Space Station 13

by Exadv1
Space Station 13
Stay alive inside Space Station 13
ID:1708011
 
Currently I'm developing an interesting in setting up and running my own server for Space Station 13. Essentially I love the game, but most of the servers that are out there currently aren't necessarily friendly toward new people learning the ropes, nor are they populated to the point of being playable. I'm hoping I can get a server up and running, not only so I can poke at it and learn the game better, but also in the hopes of providing a learning space for others (and maybe get it available for folks in a few communities I lurk).

The problem is that I have positively zero experience in renting, running, or maintaining any kind of server. In the past I've had extremely limited experience running a webserver, where the hardware was locally accessible, and the whole thing was running on OS X. From what I gather here, I'm going to need a Windows or possibly a Linux server to run the Byond software required to host SS13.

Like I said, I don't even know where to start. What would be a good host to look for? I assume I'm not going to need something very powerful at all to get this underway. Would a Windows or Linux machine be easier for this? I'm thinking about using the TG Station 13 build of the game, which is apparently easier to run using TortoiseGIT (which is itself windows only).

So I guess this is a random, flailing post about a great many things, but the short version is: I'd like to run Space Station 13 server, and I know nothing about how to start doing that. Any and all advice, and any direction about how or where to start would be very much appreciated. Thanks much!