Internal Steam Distribution Server...

  • Thread starter Deleted member 88227
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Deleted member 88227

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So I've been wondering what's the easiest way to download games across multiple computers within' the same network. Not necessarily for the same account either. Basically I have three computers now that are capable of playing games and all three of them I install Steam games on. I do have two Steam accounts, one for someone else to play and my main one. However, I often host LAN parties (non profit/charge) for friends. Sometimes people who come are new to Steam and/or do not have all the games we are playing. Waiting for them to download these games on my connection usually takes a while if the game is large so I've setup a way to store my Steam game collection on a drive that can be accessed by anyone on my network. However, I have to manually keep those files/games updated by transferring the files each time an update rolls out.

What I am wondering is if there is some kind of software that will allow me to run a Steam server locally. Something like a cached server, where if I start downloading a game in my Library, it instead copies this to the cache server and I get it from the cache server directly. Then anyone on my LAN who wishes to download/update the game will also retrieve the game(s) or update(s) from the same cache server. This way the transfers will be 1Gbit instead of 10Mbit on a good day. Plus it will help me stay below my ISP's retarded monthly bandwidth cap.

I know steam has a Cafe program, but from what I can gather this isn't exactly what I want/need. It appears that it's a yearly service you pay for to have access to 100+ games without having to buy the games individually. Not what I want.
 
Just tossing out an idea that maybe you could research or might foster more ideas from someone else. But if you used XCOPY to maintain a mirrored hard drive of your main Steam drive then everyone could access that hard drive as a jukebox. Now trying to play a game where 3 people are trying to access the same files might not be smart.

So maybe set up SteamMover (glorified XCOPY GUI) to copy files instead of move them from your Steam drive to the other computers as needed. I would think about getting one of those routers with NAS capabilities for simplicity if your friends are bringing their own PC's to your home. Or a simple file server / to dish up files for the other HTPC, laptops, etc in your home. Otherwise you can set XCOPY to know where to look for files across your network I'm sure.

I don't have a home network as my family that was staying with me all left. But I'm sure someone on these boards could help you do something like I described much easier than I described. :)
 
Instead of XCopy, I would suggest the use of Robocopy. It is multi-threaded, and actually quite fast. Thats how I copy my steam files at least. It works over the network and it also allows mirroring. Takes a while to get used to the command syntax, but it works. something like
Code: 
robocopy c:\folderA \\ComputerName\folderB /E /COPYALL
works at treat.
 
I use a program called "Create Synchronicity" http://synchronicity.sourceforge.net/ to do this with documents, pictures, etc. Steam games I usually just copy manually, they don't update that frequently.

I guess you could leave one account running on a server all the time, then distribute the files from there. You might run into problems with it copying over files while steam is running on the clients though.
 
There no need for anything complex. Copy the steam folder that has everything installed. Paste it where you want it on the other machines. Then run Verify Integrity of Game Cache on all the games.

Steam Mover doesnt move all of it, xcopy and synchronicity is the same as above. Sharing installed Steam games in centralized place for nodes to pull from will cause many issues.
 
You can also make a Steam backup of every game you have and put it on a networked file server. If someone wants to install the game they just go to the game backup dir and launch the Restore program.
 
Dark Shade said:
You can also make a Steam backup of every game you have and put it on a networked file server. If someone wants to install the game they just go to the game backup dir and launch the Restore program.
Click to expand...

good luck getting that to work. Every time I try to use Steam's backup functionality (even on a local drive), I _always_ get some kind of "corrupt archive" error when I try to restore...
 
German Muscle said:
There no need for anything complex. Copy the steam folder that has everything installed. Paste it where you want it on the other machines. Then run Verify Integrity of Game Cache on all the games.
Click to expand...

That would definitely work.

Just create a directory on a file server and copy your Steam games directory to it.

On another computer, just copy from that directory again.

If you want to get fancy, you could create a batch file (.BAT) to automate it, and probably map that directory as a network drive.
 
octoberasian said:
That would definitely work.

Just create a directory on a file server and copy your Steam games directory to it.

On another computer, just copy from that directory again.

If you want to get fancy, you could create a batch file (.BAT) to automate it, and probably map that directory as a network drive.
Click to expand...

Each time you overwrite/transfer/sync the client must validate every game though.
 
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