailed search would find it, and due to the hefty weight of the system (almost 50lbs) it’s doubtful any thief would attempt to man-handle the thing out of the residence. While, admittedly, it isn’t perfect, the array I’ve setup of standard and night-viewing web cameras will be sure to capture any mischievous individuals.
Server 3 went through a complete revamp and has been turned into a business web-host. It, as well, is running Linux however isn’t connected to the vServer project in any way. It’s not even using the same domain and IP address as the vServer project. It currently hosts a business website for yours truly, as well as business websites for those of close relation to myself.
VServer 4.5 - ( March 2009 )
This version of the VServer took an interesting turn. The first change was the
rebuilding of the actual web server itself into a new Server 4. The web server
uses the 1.4Ghz processor from Server 2, backed with 512MB of PC2700 DDR
RAM. It's core operating system runs on a fairly old 4GB hard drive, which only
holds the O/S. The bulk of the webserver on a seperate-channeled 40GB drive.
It's my hope that keeping the O/S and the server software not only on seperate
drives, but seperate IDE channels will decrease access times. The lighting of the
server is pretty much for my own eyes, as it looks pretty cool in my "wreck
room" with the lights turned down low, but the fans do efficiently cool the server
as well.
All of the added "garbage" has been removed from the server, including the
rarely used forum. The vast majority of the site's activity now taking place in both
the blog and review areas. We've also made some major adjustments to the
backend of the site, breaking down the code and making it more "1st grader"
style. In other words, rewriting the site to make it as much basic HTML as
possible, which will arguably speed up load times.
In addition, with this version of the server came the procurement of an XBox 360 entertainment system. While not really a part of the vServer project, and not donated, it does allow our regular viewers to look me up on LIVE and join me in the games that I play. My "gamercard" has been added to the main front page of the site and is viewable to anyone who visits.
Finally, it was decided to once again up the minimum supported screen resolution. While lower resolutions are still usable the site has been designed specifically for 1152x864 or higher. With the advent of widescreens now pushing a minimum of around 15-inches we deemed this an acceptable resolution over that of simply 1024x768, which has been the accepted norm for years.
VServer 4.6 - ( June 2009 )
Very little changed in this version of the VServer Project. I added a forum to
the site dedicated to hosting modules for Farming Simulator 2009. I also moved
all of the server hardware into a larger server tower, spreading out the
components and allowing more efficient cooling. I’m calling it Server 5, even
though nothing but the chassis has really changed.
VServer 4.9 - ( January 2010 )
This version of the project involved all servers being taken offline. The web site
was stripped down to an extremely basic version that was hosted off the
100MB space on my domain host. This was due to a change of address, and
the new address not having an internet connection capable of handling the web
traffic the site required.
VServer 5.0 - ( August 2010 )
With another change of address, and the return of an internet connection capable
of handling web traffic, Server 4 was once again brought online. The overall
hardware remains the same, with the exception of the overall hard drive space
being drastically increased.
The web site in this version was completely rewritten and rebuilt from the ground up to give a more streamlined and professional appearance. In addition, the review portion of the site was also rebuilt to use more advanced PHP scripting than the basic HTML coding that was previously in use. This not only allows us to easily add new reviews, it allows our visitors to post their own reviews.
